Detrital footprint of the Mozambique ocean: U–Pb SHRIMP and Pb evaporation zircon geochronology of metasedimentary gneisses in eastern Madagascar

Abstract The southern East African Orogen is a collisional belt where the identification of major suture zones has proved elusive. In this study, we apply U–Pb isotopic techniques to date detrital zircons from a key part of the East African Orogen, analyse their possible source region and discuss how this information can help in unravelling the orogen. U–Pb sensitive high-mass resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) and Pb evaporation analyses of detrital zircons from metasedimentary rocks in eastern Madagascar reveal that: (1) the protoliths of many of these rocks were deposited between ∼800 and 550 Ma; and (2) these rocks are sourced from regions with rocks that date back to over 3400 Ma, with…