Petrogenesis and tectonic setting of TTG rocks from the Katoro area, Sukumaland Greenstone Belt, NW Tanzania: Evidence from zircon U-Pb geochronology, Lu-Hf isotopes, whole-rock geochemistry, and Sr-Nd isotopes

The northern part of the Tanzania Craton is mainly comprised of several low-grade metamorphic granite-greenstone belts that are exposed on the east and south shores of Lake Victoria. Due to their gold-endowment, these greenstone belts have been the main focus of research and were interpreted to form in various tectonic settings involving back-arc basin, island arc or continental arc, and oceanic plateau. However, the TTG gneiss, as the dominant component of Archean crust, has received far less attention from the scrutiny of modern analytical methods than its counterpart, the mafic volcanics of the greenstone belts. Here, we present a comprehensive geochemical dataset including zircon U-Pb age, zircon Lu-Hf isotope results, as well as bulk-rock geochemical compositions and Sm-Nd isotopic analyses for TTG suites from the Katoro area in northwestern part of Tanzania. Zircon U-Pb dating for three TTG samples yielded 207Pb/206Pb ages of 2688 +/- 19 Ma, 2717 +/- 19 Ma and 2695 +/- 15 Ma, respectively, and the results fall within the peak crustal growth period in northern part of the Tanzania Craton. The Katoro TTGs have relatively high contents of SiO2 (70.77-74.69 %) and Na2O (4.74-5.16 %), high ratios of Sr/Y (59.49-167.25) and (La/Yb)N (17.27-50.72), but low MgO (0.24-0.70 %) and K2O (1.71-3.26 %) contents, low Nb/Ta ratios (8.50-16.60), and most of them belong to the trondhjemitic series rocks. They are characterized by strong enrichment of LILEs and LREEs with slightly positive Eu anomalies (Eu/Eu*=1.05-1.38), but depleted in Nb-Ta and Ti, as well as heavy REEs and Y. They have positive epsilon Hf(t) values (average epsilon Hf(t) = +1.90 +/- 0.50 or + 2.07 +/- 0.33) and epsilon Nd(t) values (+1.19 to + 2.40) but lower than the contemporaneous depleted mantle, which is inconsistent with a subducting slab signature, and it is proposed that the Katoro TTGs most likely originated from partial melting of rutile-free, garnet-and amphibole-bearing lower mafic crust of an oceanic plateau. The results presented here suggest that the tectonic evolution in this part of Tanzania Craton needs to invoke a scenario in which crustal growth caused by subduction-related modification of an oceanic plateau.

Automated summary

The northern part of the Tanzania Craton is mainly composed of low-grade metamorphic granite-greenstone belts. The greenstone belts have received significant research attention due to their gold-endowment and have been interpreted to form in different tectonic settings. The dominant component of Archean crust, TTG gneiss, has been less studied compared to the mafic volcanics of the greenstone belts. This study presents a comprehensive geochemical dataset for TTG suites from the Katoro area in northwestern Tanzania, providing insights into their formation and tectonic evolution.