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Ar/ Ar Ages of Feldspar and Muscovite from the Source and Detritus of The

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Ar/ Ar Ages of Feldspar and Muscovite from the Source and Detritus of The 40Ar/39Ar Ages of Feldspar and Muscovite from the Source and Detritus of the French Broad River, North Carolina by Di Fan A thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Auburn University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science Auburn, Alabama August 6th, 2016 Keywords: muscovite, K-feldspar, 40Ar/39Ar, geochronology, Blue Ridge, French Broad River Copyright 2016 by Di Fan Approved by Willis E. Hames, Chair, Professor of Geosciences Mark G. Steltenpohl, Professor of Geosciences Haibo Zou, Associate Professor of Geosciences Abstract As the westernmost metamorphic belt of the Appalachians, the Blue Ridge has been the subject of many geochronology studies. The Blue Ridge experienced high-grade deformation and peak metamorphism during Taconic orogeny, followed by a low-grade metamorphic overprint during the Acadian orogeny. The Alleghanian orogeny is the last collisional stage of the Appalachians and associated regional metamorphism and ductile deformation is documented along most of the Piedmont and the Carolina Slate belt. There is still debate, however, as to the extent of Alleghanian metamorphism in the western Blue Ridge. This concern is made more difficult to evaluate because previous work generally did not characterize the history of low-temperature metamorphism of the Blue Ridge in the region between western North Carolina and Tennessee. To address the cooling history of the Blue Ridge, samples were collected in the area of the French Broad River catchment in North Carolina. Single crystals of muscovite from basement and stream sediment samples and K-feldspar from the basement, were dated in this project to avoid the ‘inherited’ ages often associated with high-temperature geochronometers. Muscovite from basement rock samples in the catchment area yield single crystal 40Ar/39Ar ages that typically range from 315 Ma to 400 Ma. K-feldspar crystals from basement rocks yield single crystal ages as young as ca. 270 Ma and up to ca. 1100 Ma. Results for the two mineral phases show similar age distribution patterns: easterly basement samples, within and near the Brevard fault zone, yield Carboniferous ii age distributions characterized by simple, single modes, but basement samples collected near and west of Asheville are more complex. The incremental heating experiments for K-feldspar show variable discordance. The variation in ages of microcline and orthoclase crystals from a single basement sample collected west of Asheville covers a wide range of 800 million years from late Mesoproterozoic to Permian. Comparing the results of the present study to published data for higher temperature thermochronometers (e.g., U-Pb ages for zircon, 40Ar/39Ar ages for hornblende and micas), it is remarkable that the low temperature record of K-feldspars can be used to characterize a greater range of cooling history rather than the higher temperature thermochronometers. The 40Ar/39Ar age signature of detrital muscovite mineral samples collected along the French Broad River catchment becomes dramatically more complex within lower grade rocks downstream (northwest). Our work on basement samples in the catchment shows the complexity is not only due to the increasing sediment input of various local tributaries into the trunk stream, but also to the intra-sample complexity of polymetamorphic history recorded in the metamorphic rocks west of the Brevard fault zone. iii Acknowledgments This project was funded by Geosciences Advisory Board Research Awards and Spencer Waters and Dan Folse Memorial Award. Financial support was also provided through National Science Foundation (grant # NSF 0911687) for the isotopic analyses and the Geological Society of America for conference travel. Special thanks to Dr. Willis Hames for the guidance in the field trips and the lab work and the great help to compile this thesis. This work cannot be done without his help. He is always very patient and meticulous helping in editing my thesis draft and conference abstracts. Thanks are also due to the members of my committee, Dr. Mark Steltenpohl and Dr. Haibo Zou for all the help and suggestions on this study and meaningful comments on this thesis. I have learned a lot from these fabulous professors. The author would like to thank the graduate students James Gunn and Kayla Griffin for the help during the field trip in 2015. Lastly, thanks to my parents and my boyfriend living on the opposite side of the earth for their endless love and support. I hope this thesis is the best gift to them after two and half years of waiting. iv Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ii Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... v List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. vii List of Appendices ........................................................................................................................ x 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Significance of this Project ............................................................................................ 4 2 GEOLOGIC SETTING ............................................................................................................. 6 3 PREVIOUS WORK ................................................................................................................ 10 3.1 Literature Review on the Metamorphic History of the Blue Ridge ....................... 10 3.2 Dating of Detrital Minerals ......................................................................................... 14 4 SAMPLE PETROGRAPHY .................................................................................................. 17 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 17 4.2 Sampling Sites ............................................................................................................... 18 4.3 Petrography analysis ..................................................................................................... 20 5 40Ar/39Ar ANALYSIS RESULTS ......................................................................................... 29 5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 29 5.2 Experimental methods .................................................................................................. 29 5.2 Basement Rocks ............................................................................................................ 32 v 5.2.1 Muscovite in the basement rock samples .................................................. 32 5.2.2 K-feldspar in the basement rock samples .................................................. 35 5.3 Detrital Sediments ........................................................................................................ 41 5.3.1 Muscovite in the detrital samples .............................................................. 41 6 DISCUSSION........................................................................................................................... 44 Muscovite in the basement samples .................................................................................. 44 Muscovite in the detrital sediments ................................................................................... 46 K-feldspar in the basement samples ................................................................................. 48 40Ar/39Ar Age distribution pattern ..................................................................................... 49 Source of muscovite in the detrital sediments ................................................................. 51 Detrital mineral age bias ................................................................................................... 52 7 CONCLUSIONS ...................................................................................................................... 56 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................ 58 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................. 65 Appendix A. Sample Information .................................................................................... 66 Appendix B. Petrographic Descriptions ........................................................................... 68 Appendix C. 40Ar/39Ar Data ............................................................................................... 74 vi List of Figures Figure 1. Terrane map of the southern Appalachians and 40Ar/39Ar muscovite age chrontours (Fan et al., 2015). Muscovite age chrontours (dashed where extrapolated along strike) in southern Appalachians show the “along-strike” pattern of cooling age in metamorphic and igneous rock. The conodont alteration index represents the thermal maturity of foreland sedimentary sequences. 40Ar/39Ar
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