SHRIMP U-Pb Zircon Ages of the Granite Gneisses from the Pyeonghae Area of the northeastern Yeongnam Massif (Sobaeksan Massif)

Abstract

We performed petrological, geochemical, and geochronological study for the Pyeonghae granite gneiss and the Hada leuco-granite gneiss intruding the Paleoproterozoic meta-sedimentary rocks (pyeonghae formation and Wonnam formation) of the Pyeonghae area located in northeastem part of the Yeongnam (Sobaeksan) massif. The Pyeonghae granite gneiss generally has higher abundance of mafic minerals (biotite etc.), and posesses higher , MgO, CaO, , contents but lower and contents than the Hada leuco-granite gneiss which tends to have slightly high and contents and slightly high larger negative Eu anomalies. However both gneisses reveal very similar REE concentrations and chondrite-normalized patterns and apparently show differentiation trend affected by crystallization of biotite, plagioclase, apatite and sphene. Their peraluminous and calc-alkaline chemistry suggests tectonic environment of volcanic arc. SHRIMP Zircon U-Pb age determinations yield upper intercept ages of () and (), and weighted mean ages of () and () for the Pyeonghae granite gneiss and the Hada leuco-granite gneiss respectively, showing overlapping ages within the error. Our study suggests that the Precambrian granitoids in this area intruded contemporaneously with the Buncheon granite gneissin volcanic arc environment.