Mineralogy, U–Pb (TIMS, SHRIMP) age, and rare-earth elements in zircons from granites of the Mazara Massif, South Urals

Abstract

The paper reports the results of mineralogical, geochemical, and geochronological (TIMS and SHRIMP) study of heterogeneous zircons from granites of the Mazara Massif, South Urals. Obtained data revealed the Mesoproterozoic age (1550–1390 Ma) of a granite protolith and the Neoproterozoic age of their formation (745–710 Ma). In the La–Sm/La diagram, the zircons of the massif occupy an intermediate position between the fields of magmatic and metasomatic (hydrothermal) zircons. This “intermediate” field is proposed to ascribe to the late magmatic zircons, which provides more reliable characterization of zircon formation throughout the entire crystallization history of a granite melt, up to the appearance of genetically metamict metasomatic hydrozircons.