scholarly journals Supplemental Material: Progressive accretion recorded in sedimentary rocks of the 3.28–3.23 Ga Fig Tree Group, Barberton Greenstone Belt

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadja Drabon ◽  
Donald R. Lowe
Keyword(s):  
Greenstone Belt ◽  
Sedimentary Rocks ◽  
Geochemical Data ◽  
Geochronological Data ◽  
Barberton Greenstone Belt ◽  
Supplemental File ◽  
Fig Tree ◽  
Tree Group

Supplemental File S1: Additional figures; Supplemental File S2: List of dated tuffs of the Fig Tree Group; Supplemental File S3: U-Pb geochronological data; Supplemental File S4: Mudstone geochemical data.

Progressive accretion recorded in sedimentary rocks of the 3.28−3.23 Ga Fig Tree Group, Barberton Greenstone Belt

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadja Drabon ◽  
Donald R. Lowe
Keyword(s):  
Greenstone Belt ◽  
Tectonic Setting ◽  
Sedimentary Rocks ◽  
Foreland Basin ◽  
Barberton Greenstone Belt ◽  
The North ◽  
Tectonic Processes ◽  
Fig Tree ◽  
Felsic Volcanic ◽  
Tree Group

One of the major challenges in early Earth geology is the interpretation of the nature of the crust and tectonic processes due to the limited exposures of Archean rocks. This question is predominantly addressed by numerical modeling, structural geology, geochemical analyses, and petrological approaches. Here we report on the reconstruction of one of the oldest, well-preserved volcano-sedimentary sequences on Earth, the 3.28−3.22 Ga Fig Tree Group in the Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa, based on geochronology, provenance, and stratigraphy to provide new constraints on the nature of tectonic processes in the Archean. The Fig Tree basin was asymmetric and the onset of deposition varied across the greenstone belt. The Fig Tree Group is now preserved in east-west oriented bands of fault-bounded structural belts with those preserved in the southern parts of the greenstone belt showing an onset of deposition at 3.28 Ga, those in the center at 3.26 Ga, and those in the north at 3.24 Ga. Stratigraphically, the rocks display a general up-section trend from deeper to shallower-water deposition and/or from finer- to coarser-grained sedimentary rocks. Associated with this up-section stratigraphic trend, the sedimentary rocks show a change in provenance from more regionally similar to more locally variable, and an increase in felsic volcanic activity, especially toward the closure of Fig Tree deposition. The data is consistent with formation of the Fig Tree Group in a compressional tectonic setting by deposition in a foreland basin that experienced progressive accretion of crustal terranes onto a northward prograding fold-and-thrust belt.

Provenance and tectonic implications of the 3.28–3.23 Ga Fig Tree Group, central Barberton greenstone belt, South Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 325 ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadja Drabon ◽  
Aleksandra Galić ◽  
Paul R.D. Mason ◽  
Donald R. Lowe
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Greenstone Belt ◽  
Barberton Greenstone Belt ◽  
Tectonic Implications ◽  
Fig Tree ◽  
Tree Group

U–Pb ages and tectonic significance of late Archean alkalic magmatism and nonmarine sedimentation: Timiskaming Group, southern Abitibi belt, Ontario

1991 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 489-503 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Corfu ◽  
S. L. Jackson ◽  
R. H. Sutcliffe
Keyword(s):  
Greenstone Belt ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Sedimentary Rocks ◽  
Detrital Zircons ◽  
Geochemical Data ◽  
Lake Area ◽  
Quartz Porphyry ◽  
Bear Lake ◽  
Lake Formation ◽  
Dominant Period

The paper presents U–Pb ages for zircons of the calc-alkalic to alkalic igneous suite and associated alluvial–fluvial sedimentary rocks of the Timiskaming Group in the late Archean Abitibi greenstone belt, Superior Province. The Timiskaming Group rests unconformably on pre-2700 Ma komatiitic to calc-alkalic volcanic sequences and is the expression of the latest stages of magmatism and tectonism that shaped the greenstone belt. An age of 2685 ± 3 Ma for the Bidgood quartz porphyry, an age of about 2685–2682 Ma for a quartz–feldspar porphyry clast in a conglomerate, and ages ranging from 2686 to 2680 Ma for detrital zircons in sandstones appear to reflect an early stage in the development of the Timiskaming Group. The youngest detrital zircons in each of three sandstones at Timmins, Kirkland Lake, and south of Larder Lake define maximum ages of sedimentation at about 2679 Ma; the latter sandstone is cut by a porphyry dyke dated by titanite at [Formula: see text], identical to the 2677 ± 2 Ma age for a volcanic agglomerate of the Bear Lake Formation north of Larder Lake. Similar ages have previously been reported for syenitic to granitic plutons of the region. The dominant period of Timiskaming sedimentation and magmatism was thus 2680–2677 Ma. Xenocrystic zircons found in a porphyry and a lamprophyre dyke have ages of 2750–2720 Ma, which correspond to the ages of the oldest units in the belt, predating the volumetrically dominant ca. 2700 Ma greenstone sequences. The presence of these xenocrysts and the onlapping of the Timiskaming Group on all earlier lithotectonic units of the southern Abitibi belt support the concept that the 2700 Ma ensimatic sequences were thrust onto older assemblages during a phase of compression that culminated with the generation of tonalite and granodiorite at about 2695–2688 Ma. Published geochemical data for the Timiskaming igneous suite, notably the enrichments in large-ion lithophile elements and light rare-earth elements and the relative depletion of Nb, Ta, and Ti compare with the characteristics of suites at modern convergent settings such as the Eolian and the Banda arcs and are consistent with generation of the melts from deep metasomatized mantle in the final stages of, or after cessation of, subduction. Late- and post-Timiskaming compression caused north-directed thrusting and folding. Turbiditic sedimentary units of the Larder Lake area which locally structurally overly the alluvial–fluvial sequence and were earlier thought to be part of the Timiskaming Group, appear to be older "flyschoid" sequences, possibly correlative with sedimentary rocks deposited in the Porcupine syncline at Timmins between 2700 and 2690 Ma.

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