Zircon U–Pb–Hf Isotopes in Magmatic, Metamorphic and Sedimentary Rocks: Applications to Crustal Evolution

A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Mineral Geochemistry and Geochronology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (18 March 2022) | Viewed by 341

Special Issue Editors

Instituto de Geociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Lago 562, Cidade Universitária, São Paulo, SP, CEP 05508-080, Brazil
Interests: U-Pb geochronology and Hf isotopes of the southern Ribeira Belt (Brazil) and implications for the evolution of the Brasiliano Orogenic Cycle; provenance of zircons of the Paleozoic Paraná Basin
Instituto de Geociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Lago 562, Cidade Universitária, São Paulo, SP, CEP 05508-080, Brazil
Interests: U-Pb applied to crustal evolution; combined use of U-Pb dating and Hf isotopes; Rio de la Plata Craton and its marginal belts; connection between neoproterozoic belts of southwest Africa and southeastern South America

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Zircon is one of the most important accessory minerals, and its occurrence in igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks allows its wide use as an important tool in studies of crustal evolution.

Zircons can survive several cycles of erosion, sedimentary transport, and diagenesis, as well as different metamorphic grades. Their isotopic memory is preserved from disturbances that commonly affect the whole rock matrix. Physical and chemical characteristics allow their broad use in U-Pb dating and Hf and oxygen isotope applications.

The external morphology of zircon can reveal magma saturation in Zr, the stage of its crystallization in the rock, impact-related structures, and even suggest its igneous, metamorphic, or detrital origin, stressing the condition of considering zircon as a dynamic archive.

On the other hand, the internal structures of zircon, mainly observed in backscattering and cathodoluminescence images (BS and CL), allow us to identify both syn-crystallization as post-crystallization processes as they preserve zones that record the age of different metamorphic stages or events. Features such as oscillatory zoning may indicate variation within phases of single zoned pluton, compositional (Hf, P, Y, REE, U, Th) variations areas of local recrystallization and homogenization, late post-magmatic recrystallization, and hydrothermal and metamorphic processes.

Given the micrometer scale of zircon internal textures, the improvement of in situ techniques in recent decades, such as SIMS and LA-MC-ICP-MS, has become of utmost importance in the isotopic studies of this mineral.

Moreover, isotopic analyses in detrital zircons have been an essential tool in the analysis of metasedimentary sequences and sedimentary basins. Among the numerous applications of the age spectrum of detrital zircons, some topics can be highlighted: estimation of the maximum depositional age of (meta)sedimentary units and provenance studies, refinement of stratigraphic correlations; transcontinental dispersal patterns and paleogeographic reconstructions; tectonic evolution of sedimentary basins and magmatic processes of continents through local to global scale source-area characterization, improvement of supercontinent cycle models, and hence the understanding of crustal evolution.

In this issue, we invite authors to submit contributions on the use of zircon as the main mineral for age determination and geochemical and isotopic studies with application in terrains with a complex geological history. Hf and O isotope determinations in zircon, which can give more robustness to petrogenetic and tectonic interpretations, are welcome.

We also encourage the submission of external morphology and internal structures of zircon studies as a tool for constraining magma sources, hydrothermal, and/or metamorphic processes and source/transport mechanism identification. Advances in analytical methodology and new standard reference materials are topics of great interest.

Dr. Cláudia R. Passarelli
Dr. Miguel Angelo Stipp Basei
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Minerals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • U-Pb zircon dating
  • Hf-O isotopes in zircons
  • Zircon crystal morphology and internal structures
  • Advances in geochronology zircon techniques
  • Detrital zircon age data
  • Paleogeographic and tectonic reconstruction
  • Zircon as a petrogenetic indicator

Published Papers

There is no accepted submissions to this special issue at this moment.
Back to TopTop