U–Th-total Pb ages of monazite from the Eckergneiss (Harz Mountains, Germany): evidence for Namurian to Westfalian granulite facies metamorphism at the margin of Laurussia

Four samples of garnet-bearing metapsammitic gneisses and one sample of a kinzigitic sillimanite-garnet-cordierite gneiss from the Eckergneiss Complex (Harz Mountains, Germany) were studied in detail for U–Th-total Pb dating with the electron microprobe. Monazite in all samples occurs in the matrix and show similar chemical compositional variation. A single stage monazite growth during the highest stages of metamorphism was deduced and chemical ages of all samples are between 313 ± 4 and 328 ± 6 Ma. These ages are interpreted as the time of granulite facies metamorphism in the Eckergneiss Complex. This metamorphism post-dates the formation of the main foliation, presumably developed under amphibolite facies conditions, as indicated by overprinting static grain growth and partial melt microstructures. It pre-dates the significantly younger intrusion of the Harzburg Gabbronorite and the Brocken Granite that are of post-Variscan age. Our results, in combination with P–T conditions for the peak of granulite facies metamorphism, show that the Eckergneiss Complex must have resided at a depth of at least 15 km during the Namurian to Westfalian. Later exhumation of the Eckergneiss Complex and its tectonic emplacement within the low-grade metamorphic Rhenohercynian rock units of the NW-Harz most likely occurred along the Acker-Bruchberg Thrust Zone, which marks the transition between the allochthonous and autochthonous domains of the Harz Mountains. At Early Permian time, this imbricated sequence was intruded and sealed by the post-Variscan intrusions.