When zircon drowns: Elusive geochronological record of water-fluxed orthogneiss melting in the Velay dome (Massif Central, France)

Abstract Zircon U-Pb geochronology is routinely performed to unravel the timing and duration of melting events within the continental crust. A comprehensive understanding of the zircon behavior during anatexis is therefore paramount to accurately assess the impact of crustal melting on orogenic processes. We report on an anatectic system from the southern part of the Velay dome (Variscan French Massif Central) encompassing late Carboniferous migmatites developed at the expense of peraluminous orthogneisses and associated with (leuco)granite bodies intrusive at higher structural levels. Our zircon U-Pb geochronological survey (494 analyzed grains) evidences a very scant record of the Variscan anatectic event. Indeed, oscillatory-zoned melt-precipitated zircon grains extracted from metatexites, leucosomes and (leuco)granites almost systematically yielded the late Neoproterozoic crystallization age of the felsic igneous protolith. Field and petrographic observations, whole-rock geochemical signatures, phase equilibrium and thermodynamically-constrained trace element modelling collectively indicate that partial melting of the orthogneisses took place at T ~ 700 °C and was fluxed by ingress of external water. The lack of new zircon growth is ascribed to a range of processes ultimately related to the low melting temperature including limited zircon solubility in the melt phase, occlusion of zircon in non-reacting source biotite and sluggish zircon dissolution kinetics. Peraluminous orthogneisses, yet highly fusible due to their “eutectic” subsolidus mineral assemblage, exhibit a very limited zircon record of low temperature water-fluxed melting. Thus, zircon has little potential to provide reliable chronological constraints on water-fluxed melting episodes affecting such lithologies.