Incipient charnockite formation at the waning stage of Paleoproterozoic hot orogenesis, Yeongnam Massif, Korea

•First report of Paleoproterozoic incipient charnockite from the Yeongnam Massif.•Incipient charnockite is a peak-metamorphic product of biotite-dehydration melting.•Prolonged granitic magmatism, granulite-facies metamorphism, and fluid influx at ca. 1.88–1.84 Ga.•Paleoproterozoic hot orogenesis in the North China Craton linked to the Yeongnam Massif. The incipient charnockite or orthopyroxene-bearing granitic orthogneiss is a relatively common constituent in ancient granulite-facies terranes, and its formation has been often attributed to an influx of CO2-rich fluid or a removal of aqueous melt. Temporal relationship between the orthopyroxene formation and the fluid or melt migration, however, remains debatable. Here we report the first finding of incipient charnockite hosted by garnet-biotite-bearing granitic gneisses in the Sancheong–Hadong anorthosite complex, Yeongnam Massif. Both lithologies preserve a variety of field and microstructural evidence for partial melting and subsequent melt crystallization, as manifested by granitic leucosomes and biotite-rich residua. Based on the phase equilibria modeling and geothermobarometric calculation, peak metamorphic conditions of migmatities were estimated to be 5.4–6.0 kbar and 800–850 °C, which led to the biotite dehydration melting together with the orthopyroxene formation in incipient charnockite. Sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) U–Pb analyses of zircon from an incipient charnockite and a host gneiss yielded the weighted mean 207Pb/206Pb ages identical within errors; 1880 ± 5 Ma and 1872 ± 6 Ma for the cores, and 1862 ± 4 Ma and 1861 ± 4 Ma for the rims, respectively. The former is interpreted to represent the time for magmatic crystallization of granitic protoliths, whereas the latter for subsequent anatexis typified by peritectic growth of orthopyroxene. Such a timeline is consistent with two distinct thermal events previously reported from the Sancheong-Hadong anorthosite complex. By contrast, monazite grains from a biotite-bearing granitic gneiss in the charnockite zone yielded the weighted mean 207Pb/206Pb ages of 1866 ± 14 Ma and 1835 ± 11 Ma for the core and rim, respectively. The latter is consistent with 1842 ± 8 Ma, estimated from monazite neoblasts of incipient charnockite. The monazite growth during a post-peak metamorphic stage at ca. 1.84 Ga is attributed to a fluid influx event, apparently concentrated in the charnockite zone. The charnockite formation in the Yeongnam Massif