Tectonic significance of the late Eocene (Bartonian) calc-alkaline granitoid body in the Marivan area, Zagros suture zone, northwest Iran

Until recently, the Nisutlin allochthonous assemblage, a part of the Yukon–Tanana composite terrane interpreted as trench mélange from a late Paleozoic – Mesozoic arc system, was the only tectonic assemblage known to include subducted material in the northern Cordillera. The discovery of eclogitic rocks in two parts of a klippe of the Anvil allochthonous assemblage, which comprises mafic ophiolitic rocks, above the Cassiar terrane west of the Tintina fault confirms other evidence that subducted oceanic crust was also returned to the surface. The eclogitic rocks have been largely retrograded by postsubduction metamorphism. Their existence is interpreted as additional evidence of the link between nappes above the Cassiar terrane and their inferred root, the Teslin suture zone. The Nisutlin and Anvil allochthonous assemblages can now be interpreted, not simply as crustally metamorphosed assemblages with minor, structurally interleaved high-pressure components, but as deeply metamorphosed and intensely strained slices of continental and oceanic crust switched from subducting slab to overriding plate and returned to the surface during collision of the arc with the North American margin.

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Tectono-stratigraphic evolution of the Early Proterozoic Wisconsin magmatic terranes of the Penokean Orogen

Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences ◽

10.1139/e89-180 ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 26 (10) ◽

pp. 2145-2158 ◽

Cited By ~ 86

Author(s):

P. K. Sims ◽

W. R. Van Schmus ◽

K. J. Schulz ◽

Z. E. Peterman

Keyword(s):

Subduction Zone ◽

Continental Margin ◽

Volcanic Rocks ◽

Alkali Feldspar ◽

Suture Zone ◽

Island Arcs ◽

Calc Alkaline ◽

The South ◽

Early Proterozoic ◽

Felsic Volcanic

The Early Proterozoic Penokean Orogen developed along the southern margin of the Archean Superior craton. The orogen consists of a northern deformed continental margin prism overlying an Archean basement and a southern assemblage of oceanic arcs, the Wisconsin magmatic terranes. The south-dipping Niagara fault (suture) zone separates the south-facing continental margin from the accreted arc terranes. The suture zone contains a dismembered ophiolite.The Wisconsin magmatic terranes consist of two terranes that are distinguished on the basis of lithology and structure. The northern Pembine–Wausau terrane contains a major succession of tholeiitic and calc-alkaline volcanic rocks deposited in the interval 1860–1889 Ma and a more restricted succession of calc-alkaline volcanic rocks deposited about 1835 – 1845 Ma. Granitoid rocks ranging in age from about 1870 to 1760 Ma intrude the volcanic rocks. The older succession was generated as island arcs and (or) closed back-arc basins above the south-dipping subduction zone (Niagara fault zone), whereas the younger one developed as island arcs above a north-dipping subduction zone, the Eau Pleine shear zone. The northward subduction followed deformation related to arc–continent collision at the Niagara suture at about 1860 Ma. The southern Marshfield terrane contains remnants of mafic to felsic volcanic rocks about 1860 Ma that were deposited on Archean gneiss basement, foliated tonalite to granite bodies ranging in age from about 1890 to 1870 Ma, and younger undated granite plutons. Following amalgamation of the two arc terranes along the Eau Pleine suture at about 1840 Ma, intraplate magmatism (1835 Ma) produced rhyolite and anorogenic alkali-feldspar granite that straddled the internal suture.

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