Study of melt and a clast of 546 Ma magmatic arc rocks in the 65 Ma Chicxulub bolide breccia, northern Maya block, Mexico: western limit of Ediacaran arc peripheral to northern Gondwana

Abstract

The basement of the Maya block of eastern Mexico is generally covered by Mesozoic and Cenozoic platformal carbonate rocks. However, the 65.5 Ma Chicxulub meteorite impact in the northern Yucatan Peninsula excavated deep into the crust and brought crystalline basement fragments into the impact breccias. Common Pb isotopic data from impact melt and a granitic clast from drill core (Y6) are highly radiogenic, consistent with the Archaean derivation. A granodiorite clast in this breccia from drill core (Yaxcopoil-1) yielded a continuous range of concordant 206Pb/238U laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry zircon ages between 546 5 Ma and 465 Ma, with three discordant zircons having 206Pb/238U ages between 130 Ma and 345 Ma. The ca. 546 Ma age is interpreted as the age of granodiorite intrusion, with younger ages representing variable Pb loss during melting associated with the meteorite impact. This is consistent with previous U-Pb zircon data that gave an upper intercept age of 550 ± 15 Ma at Chicxulub, which becomes 545 ±5 Ma when combined with the zircon data from distal ejecta. Such arc rocks are absent in the southern Maya block, and in the neighbouring Oaxaquia terrane (s.s.) they are replaced by a 546 5 Ma plume-related dike swarm. On the other hand, Ediacaran arc rocks continue through the peri-Gondwanan terranes of the Appalachians and Europe (Florida, Carolinia, Avalonia, Iberia, Armorica, Massif Central, Bohemia, and NW Africa). Arc magmatism in these areas ended between 570 Ma (Newfoundland) and 540 Ma (Carolinia/UK) as the subduction zone was replaced by a transform fault along the northern Gondwanan margin. This age range is synchronous with the two-stage birth of Iapetus, suggesting that both are related to major plate reorganization. The source of plume-related dikes may have been located at the rift-rift-transform triple junction between Laurentia, Baltica, and Gondwana.