Monazite Dating of Prograde and Retrograde P–T–d paths in the Barrovian terrane of the Thaya window, Bohemian Massif

Monazite laser ablation–split-stream inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LASS) was used to date monazite in situ in Barrovian-type micaschists of the Moravian zone in the Thaya window, Bohemian Massif. Petrography and garnet zoning combined with pseudosection modelling show that rocks from staurolite–chlorite, staurolite, kyanite and kyanite–sillimanite zones record burial in the S1 fabric under a moderate geothermal gradient from 4–4·5 kbar and ∼530–540°C to 5 kbar and 570°C, 6–7 kbar and 600–640°C, 7·5–8 kbar and 630–650°C, and 8 kbar and 650°C, respectively. In the kyanite and kyanite–sillimanite zones, garnet rim chemistry and local syntectonic replacement of garnet by sillimanite–biotite aggregates point to re-equilibration at 5·5–6 kbar and 630–650°C in the S2 fabric. Heterogeneously developed retrograde shear zones (S3) are marked by widespread chloritization, but minor chlorite is present in the studied samples. Monazite abundance and size increase with metamorphic grade from 5 µm in the staurolite–chlorite zone to >100 µm in the kyanite and kyanite–sillimanite zones. Irrespective of the monazite-forming reaction, this is interpreted as the onset of limited prograde monazite growth at staurolite grade, and continued prograde monazite growth after the kyanite-in reaction, compatible with conditions of about 5·5 kbar and 570°C and 7·5 kbar and 630°C from pseudosection modelling. Monazite is zoned, showing embayments and sharp boundaries between zones, with low Y in the staurolite zone, high-Y cores and low-Y rims in the kyanite zone, and high-Y cores, a low-Y mantle and a high-Y rim in the sillimanite zone. The 207Pb-corrected 238U/206Pb ages from three samples range from 344 ± 7 to 330 ± 7 Ma, irrespective of metamorphic grade. The dates from monazite inclusions are interpreted as the ages of the staurolite- and kyanite-in reactions along the prograde path at 340 and 337 ± 7 Ma, respectively. The monazite in the matrix (and some inclusions) is interpreted as dating the prograde crystallization at (340–337) ± 7 Ma within the S1 fabric, and then being affected by recrystallization at or down to 332 ± 7 Ma in the S2 and S3 fabrics. The two groups of data, for 340–337 and 332 Ma, are significantly different when only their in-run uncertainties (±1–3 Myr) are compared and indicate a 9 ± 3 Myr period of monazite (re)crystallization. A systematic increase in heavy rare earth element (HREE) content with decreasing monazite age from 344 to 335 Ma is correlated with growth on the prograde P–T path; the drop in HREE of monazite at 335–328 Ma is assigned to recrystallization. The presence of chlorite even in the least retrogressed samples witnesses limited external fluid availability on the retrograde P–T path. Migration of this fluid was probably responsible for heterogeneous fluid-assisted recrystallization and resetting of original prograde monazite, even where included in garnet, staurolite or kyanite. It is suggested that the rocks passed the chlorite-in reaction on the retrograde path at 332 ± 7 Ma. The timing of burial in the Thaya window, a deformed part of the underthrust Brunia microcontinent, was coeval with exhumation of granulites and migmatites of the Moldanubian orogenic root at c. 340 Ma.