Geochemistry of metasedimentary rocks of the Sonakhan and Mahakoshal greenstone belts, Central India: Implications for paleoweathering, paleogeography and mechanisms of greenstone belt development

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamidullah Wani ◽  
M. E. A. Mondal ◽  
Iftikhar Ahmad
Keyword(s):  
Greenstone Belt ◽  
Central India ◽  
Metasedimentary Rocks ◽  
Greenstone Belts

Rubidium–strontium ages from the Oxford Lake – Knee Lake greenstone belt, northern Manitoba

1980 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 560-568 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. S. Clark ◽  
S.-P. Cheung
Keyword(s):  
Greenstone Belt ◽  
Volcanic Rocks ◽  
Superior Province ◽  
Granitic Intrusion ◽  
Greenstone Belts ◽  
Archean Greenstone Belts

Rb–Sr whole-rock ages have been determined for rocks from the Oxford Lake – Knee Lake – Gods Lake greenstone belt, in the Superior Province of northeastern Manitoba.The age of the Magill Lake Pluton is 2455 ± 35 Ma (λ87Rb = 1.42 × 10−11 yr−1), with an initial 87Sr/86Sr ratio of 0.7078 ± 0.0043. This granitic stock intrudes the Oxford Lake Group, so it is post-tectonic and probably related to the second, weaker stage of metamorphism.The age of the Bayly Lake Pluton is 2424 ± 74 Ma, with an initial 87Sr/86Sr ratio of 0.7029 ± 0.0001. This granodioritic batholith complex does not intrude the Oxford Lake Group. It is syn-tectonic and metamorphosed.The age of volcanic rocks of the Hayes River Group, from Goose Lake (30 km south of Gods Lake Narrows), is 2680 ± 125 Ma, with an initial 87Sr/86Sr ratio of 0.7014 ± 0.0009.The age for the Magill Lake and Bayly Lake Plutons can be interpreted as the minimum ages of granitic intrusion in the area.The age for the Hayes River Group volcanic rocks is consistent with Rb–Sr ages of volcanic rocks from other Archean greenstone belts within the northwestern Superior Province.

New high-precision U–Pb ages for the Island Lake greenstone belt, northwestern Superior Province: implications for regional stratigraphy and the extent of the North Caribou terrane

2006 ◽  
Vol 43 (7) ◽  
pp. 789-803 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jen Parks ◽  
Shoufa Lin ◽  
Don Davis ◽  
Tim Corkery
Keyword(s):  
Shear Zone ◽  
High Precision ◽  
Greenstone Belt ◽  
Superior Province ◽  
Geological History ◽  
Isotopic Data ◽  
Mapping Study ◽  
The North ◽  
Crustal Block ◽  
Greenstone Belts

A combined U–Pb and field mapping study of the Island Lake greenstone belt has led to the recognition of three distinct supracrustal assemblages. These assemblages record magmatic episodes at 2897, 2852, and 2744 Ma. Voluminous plutonic rocks within the belt range in age from 2894 to 2730 Ma, with a concentration at 2744 Ma. U–Pb data also show that a regional fault that transects the belt, the Savage Island shear zone, is not a terrane-bounding structure. The youngest sedimentary group in the belt, the Island Lake Group, has an unconformable relationship with older plutons. Sedimentation in this group is bracketed between 2712 and 2699 Ma. This group, and others similar to it in the northwestern Superior Province, is akin to Timiskaming-type sedimentary groups found throughout the Superior Province and in other Archean cratons. These data confirm that this belt experienced a complex geological history that spanned at least 200 million years, which is typical of greenstone belts in this area. Age correlations between the Island Lake belt and other belts in the northwest Superior Province suggest the existence of a volcanic "megasequence". This evidence, in combination with Nd isotopic data, indicates that the Oxford–Stull domain, and the Munro Lake, Island Lake, and North Caribou terranes may have been part of a much larger reworked Mesoarchean crustal block, the North Caribou superterrane. It appears that the Superior Province was assembled by accretion of such large independent crustal blocks, whose individual histories involved extended periods of autochthonous development.

Rb–Sr whole-rock geochronology of the Gamitagama area, north central Ontario

1981 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Turek ◽  
T. E. Smith ◽  
C. H. Huang
Keyword(s):  
Greenstone Belt ◽  
Complex Terrain ◽  
Regional Metamorphism ◽  
Superior Province ◽  
The South ◽  
Stratigraphic Sequence ◽  
North Central ◽  
Metasedimentary Rocks ◽  
Area North ◽  
Radiometric Ages

The Gamitagama greenstone belt is situated to the south of the Archean Wawa belt of the Superior Province, and is about 50 km south of Wawa, Ontario. The Rb–Sr ages being reported here show that the metavolcanic and associated metasedimentary rocks are older than 2665 ± 45 Ma, which is a whole-rock isochron age of the pretectonic or syntectonic trondhjemitic plutons. The Gamitagama Lake complex, a calcalkalic differentiated and multiple diorite pluton, postdates the regional metamorphism and gives an age of 2645 ± 100 Ma. Potassic granitoid stocks, which are considered to be coeval with the Gamitagama Lake complex, define an isochron age of 2590 ± 80 Ma. The greenstone belt and associated intrusives are adjacent to the Southern batholith, a complex terrain of gneisses and migmatites, for which an isochron age of 2570 ± 90 Ma has been obtained. The radiometric ages reported here support the established stratigraphic sequence and prove that the rocks are Archean in age.

Central Superior Province geology: evidence for an allochthonous, ensimatic, southern Abitibi greenstone belt

1990 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 582-589 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. L. Jackson ◽  
R. H. Sutcliffe
Keyword(s):  
Crustal Structure ◽  
Greenstone Belt ◽  
Superior Province ◽  
Low Grade ◽  
Simple Correlation ◽  
Abitibi Greenstone Belt ◽  
Structural Style ◽  
Metavolcanic Rocks ◽  
Crustal Model ◽  
Greenstone Belts

Published U–Pb geochronological, geological, and petrochemical data suggest that there are late Archean ensialic greenstone belts (GB) (Michipicoten GB and possibly the northern Abitibi GB), ensimatic greenstone belts (southern Abitibi GB and Batchawana GB), and possibly a transitional ensimatic–ensialic greenstone belt (Swayze GB) in the central Superior Province. This lateral crustal variability may preclude simple correlation of the Michipicoten GB and its substrata, as exposed in the Kapuskasing Uplift, with that of the southern Abitibi GB. Furthermore, this lateral variability may have determined the locus of the Kapuskasing Uplift. Therefore, although the Kapuskasing Uplift provides a useful general crustal model, alternative models of crustal structure and tectonics for the southern Abitibi GB warrant examination.Thrusting of a juvenile, ensimatic southern Abitibi GB over a terrane containing evolved crust is consistent with (i) the structural style of the southern Abitibi GB; (ii) juvenile southern Abitibi GB metavolcanic rocks intruded by rocks having an isotopically evolved, older component; and (iii) Proterozoic extension that preserved low-grade metavolcanic rocks within the down-dropped Cobalt Embayment, which is bounded by higher grade terranes to the east and west.

A Discussion on the evolution of the Precambrian crust - A plate tectonic model for the Archaean crust

1973 ◽  
Vol 273 (1235) ◽  
pp. 413-427 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Greenstone Belt ◽  
Plate Boundary ◽  
Granulite Facies ◽  
Plate Tectonic ◽  
Granulite Facies Metamorphism ◽  
Sialic Crust ◽  
Tectonic Model ◽  
Lithospheric Plates ◽  
Greenstone Belts ◽  
Relative Motions

The characteristics of Archaean greenstone belt terrains are briefly summarized together with some of the models which have been used to account for their genesis. Crystalline sialic crust is interpreted as having increased with time by separation from the mantle. Many of the problems posed by Archaean greenstone belt terrains may be eased if the first sialic crust is assumed to have consisted of small masses concentrated by plate tectonic processes similar to those still in operation. Even if Archaean plates were of similar size, and were formed and lost at rates similar to those since the Mesozoic, there would be differences in the manner in which the sialic crust was concentrated because so little had separated from the mantle during Archaean times. The original formation of the rocks now forming the earliest tonalite gneisses and migmatites is attributed to very early Archaean times when no large sialic concentrations are likely to have existed on subduced lithospheric plates and the only form of orogeny was of the Island Arc type. Even after sialic concentrations did become incorporated in subduced plates they may for a long time have been too small for significant areas to survive extensive remobilization and addition of magmas from below whenever they were associated with plate boundary zones. Sets of greenstone belts are interpreted as vestiges of former oceans. By the end of Archaean times the sialic crustal concentrations, despite possible fragmentation and periods of independent development, became sufficiently extensive for large areas to survive ocean closure without significant remobilization. This model implies that there is no need for orogeny to have been any more extensive in Archaean times than now; it could merely have been more extensive compared to the area of the sialic crust in existence at the time. Plate tectonic models of Archaean tectonics are distinguished from the alternatives by their implication that large relative motions occurred between the oldest parts of the granitoid masses now on either side of the greenstone belts. Palaeomagnetism may be able to distinguish the relative usefulness of the models if any such relative motions can be recognized through the effects of remobilization of most, if not all, the sialic crust in Archaean times. Other tests are possible but the most useful might be the necessity for any model of the formation of the greenstone belts being adaptable enough to account for the relationships emerging from studies of the Archaean crustal remnants characterized by granulite facies metamorphism and anorthosites.

Geodynamic setting, crustal architecture, and VMS metallogeny of ca. 2720 Ma greenstone belt assemblages of the northern Wawa subprovince, Superior Province

2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 196-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert W.D. Lodge ◽  
Harold L. Gibson ◽  
Greg M. Stott ◽  
James M. Franklin ◽  
George J. Hudak
Keyword(s):  
Trace Element ◽  
Greenstone Belt ◽  
Tectonic Setting ◽  
Geodynamic Setting ◽  
Trace Element Geochemistry ◽  
Superior Province ◽  
Suprasubduction Zone ◽  
Greenstone Belts ◽  
Arc Setting ◽  
Back Arc

The greenstone belts along the northern margin of the Wawa subprovince of the Superior Province (Vermilion, Shebandowan, Winston Lake, Manitouwadge) formed at ca. 2720 Ma and have been interpreted to be representative of a rifted-arc to back-arc tectonic setting. Despite a common inferred tectonic setting and broad similarities, these greenstone belts have a significantly different metallogeny as evidenced by different endowments in volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS), magmatic sulphide, and orogenic gold deposits. In this paper, we examine differences in geodynamic setting and crustal architecture as they pertain to the metallogeny of each greenstone belt by characterizing the regional-scale trace-element and isotopic (Nd and Pb) geochemistry of each belt. The trace-element geochemistry of the Vermilion greenstone belt (VGB) shows evidence for a transition from arc-like to back-arc mafic rocks in the Soudan belt to plume-driven rifted arcs in the ultramafic-bearing Newton belt. The Shebandowan greenstone belt (SGB) has a significant proportion of calc-alkalic, arc-like basalts, intermediate lithofacies, and high-Mg andesites, which are characteristic of low-angle, “hot” subduction. Extensional settings within the SGB are plume-driven and associated with komatiitic ultramafic and mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB)-like basalts. The Winston Lake greenstone belt (WGB) is characterized by a transition from calc-alkalic, arc-like basalts to back-arc basalts upward in the strata and is capped by alkalic ocean-island basalt (OIB)-like basalts. This association is consistent with plume-driven rifting of a mature arc setting. Each of the VGB, SGB, and WGB show some isotopic evidence for the interaction with a juvenile or slightly older differentiated crust. The Manitouwadge greenstone belt (MGB) is characterized by isotopically juvenile, bimodal, tholeiitic to transitional volcanic lithofacies in a back-arc setting. The MGB is the most isotopically juvenile belt and is also the most productive in terms of VMS mineralization. The Zn-rich VMS mineralization within the WGB suggests a relatively lower-temperature hydrothermal system, possibly within a relatively shallow-water environment. The Zn-dominated and locally Au-enriched VMS mineralization, as well as mafic lithofacies and alteration assemblages, are characteristic of relatively shallower-water deposition in the VGB and SGB, and indicate that the ideal VMS-forming tectonic condition may have been compromised by a shallower-water depositional setting. However, the thickened arc crust and compressional tectonics of the SGB suprasubduction zone during hot subduction may have provided a crustal setting more favourable for the magmatic Ni–Cu sulphide and relative gold endowment of this belt.

THE SHAPE AND THICKNESS OF AN ARCHAEAN GREENSTONE BELT BY GRAVITY METHODS

1965 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
pp. 418-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. S. Grant ◽  
W. H. Gross ◽  
M. A. Chinnery
Keyword(s):  
Greenstone Belt ◽  
Granitic Rocks ◽  
Superior Province ◽  
Precambrian Shield ◽  
Maximum Thickness ◽  
Red Lake ◽  
Gravity Effects ◽  
Greenstone Belts

The Red Lake greenstone belt is Archaean in age (older than 2.5 billion years) and is located in the Superior province of the Canadian Precambrian Shield. It is a fairly typical greenstone belt, being composed of a complex assemblage of lavas, sediments, and intrusives. The belt is completely surrounded, and therefore is isolated from other greenstone belts, by granitic batholiths and acid paragneiss. Generally speaking, greenstones are more dense than the surrounding granitic rocks and they therefore give positive gravity effects, the amplitudes of which give some indication of their shape and overall thickness.At Red Lake, the greenstone belt is approximately 35 mi long by 18 mi wide. Gravity readings taken across the width of the belt indicate that the greenstones taper sharply in depth to a maximum thickness of approximately 25 000 ft. These results appear to confirm, as most geologists feel intuitively, that greenstone belts are basin-shaped and are underlain by granitic batholiths and gneiss.

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