Pan-African metamorphic evolution in the southern Yaounde Group (Oubanguide Complex, Cameroon) as revealed by EMP-monazite dating and thermobarometry of garnet metapelites

Abstract Garnet-bearing micaschists and paragneisses of the Yaounde Group in the Pan-African Central African Orogenic Belt in Cameroon underwent a polyphase structural evolution with the deformation stages D 1 –D 2 , D 3 and D 4 . The garnet-bearing assemblages crystallized in course of the deformation stage D 1 –D 2 which led to the formation of the regional main foliation S 2 . In X Ca – X Mg coordinates one can distinguish several zonation trends in the garnet porphyroblasts. Zonation trends with increasing X Mg and variably decreasing X Ca signalize a garnet growth during prograde metamorphism. Intermineral microstructures provided criteria for local equilibria and a structurally controlled application of geothermobarometers based on cation exchange and net transfer reactions. The syndeformational P – T path sections calculated from cores and rims of garnets in individual samples partly overlap and align along clockwise P – T trends. The P – T evolution started at ∼450 °C/7 kbar, passed high-pressure conditions at 11–12 kbar at variable temperatures (600–700 °C) and involved a marked decompression toward 6–7 kbar at high temperatures (700–750 °C). Th–U–Pb dating of metamorphic monazite by electron microprobe (EMP-CHIME method) in eight samples revealed a single period of crystallization between 613 ± 33 Ma and 586 ± 15 Ma. The EMP-monazite age populations between 613 ± 33 Ma enclosed in garnet and 605 ± 12 Ma in the matrix apparently bracket the high temperature–intermediate pressure stage at the end of the prograde P – T path. The younger monazites crystallized still at amphibolite-facies conditions during subsequent retrogression. The Pan-African overall clockwise P – T evolution in the Yaounde Group with its syndeformational high pressure stages and marked pressure variations is typical of the parts of orogens which underwent contractional crustal thickening by stacking of nappe units during continental collision and/or during subduction-related accretionary processes.