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Micro-zircon inclusions in accessory minerals reveal more complete magma compositional evolution records

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Abstract

Trace elements in magmatic zircon exhibit characteristic trends during magma compositional evolution. Zircon geochemistry presents the advantage over whole rock geochemistry of showing progressive ‘snapshots’ of accompanying melt chemistry during magma crystallization, and in situ methods such as LA-ICPMS and SIMS can provide multiple analyses in zoned zircons for higher resolution of magmatic processes. However, one limitation is that zircon is typically a late-crystallizing phase, leaving much of the magmatic history unrecorded. Using the CAMECA ims1290 ion microprobe with Hyperion-II ion source, we explore whether micro-zircon (ca. 5–40 µm) captured by relatively early-crystallizing magmatic accessory minerals can meaningfully enhance the interpretations of zircon trace element records of magmatic evolution in two granites from Southern California: the La Posta 2-mica granite and the granite of Butler Peak (Big Bear Lake Intrusive Suite). We find that contamination of the inclusion measurement by major structural constituents of the host phase is a problem for most measurements, but that species which are not structural components of the host phases follow typical magmatic zircon trace element evolution trends. Compared to free grains from a mineral separate, zircon inclusions in ilmenite and apatite from the La Posta 2-mica granite are on average lower in Hf, recording plausible extensions of these magmatic evolution trends to earlier periods in magma evolution. Free zircons from the granite of Butler Peak’s mineral separate form a more complex story, recording both mixing between Cretaceous magmas derived from different depths (based on their U/Yb and Eu/Eu* behavior) and inheritance of older Mesozoic to Proterozoic zircon. Most zircon inclusions in Butler Peak magnetite and ilmenite are chemically like the apparently shallow magma-derived Cretaceous zircons in the free matrix, while a small proportion of the included zircon resemble more closely the apparently deeper magma or the inherited grains.

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Fig. 1

Modified from Jennings and Gutierrez (2010)

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Data Availability

All geochemical data generated during this study are available in the article and its supplemental online materials.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Ming-Chang Liu for assistance with ion probe measurements. Discussions with Melanie Barboni and Mark Harrison were very helpful in develo** the study. We thank Josh Rosera and an anonymous reviewer for comments which helped improve the manuscript, and Othmar Muntener for his editorial handling. The ion microprobe laboratory at UCLA is partially supported by a grant from NSF-EAR’s Instrumentation and Facilities Program (1734856).

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  1. Heather M. Kirkpatrick

    Present address: Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

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  1. Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA

    Elizabeth A. Bell & Heather M. Kirkpatrick

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Correspondence to Elizabeth A. Bell.

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Communicated by Othmar Müntener.

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Bell, E.A., Kirkpatrick, H.M. Micro-zircon inclusions in accessory minerals reveal more complete magma compositional evolution records. Contrib Mineral Petrol 177, 113 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-022-01979-6

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