Petrochronology of monazite and xenotime from emerald deposits in the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia: constraints on the hydrothermal evolution of the Cretaceous basin

Abstract Lower Cretaceous strata of the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia host some of the world’s premier emerald deposits, yet the timing of mineralization—and its relationship to the tectonic evolution of the Cordillera—remains poorly constrained. We present high-resolution in situ U–Th–Pb petrochronology of monazite and xenotime from both the Eastern and Western Emerald Belts, revealing at least three stages of mineral growth: (1) authigenic crystallization during early burial and diagenesis (~