Ar–Ar ages in phlogopites from marble-hosted ruby deposits in northern Vietnam: evidence for Cenozoic ruby formation

Ruby growth in phlogopite-bearing marbles has been indirectly dated using the 40Ar/39Ar laser stepwise heating technique on purified syngenetic phlogopite and other micas from ruby deposits in Yen Bai, Luc Yen and Quy Chau mining districts, in northern Vietnam. The principal results indicate the following. (1) Across the Red River shear zone, the phlogopites from the Yen Bai deposits yielded Miocene cooling ages between 23.2 and 24.4 Ma identical to those previously published using the same dating method on magmatic and metamorphic rocks from the Day Nui Con Voi range. (2) Luc Yen ruby deposits in the Lo Gam zone, on the eastern flank of the Red River shear zone, yielded Oligocene cooling 40Ar/39Ar mica ages between 30.8 and 34.0 Ma. Regarding the age of ruby crystallisation itself, the most plausible hypothesis is that all rubies in both zones formed during the period 40 to 35 Ma. Diachronism of cooling in adjacent zones leads to the conclusion that around 35 Ma, the ductile deformation in the Lo Gam zone ended and the ruby-bearing marbles cooled rapidly while the high-temperature deformation remained in the Red River shear zone, resulting in cooling through blocking temperature, some 15 Ma later. (3) The Quy Chau ruby deposit is restricted to the Quy Chau shear zone that bounds the eastern part of the Oligocene–Miocene Bu Khang dome. Phlogopite and biotite samples reveal Miocene cooling ages between 21 and 22.5 Ma which are minimum ages for ruby formation. These ages could be linked with the end of the extension of the Bu Khang dome. Vietnamese ruby formation is linked to Cenozoic tectonics resulting from continental collision between the Asian and Eurasian plates as for other marble-hosted ruby deposits in Central and Southeast Asia.