Capability of U–Pb dating of zircons from Quaternary tephra: Jemez Mountains, NM, and La Sal Mountains, UT, USA

Abstract

Two Quaternary tephras derived from the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico – the Guaje and Tsankawi tephras – are difficult to distinguish due to their similar glass-shard chemical composition. Differences in bulk chemical composition are small as well. Here we examine the feasibility to assign an age to a distal tephra layer in the La Sal Mountains, Utah, by U–Pb dating of zircons and to correlate it with one of the two Jemez eruptions. We also dated original Jemez tephras for comparison. Even though the tephras are very young, we obtained reasonable age determinations using the youngest cluster of zircon grains overlapping in age at 2σ. Thereafter, the Guaje tephra is 1.513 ± 0.021 Myr old. The La Sal Mountains tephra is correlated with the Tsankawi tephra. Three samples yielded a common age range of 1.31–1.40 Myr. All ages are in slight disagreement with published age determinations obtained by 40Ar ∕ 39Ar dating. These findings indicate that distal Jemez tephras can be distinguished by U–Pb dating. Furthermore, we encourage giving this method a try for age assignments even of Quaternary volcanic material.