Plate Interface Shear Zone in the Sanbagawa Metamorphic Belt, Constrained by RSCM Thermometry, U–Pb Zircon Dating and Phase Equilibria Modelling in the Sarutagawa Region, Central Shikoku, Japan

Exhumed high-P/low-T complexes are of paramount importance to directly access rocks that experienced subduction zone processes. However, the original tectono-metamorphic fabrics are often partially obliterated by exhumation and later deformation, hindering our understanding of the processes occurring at depth. We show an example of how multiple field- and lab-based analytical techniques may be used to extract information of the pristine fabrics of polydeformed metamorphic rocks. We investigated a natural cross section through the chlorite, garnet and albite-biotite zones of the exhumed Shirataki Unit in the Sanbagawa metamorphic belt, exposed in the Sarutagawa (Saruta River) area of the Central Shikoku, coupling structural-petrographic analysis with Raman Spectroscopy on Carbonaceous Material (RSCM) thermometry, phase equilibrium modelling and U–Pb zircon dating. RSCM thermometry reveals a progressive temperature increase from 350°C–400°C to 500°C–550°C over an ~400 m distance, characterized by condensed metamorphic isograds in the garnet zone. Phase equilibrium modelling indicates slightly decreasing metamorphic pressures through the transect from 0.6–0.9 GPa at low-T to 0.4–0.7 GPa at high-T with preserved blueschist-facies parageneses, documented for the first time in the area, restricted to the ~400°C–450°C range. Hence, rocks developed close to the Sanbagawa subduction gradient are juxtaposed with rocks that experienced significant retrograde heating during exhumation. Moreover, we found that competent lithologies such as quartzite and basic schist along the transect preserve trenchward-directed deformation structures that are obliterated by orogen-parallel stretching in the surrounding, incompetent pelitic schists. U–Pb dating shows progressively older youngest detrital zircon ages and syn-depositional peaks from 79–76 and ~88–80 Ma in the chlorite zone to ~92 and ~100 Ma in the garnet zone, respectively, indicating that the lower grade units were subducted at a later stage and that, hence, different metamorphic grades in the area correspond to different protolith ages. The data discussed above is consistent with the former presence of a regional shear zone that, although partially obliterated by younger deformation, contributed to the exhumation of higher-T rocks of the albite-biotite and oligoclase-biotite zones over subducting rocks of the chlorite and garnet zones, likely exploiting the subduction interface. These results offer a framework to investigate the geological record of subduction in the polyphase metamorphic rocks of the Sanbagawa belt.