Collaborative Research: Using Titanite as a Petrochronometer for Direct Fabric Dating of High Temperature Systems

Mountain ranges form when the Earth's crust contracts due to the collision of tectonic plates. This contraction generates granite plutons in the crust and deforms those granite plutons through shear zones (localized regions of intense deformation). Both processes imprint a 'fabric' on the granite, an arrangement of minerals that records the deformation of the rock. The mineral titanite crystallizes during the formation of granite in the crust and during the formation of rock fabric, and both events can be dated using the radioactive decay of uranium into lead within titanite crystals. This new method for dating shear zones will be used to examine mountain building processes and the development of rock fabrics that subsequently can control further magma emplacement, faulting, fluid flow, and metal ore mineralization.

This study will focus on the physical and chemical changes in the mineral titanite during deformation. Structural geology techniques will investigate the physical changes through the outcrop and microscale structures of the rock, and electron microscopy will quantify the recrystallization of individual mineral grains. Chemical changes in titanite will be measured by X-ray and mass spectrometry techniques, and individual crystals will be dated using measurements of uranium-lead isotope ratios. These techniques will be applied in two study areas, in shear zones in western Idaho and east-central California. Rocks from these areas show a wide range of fabric development, from non-deformed to pervasively sheared. The variety of degrees of deformation measured through the methods described above will be used to test how the intensity of a rock fabric develops during shear zone movement. Outcomes in both study areas will include methodologies to establish sub-million year resolution of the timing of deformation, the spatial-temporal pattern of strain accumulation within shear zones, and the feedbacks between magmatism and deformation. This project will more broadly support graduate research training, on-line science learning modules, and geoinformatics database development. Results of this research will be widely disseminated through peer-reviewed journals, professional meetings, data repositories, and websites.