U-Pb dating of calcite in ancient carbonates for age estimates of syn-to post-depositional processes: A case study from the upper Ediacaran strata of Finnmark, Arctic Norway

• Published in: Geological Magazine
• Main Authors: Meinhold, Guido, Roberts, Nick M.W., Arslan, Arzu, Jensen, Sören, Ebbestad, Jan Ove R., Högström, Anette, Høyberget, Magne, Agić, Heda, Palacios, Teodoro, Taylor, Wendy L.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press 2020
• Subjects: Arctic; Norway; Finnmark
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10037/25571; https://doi.org/10.1017/S0016756820000564

Results of in situ U–Pb dating of calcite spherulites, cone-in-cone (CIC) calcite and calcite fibres from a calcareous concretion of the upper Ediacaran of Finnmark, Arctic Norway, are reported. Calcite spherulites from the innermost layers of the concretion yielded a lower intercept age of 563 ± 70 Ma, which, although imprecise, is within uncertainty of the age of sedimentation based on fossil assemblages. Non-deformed CIC calcite from the bottom part of the concretion yielded an age of 475 ± 25 Ma, which is interpreted as the age of CIC calcite formation during a period of fluid overpressure induced during burial of the sediments. Deformed CIC calcite from the top part of the concretion yielded an age of 418 ± 23 Ma, which overlaps with a known Caledonian tectono-metamorphic event, and indicates a potential post-depositional overprint at this time. Calcite fibres that grew in small fissures along spherulite rims, which are interpreted as a recrystallization feature during deformation and formation of a cleavage, gave an imprecise age of 486 ± 161 Ma. Our results show that U–Pb dating of calcite can provide age constraints for ancient carbonates and syn- to post-depositional processes that operated during burial and metamorphic overprinting.