Interpretation of U-Th-Pb in-situ ages of hydrothermal monazite-(Ce) and xenotime-(Y): evidence from a large-scale regional study in clefts from the western alps

In eleven Alpine clefts of the western Alps, in-situ dating of monazite-(Ce) and xenotime-(Y) has been attempted to gain insights on possible disturbances of the geochronological U-Th-Pb systems and age interpretations in hydrothermal conditions. In most clefts, monazite-(Ce) in-situ 208Pb/232Th dating using laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) yields well-resolved ages (with errors typically <0.3 Ma, quoted at the 2σ level), indicative of a short duration monazite-(Ce) growth. However, monazite-(Ce) dating demonstrates two successive episodes of growth separated by several million years within two single clefts. Only in one cleft, complex age mixture in a porous and complex zoned monazite-(Ce) suggests disturbance of the 208Pb/232Th ages due to replacement by dissolution-precipitation processes. While some U-Pb ages are coherent with the 208Pb/232Th ages, U-Pb ages are generally disturbed by significant 206Pb excess in monazite-(Ce) with high Th/U ratio (>100). Xenotime-(Y) has remarkably high Th/U ratios and U-Pb dating is also disturbed by 206Pb excess, whereas 208Pb/232Th dating gave well-resolved ages (34.9 ± 0.5 Ma), close to but higher than the monazite-(Ce) age obtained in the same cleft (32.3 ± 0.3 Ma). Correlation of the monazite-(Ce) U-Th-Pb age dataset with other geochronological data suggests for monazite-(Ce) precipitation at periods of high tectonic activity. In the external massifs, monazite-(Ce) dating confirms a polyphased transpressive regime with activity periods around 13–11 Ma and 8–6 Ma. Older monazite-(Ce) ages in the Argentera massif (20.6 ± 0.3 Ma) are consistent with the regional diachronism in the western external Alps. In the 2 clefts of the internal massifs, monazite-(Ce) dating provides first ages of hydrothermal activity: the monazite-(Ce) age at 32.3 ± 0.3 Ma coincides with the exhumation along the Penninic front, but the monazite-(Ce) age at 23.3 ± 0.2 Ma is complex to attribute to a specific deformation stage.