Permian age of orogenic thickening and crustal melting in the Garm Block, South Tien Shan, Tajikistan

Аннотация

In this paper we present new data for the metamorphic Garm Block (150
40 km) that was traditionally shown on regional maps as fragment of a Precambrian basement. The Garm Block comprises migmatized gneisses and schists for some of which peak metamorphic conditions (600–660
C at 7–9 kbar) character-istic for medium P/T series metamorphic belts were determined. U–Pb ages of overgrown rims of zircon grains and newly grown magmatic zircon grains from four migmatitic samples indicate that melting occurred during peak metamorphic conditions between 299 and 290 Ma. Thus the Garm Block is the first Early Permian regional metamorphic terrane established in the southern part of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt. A crosscutting granite intrusion yields a concordia age of 290 Ma identical to the age of metamorphism and similar to ages of post-collisional intrusions elsewhere in the Tien Shan.