40 Ar/ 39 Ar geochronology and P‐T‐t paths from the Cordillera Darwin metamorphic complex, Tierra del Fuego, Chile

40 Ar/ 39 Ar data collected from hornblende, muscovite, biotite and K‐feldspar constrain the P‐T‐t history of the Cordillera Darwin metamorphic complex, Tierra del Fuego, Chile. These data show two periods of rapid cooling, the first between c. 500 and c. 325° C at rates ≥25° C Ma ‐1 , and the second between c . 250 and c . 200°C. For high‐ T cooling, 40 Ar/ 39 Ar ages are spatially disparate and depend on metamorphic grade: rocks that record deeper and hotter peak metamorphic conditions have younger 40 Ar/ 39 Ar ages. Sillimanite‐ and kyanite‐grade rocks in the south‐central part of the complex cooled latest: 40 Ar/ 39 Ar Hbl = 73–77 Ma, Ms = 67–70 Ma, Bt = 68 Ma, and oldest Kfs = 65 Ma. Thermobarometry and P‐T path studies of these rocks indicate that maximum burial of 26–30 km at 575–625° C may have been followed by as much as 10 km of exhumation with heating of 25–50° C. Staurolite‐grade rocks have intermediate 40 Ar/ 39 Ar ages: Hbl = 84–86 Ma, Ms = 71 Ma, Bt = 72–75 Ma, and oldest Kfs = 80 Ma. Thermobarometry on these rocks indicates maximum burial of 19–26 km at temperatures of 550–580° C. Garnet‐grade rocks have the oldest ages: Ms = 72 Ma and oldest Kfs = 91 Ma; peak P‐T conditions were 525–550° C and 5–7 kbar. Regional metamorphic temperatures for greenschist facies rocks south of the Beagle Channel did not exceed c. 300–325° C from 110 Ma to the present, although the rocks are only 2 km from kyanite‐bearing rocks to the north. One‐dimensional thermal models allow limits to be placed on exhumation rates. Assuming a stable geothermal gradient of 20–25° C km ‐1 , the maximum exhumation rate for the St‐grade rocks is c . 2.5 mm yr ‐1 , whereas the minimum exhumation rate for the Ky + Sil‐grade rocks is c. 1.0 mm yr ‐1 . Uniform exhumation rates cannot explain the disparity in cooling histories for rocks at different grades, and so early differential exhumation is inferred to have occurred. Petrological and geochronological comparisons with other metamorphic complexes suggest that single exhumation events typically remove less than c. 20 km of overburden. This behaviour can be explained in terms of a continental deformation model in which brittle extensional faults in the upper crust are rooted to shallowly dipping ductile shear zones or regions of homogeneous thinning at mid‐ to deep‐crustal levels. The P‐T‐t data from Cordillera Darwin (1) are best explained by a ‘wedge extrusion’model, in which extensional exhumation in the southern rear of the complex was coeval with thrusting in the north along the margin of the complex and into the Magallanes sedimentary basin, (2) suggest that differential exhumation occurred initially, with St‐grade rocks exhuming faster than Ky + Sil‐grade rocks, and (3) show variations in cooling rate through time that correlate both with local deformation events and with changes in plate motions and interactions.