The Minerageny of Two Groups of Zircons from Plagioclase- Amphibolite of Mayuan Group in Northern Fujian

TL;DR

This study distinguishes magmatic from metamorphic zircons in plagioclase-amphibolite using morphology, geochemistry, U-Th-Pb dating, and Raman spectra, revealing characteristic differences in impurity levels and spectral patterns.

Contribution

It introduces a combined approach using Raman spectra and geochemical data to reliably differentiate magmatic and metamorphic zircons.

Findings

Magmatic zircons show high sloping Raman backgrounds.

Metamorphic zircons exhibit low horizontal Raman backgrounds.

Distinct core-to-rim Raman intensity trends correlate with chemical zonations.

Abstract

Zircons can crystallize in a wide range of physical and chemical conditions. At the same time, they have high stability and durability. Therefore zircons can grow and survive in a variety of geological processes. In addition, the diffusivity of chemical compositions in their crystals is very low. Consequently,we can trace back the evolution history of the planetary materials containing zircon with zircon U-Th-Pb geochronology and geochemistry studies. However, this depends on our ability to decipher its genesis, namely magmatic or metamorphic origins. In this paper, magmatic and metamorphic zircons were found from plagioclase-amphibolite samples. Their geneses have been determined by zircon morphology, chemical composition zonations and geological field setting combined with their zircon U-Th-Pb ages. We have found obvious differences in micro-scale Raman spectra between these magmatic and metamorphic zircons. The magmatic zircons exhibit a high sloping background in their Raman spectra, but the metamorphic zircons exhibit a low horizontal background in their Raman spectra, which suggest that the magmatic zircons may contain a much higher concentration of fluorescent impurities than the metamorphic zircons. Moreover, reverse variation trends in Raman spectrum peak intensities from core to rim of a crystal between the magmatic and metamorphic zircons have been found. We think that this can be attributed to their reverse chemical composition zonations. These differences can be used to distinguish magmatic and metamorphic zircons.