A-type granites from the Pan-African orogenic belt in south-western Chad constrained using geochemistry, Sr-Nd isotopes and U-Pb geochronology

The Zabili granitic pluton (SW Chad) exposed in the Mayo Kebbi massif is dominated by a coarse-grained hornblende biotite granite grading into a fine-grained biotite granite along its southern margin. Petrologic (micrographic intergrowth of quartz and alkali feldspars, granophyric microstructures, the presence of fluorite and bastnaesite as accessory minerals) and geochemical data (high silica, alkalis and Fe/Mg, depletions in CaO, MgO, TiO2; high Ga, Nb, Zr, Ga/Al REE, depletions in Ba, Sr, Eu and compatible elements) indicate that this pluton consists of A-type granites crystallized from hot (apatite and zircon saturation temperatures ranging from 744 degrees C to 923 degrees C), extremely differentiated magmas. U-Pb zircon geochronology indicates that the magmas crystallized at 567 +/- 10 Ma and reveals the presence of older Neoproterozoic xenocrystic zircons at 668 +/- 5 Ma in both facies. Within the fine-grained biotite granite, discordant zircons with U-Pb and Pb-Pb ages ranging from Neoproterozoic to Archaean are also reported. The 668 +/- 5 Ma old zircons are considered to derive from country-rocks while discordant zircons, characterized by angular shapes, internal fractures and inherited cores, are likely to represent multi-sources detrital crystals that have recorded at least one metamorphic event. Old pre-Neoproterozoic zircons are reported for the first time for rocks of the Mayo Kebbi massif and they attest to the contribution of an old basement (likely to be the Eastern Nigeria basement and/or the Congo craton) involved in a collisional event with a juvenile Neoproterozoic crust prior to the emplacement of the Zabili granitic pluton. Initial epsilon Nd values calculated for the Zabili pluton range from +2.6 to + 7.0, the highest value recorded by one sample from the coarse-grained hornblende-biotite granite being close to the one of the depleted mantle at 570 Ma (epsilon Nd = + 7.4). Combining geochronology, Nd isotopes composition and geochemical modeling, leads us to suggest the following model for the origin of the Zabili granitic pluton: (i) contribution of juvenile magmas or partial melting of a juvenile basaltic protolith characterized by a short crustal residence time; (ii) interaction of granitic magmas with older continental materials as suggested by the presence of pre-Neoproterozoic zircons and lower initial epsilon Nd values of the fine-grained biotite granite; and (iii) fractional crystallization of feldspars and ferromagnesians to produce the observed geochemical features of sample GAB-B, from which an initial epsilon Nd value of + 7.0 has been calculated. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.