New LA-ICPMS U-Pb ages of detrital zircons from the Highland Complex: insights into late Cryogenian to early Cambrian (ca. 665-535Ma) linkage between Sri Lanka and India

Here we report new LA-ICPMS U-Pb zircon geochronology of ultrahigh temperature (UHT) metasedimentary rocks and associated crystallized melt patches, from the central Highland Complex (HC), Sri Lanka. The detrital zircon Pb-206/U-238 age spectra range between 2834 +/- 12 and 722 +/- 14Ma, evidencing new and younger depositional ages of sedimentary protoliths than those known so far in the HC. The overgrowth domains of zircons in these UHT granulites yield weighted mean Pb-206/U-238 age clusters from 665.5 +/- 5.9 to 534 +/- 10Ma, identified as new metamorphic ages of the metasediments in the HC. The zircon ages of crystallized in situ melt patches associated with UHT granulites yield tight clusters of weighted mean Pb-206/U-238 ages from 558 +/- 1.6 to 534 +/- 2.4Ma. Thus, using our results coupled with recently published geochronological data, we suggest a new geochronological framework for the evolutionary history of the metasedimentary package of the HC. The Neoarchean to Neoproterozoic ages of detrital zircons indicate that the metasedimentary package of the HC has derived from ancient multiple age provenances and deposited during the Neoproterozoic Era. Hence, previously reported upper intercept ages of ca. 2000-1800Ma from metaigneous rocks should be considered as geochronological evidence for existence of a Palaeoproterozoic igneous basement which possibly served as a platform for the deposition of younger supracrustal rocks, rather than timing of magmatic intrusions into the already deposited ancient sediments, as has been conventionally interpreted. The intense reworking of entire Palaeoproterozoic basement rocks in the Gondwana Supercontinent assembly may have caused sediments of multiple ages and provenances to incorporate within supra-crustal sequences of the HC. Further, our data supports a convincing geochronological correlation between the HC of Sri Lanka and the Trivandrum Block of Southern India, disclosing the Gondwanian linkage between the HC of Sri Lanka and Southern Granulite Terrain of India.