Thermal/denudation histories in the Tanigawa-dake region based on multi-thermochronometries

Minami, Saki*; Sueoka, Shigeru   ; Fukuda, Shoma   ; Nagata, Mitsuhiro   ; Kohn, B. P.*; Yokoyama, Tatsunori   ; Kagami, Saya   ; Kajita, Yuya*; Tagami, Takahiro*

Granites are generally formed at a crustal depth of a few to dozen kilometers. Regions where young granites are exposed could have been extremely rapidly uplifted and denudated. The Tanigawa-dake area is located on the back arc side of Northeast Japan arc and is included in Niigata-Kobe tectonic zone. The lithology of this area is mainly composed of late Cretaceous to Paleogene granites and Pliocene Tanigawa-dake granites (Akayu, Tanigawa and Makihata bodies). We performed (1) zircon U-Pb dating to determine the precise intrusive ages and (2) zircon and apatite (U-Th)/He dating (the closure temperatures are 160-200 and 55-80 deg.C, respectively) to estimate the thermal/denudation histories at the shallower crust. We obtained zircon U-Pb ages of 6.0-3.2 Ma, ZHe ages of 3.1-1.3 Ma, and AHe ages of 3.3-1.2 Ma for the Tanigawa-dake granites, and AHe ages of ca 2.4 Ma for the Minakami quartzdiorite. Considering difference in the zircon U-Pb ages, the three bodies of the Tanigawa-dake granites intruded at different timings, ca 6 Ma, 4 Ma and 3 Ma. The cooling rates between closure temperature of AHe and surface temperature (10 deg.C) range 13-36 deg.C/Myr for the Minakami quartzdiorites and the Makihata body in the eastern side of the main ridge, and 36-60 deg.C/Myr for the Tanigawa body in the western side. All AHe ages in the eastern side range at 3-2 Ma, in spite of the zircon U-Pb ages of ca 109 Ma and 4 Ma, indicating that the area was denudated uniformly at this timing. In addition, denudation rates calculated from AHe ages in the Tanigawa-dake area are comparable to those of the Tanzawa mountain and the Ou Backbone range, and are faster than those of the back-arc side of the Northeastern Japan arc. Thus, the denudation rates in the Tanigawa-dake area are equivalent to the rates of these active crustal movement areas.