Application of U-Pb dating and chemistry of zircon in continental crust of Calabria (southern Italy)

Spot U-Pb ages of zircon separates from augen gneisses, leucocratic gneisses and metabasic rocks evidenced by a contribution of an acidic and basic magmatism in a Pan-African/Cadomian basement preserved in the Calabria Hercynian block. The effects of the Hercynian metamorphism in the lower crustal rocks of Calabria were detailed through the zircon dating on separates and in specific textural sites of thin sections and evaluating the REEs partition between zircon, orthopyroxene and garnet domains. A spectrum of empirical DREE values seems to suggest the approched equilibrium between domains of zircon and major phases in mafic granulites affected by Barrowian metamorphism and subsequent decompression in Hercynian times. Indications about Mesozoic events linked to Alpine orogenesis have been also derived from modified domains of zircon.