U–Pb zircon ages and field relationships of Archean basement and Proterozoic intrusions, south-central Wopmay Orogen, NWT: implications for tectonic assignments

2013 ◽  
Vol 50 (10) ◽  
pp. 979-1006 ◽  
Author(s):  
V.A. Jackson ◽  
O. van Breemen ◽  
L. Ootes ◽  
W. Bleeker ◽  
V. Bennett ◽  
...  

New field and U–Pb zircon data from the south-central Wopmay Orogen (south of 65°N) establish crystallization ages of basement and plutonic phases and bring to the forefront questions on the architecture of the orogen. The complex and extensive >3300–2575 Ma basement domain was derived from the adjacent Slave craton. Paleoproterozoic supracrustal rocks, dominated by an extensive pelitic–psammitic sequence with basal arenite, conglomerate, and carbonate, unconformably overlie this basement. Pre- to post-kinematic Paleoproterozoic plutons intrude both basement and overlying strata and crystallized at 1877, 1867–1862, and 1858–1850 Ma. The first pulse of plutonism constrains an early generation of metamorphism and deformation to younger than 1877 Ma and is corroborated by metamorphic zircon in Archean basement. The interval from 1867 to 1862 Ma brackets ductile deformation in granite and granodiorite intrusions; although corresponding structure in the metasedimentary strata is equivocal. Post-kinematic ca. 1858–1850 Ma plutons were coeval with localized high-grade metamorphism and concomitant recrystallization of Archean basement. The absence of older (>1880 Ma) phases of the Hepburn intrusive suite in south-central Wopmay Orogen demonstrates a previously unrecognized north–south plutonic dichotomy and that the historical assignment of Calderian metamorphism to ca. 1885 Ma may be too old. The designation of part of the area to a klippe of Hottah terrane is not compatible with field and zircon age data which shows that basement and the overlying strata can be tied directly to the Slave craton. The study raises questions regarding the tectonic relationship between the Hottah terrane and Slave craton.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuemei Cheng ◽  
Shuyun Cao

<p>Within orogenic zone and continental extensional area, it often developed metamorphic complex or metamorphic gneiss dome that widely exposed continental mid-lower crustal rocks, which is an ideal place to study exhumation processes of deep-seated metamorphic complex and rheology. The Yuanmou metamorphic complex is located in the south-central part of the "Kangdian Axis" in the western margin of Qiangtang Block and Yangtze Block, which is a part of the anticline of the Sichuan-Yunnan platform. Many research works mainly focus on the discussion of intrusion ages, aeromagnetic anomalies, and polymetallic deposits. However, the exhumation process and mechanism of the Yuanmou metamorphic complex are rarely discussed and still unclear. This study, based on detailed field geological observations, optical microscopy (OM), cathodoluminescence (CL), electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and electron probe (EMPA) were performed to illustrate the geological structure features, deformation-metamorphic evolution process and its tectonic significance of Yuanmou metamorphic complex during the exhumation process. All these analysis results indicate that the Yuanmou metamorphic complex generally exhibits a dome structure with deep metamorphic rocks and deformed rocks of varying degrees widely developed. Mylonitic gneiss and granitic intrusions are located in the footwall of the Yuanmou, which have suffered high-temperature shearing. The mylonitic fabrics and mineral stretching lineations in the deformed rock are strongly developed, forming typical S-L or L-shaped structural features. The high-temperature ductile deformation-metamorphism environment is high amphibolite facies, that is, the temperature range is between 620 ~ 690 ℃ and the pressure is between 0.8 ~ 0.95 Gpa. In the deformed rocks closed to the detachment fault, some of the mylonite fabric features are retained, but most of them have experienced a strongly overprinted retrogression metamorphism and deformation. At the top of the detachment fault zone, it is mainly composed of cataclasites and fault gouge. The comprehensive macro- and microstructural characteristics, geometry, kinematics, and mineral (amphibole, quartz and calcite) EBSD textures indicate that the Yuanmou metamorphic complex has undergone a progressive exhumation process during regional extension, obvious high-temperature plastic deformation-metamorphism in the early stage, and superimposed of low-temperature plastic-brittle and brittle deformation in the subsequent stage, which is also accompanied by strong fluid activities during the exhumation process.</p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke Ootes ◽  
Valerie A. Jackson ◽  
William J. Davis ◽  
Venessa Bennett ◽  
Leanne Smar ◽  
...  

The Wopmay orogen is a Paleoproterozoic accretionary belt preserved to the west of the Archean Slave craton, northwest Canada. Reworked Archean crystalline basement occurs in the orogen, and new bedrock mapping, U–Pb geochronology, and Sm–Nd isotopic data further substantiate a Slave craton parentage for this basement. Detrital zircon results from unconformably overlying Paleoproterozoic supracrustal rocks also support a Slave craton provenance. Rifting of the Slave margin began at ca. 2.02 Ga with a second rift phase constrained between ca. 1.92 and 1.89 Ga, resulting in thermal weakening of the Archean basement and allowing subsequent penetrative deformation during the Calderian orogeny (ca. 1.88–1.85 Ga). The boundary between the western Slave craton and the reworked Archean basement in the southern Wopmay orogen is interpreted as the rifted cratonic margin, which later acted as a rigid backstop during compressional deformation. Age-isotopic characteristics of plutonic phases track the extent and evolution of these processes that left penetratively deformed Archean basement, Paleoproterozoic cover, and plutons in the west, and “rigid” Archean Slave craton to the east. Diamond-bearing kimberlite occurs across the central and eastern parts of the Slave craton, but kimberlite (diamond bearing or not) has not been documented west of ∼114°W. It is proposed that while the crust of the western Slave craton escaped thermal weakening, the mantle did not and was moved out of the diamond stability field. The Paleoproterozoic extension–convergence cycle preserved in the Wopmay orogen provides a reasonable explanation as to why the western Slave craton appears to be diamond sterile.


1989 ◽  
Vol 26 (11) ◽  
pp. 2224-2235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicki L. Hansen ◽  
James K. Mortensen ◽  
Richard L. Armstrong

The Teslin suture zone (TSZ) comprises a portion of the Yukon–Tanana terrane (YT), in the Yukon, formed by steeply dipping layering and L–S tectonite foliation. The TSZ forms the fundamental tectonic boundary between rocks deposited along the ancient margin of North America and allochthonous terranes to the west. TSZ tectonites evolved during initial penetrative dip-slip deformation (Dds) and later dextral strike-slip shear (Dss) along steep, 1–3 km wide shear zones. Several workers have speculated that the TSZ and related YT heterogeneous ductile deformation and associated metamorphism are Devonian to Mississippian in age and related to the intrusion of a similar-age orthogneiss throughout the Yukon and Alaska. However, recent structural and metamorphic studies of the TSZ provide evidence contradicting this view. New isotopic evidence, presented herein, indicates that TSZ dynamothermal metamorphism was cooled by Early Jurassic time, that it cannot be related to Devonian–Mississippian and Permian granitic intrusion, and that it predates Cretaceous plutonism.U–Pb zircon dating of peraluminous orthogneiss constrains primary peraluminous granite crystallization at 355 ± 25 Ma. Three Rb–Sr whole rock + muscovite and three K–Ar muscovite cooling dates of rocks containing Dds and Dss fabrics place a younger age limit of 182–213 Ma (latest Triassic to Early Jurassic) on Dds/Dss deformation. In addition, three Rb–Sr whole-rock + muscovite isochrons and one K–Ar date on biotite indicate peraluminous orthogneisses in the eastern portion of the study area were affected by a mid-Cretaceous thermal event. These data, togemer with structural and metamorphic relationships reported elsewhere, are summarized in pressure–temperature–time–displacement diagrams illustrating the evolution of TSZ and adjacent rocks from Devonian to Late Cretaceous time. Tectonites within the TSZ can be differentiated from peraluminous orthogneiss east of the d'Abbadie fault on the basis of their respective cooling histories.


1981 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 1211-1227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Brooks ◽  
Richard J. Wardle ◽  
Toby Rivers

The Shabogamo intrusive suite, a predominantly gabbroic magma series intrusive into a variety of Archean, Aphebian, and Helikian units in the Churchill and Grenville Provinces of western Labrador, is reliably dated at circa 1375 Ma using both the Rb/Sr and Sm/Nd methods on whole rocks and mineral separates. The suite is thus synchronous with Elsonian magmatism in Labrador, which is characterized by the intrusion of large volumes of gabbroic, anorthositic, and associated magma, and so invites petrogenetic correlations on a regional scale.Gabbros of the Shabogamo intrusive suite are emplaced into volcanics and volcaniclastics of the Blueberry Lake group, which are provisionally dated at 1540 ± 40 Ma. The volcanic rocks are therefore of similar age to, and probably correlative with, the upper Petscapiskau Group and Bruce River Group felsic volcanics, which occur further east in a narrow belt within the Grenville Foreland zone. The linear disposition of centres of felsic volcanism in the Grenville Foreland zone about 1500 Ma ago is suggestive of the development of a major ensialic rift at least 300 km in length at that time. A twofold magmatic history during the Helikian of this part of Labrador is now emerging from the field mapping and geochronological studies. Early extrusive felsic volcanism about 1500 Ma ago confined to a linear belt immediately north of the Grenville Province was followed by voluminous mafic magmatism (with emplacement of gabbroic, anorthositic, and associated rocks) occurring over a wide area both within and outside of the present location of the Grenville Province.Rb/Sr dating of Aphebian quartzofeldspathic schists from within the Grenville Province near Wabush – Labrador City shows that the high-grade metamorphism and development of a penetrative schistosity were Grenvillian features formed about 1000 Ma ago. This result effectively precludes the possibility of a Hudsonian metamorphic imprint, a feasible interpretation that was raised during regional mapping of the area.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evgenia Salin ◽  
Krister Sundblad ◽  
Yann Lahaye ◽  
Jeremy Woodard

<p>The Fröderyd Group constitutes a deformed volcanic sequence, which together with the 1834 Ma Bäckaby tonalites occurs as a xenolith, within the 1793-1769 Ma TIB 1b unit of the Transscandinavian Igneous Belt (TIB) in southern Sweden. The Bäckaby tonalites, together with coarse-grained clastic metasedimentary sequences of the Vetlanda Group, belong to the Oskarshamn-Jönköping Belt (OJB; Mansfeld et al., 1996). In turn, the Fröderyd Group was considered to be an older, probably Svecofennian, unit by Sundblad et al. (1997).</p><p>The Fröderyd Group is composed of ca. 80% mafic and ca. 20% felsic volcanic rocks, with subordinate carbonate units. Mafic rocks are represented by tholeiitic basalts and spilitized pillow lavas with MORB affinity.</p><p>In this study, a sample from a metamorphosed rhyolite, belonging to the Fröderyd Group, was dated at 1849.5±9.8 Ga U-Pb zircon age (LA-ICPMS). This age is significantly younger than the Svecofennian crust, which was formed from 1.92 to 1.88 Ga. Instead, it is coeval with the oldest TIB granitoid generation (TIB 0), which intruded into the southwestern margin of the Svecofennian Domain, but the Fröderyd Group is still the oldest crustal component southwest of the Svecofennian Domain.</p><p>Geochronological, petrographical studies and field observations have shown that the southern margin of the Svecofennian Domain was affected by ductile deformation shortly after the intrusion of the 1.85 Ga TIB granites (Stephens and Andersson, 2005). This took place during an intra- or back-arc rifting above a subduction boundary in a retreating mode and caused formation of augen gneisses and emplacement of 1847 Ga dykes into the TIB 0 granitoids. Rifting was followed by a collision of the rifted slab with the Svecofennian crust which is evidenced from emplacement of pegmatitic leucosomes during 1.83-1.82 Ga into the 1.85 Ga orthogneisses.</p><p>It is interpreted, that the Fröderyd Group was formed within an oceanic rifting environment, collided with the rifted Svecofennian slab and later amalgamated onto the Svecofennian Domain. The proposed geological evolution includes two deformation events during the period of ca. 1.85-1.82 Ga, which is in accordance with Röshoff (1975). Furthermore, it is evident that the Fröderyd Group was formed as a separate unit outside the Svecofennian Domain, although they have a common geological history.      </p><p>References</p><p>Mansfeld, J., 1996. Geological, geochemical and geochronological evidence for a new Palaeoproterozoic terrane in southeastern Sweden. Precambrian Res. 77, 91–103.</p><p>Röshoff, K., 1975. Some aspects of the Precambrian in south-eastern Sweden in the light of a detailed geological study of the Lake Nömmen area. Geologiska Föreningens i Stockholm Förhandlingar 97, 368–378.</p><p>Stephens, M.B. and Andersson, J., 2015. Migmatization related to mafic underplating and intra- or back-arc spreading above a subduction boundary in a 2.0–1.8 Ga accretionary orogen. Sweden. Precambrian Res. 264, 235–257.</p><p>Sundblad, K., Mansfeld, J. and Särkinen, M., 1997. Palaeoproterozoic rifting and formation of sulphide deposits along the southwestern margin of the Svecofennian Domain, southern Sweden. Precambrian Res. 182, 1–12.</p>


2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (12) ◽  
pp. 1182-1190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Labrado ◽  
Terry L. Pavlis ◽  
Jeffrey M. Amato ◽  
Erik M. Day

A complex array of faulted arc rocks and variably metamorphosed forearc accretionary complex rocks form a mappable arc–forearc boundary in southern Alaska known as the Border Ranges fault (BRF). We use detrital U–Pb zircon dating of metasedimentary rocks within the Knik River terrane in the western Chugach Mountains to show that a belt of Early Cretaceous amphibolite-facies metamorphic rocks along the BRF was formed when older mélange rocks of the Chugach accretionary complex were reworked in a sinistral-oblique thrust reactivation of the BRF during a period of forearc plutonism. The metamorphic subterrane of the Knik River terrane has a maximum depositional age (MDA) of 156.5 ± 1.5 Ma and a detrital zircon age spectrum that is indistinguishable from the Potter Creek assemblage of the Chugach accretionary complex, supporting correlation of these units. These ages contrast strongly with new and existing data that show Triassic to earliest Jurassic detrital zircon ages from metamorphic screens in the plutonic subterrane of the Knik River terrane, a fragmented Early Jurassic plutonic assemblage generally interpreted as the basement of the Peninsular terrane. Based on these findings, we propose the following new terminology for the Knik River terrane: (1) “Carpenter Creek metamorphic complex” for the Early Cretaceous “metamorphic subterrane”, (2) “western Chugach trondhjemite suite” for the Early Cretaceous forearc plutons within the belt, (3) “Friday Creek assemblage” for a transitional mélange unit that contains blocks of the Carpenter Creek complex in a chert–argillite matrix, and (4) “Knik River metamorphic complex” in reference to metamorphic rocks engulfed by Early Jurassic plutons of the Peninsular terrane that represent the roots of the Talkeetna arc. The correlation of the Carpenter Creek metamorphic complex with the Chugach mélange indicates that the trace of the BRF lies ∼1–5 km north of the map trace shown on geologic maps, although, like other segments of the BRF, this boundary is blurred by local complexities within the BRF system. Ductile deformation of the mélange is sufficiently intense that few vestiges of its original mélange fabric exist, suggesting the scarcity of rocks described as mélange in the cores of many orogens may result from misidentification of rocks that have been intensely overprinted by younger, ductile deformation.


1984 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 1315-1324 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. A. Bowring ◽  
W. R. Van Schmus ◽  
P. F. Hoffman

Athapuscow aulacogen is an Early Proterozoic intracratonic basin located in the East Arm of Great Slave Lake between the Slave and northwest Churchill provinces. Athapuscow aulacogen comprises three stratigraphic sequences, the Wilson Island Group, the Great Slave Supergroup, and the Et-Then Group. New U–Pb zircon ages provide constraints on the development of the aulacogen.The Blachford Lake Intrusive Suite consists of an older alkaline phase (Hearne Channel Granite) dated at 2175 ± 7 Ma and a younger peralkaline phase (Thor Lake Syenite) dated at 2094 ± 10 Ma, confirming the suggestion that the two phases may not be related. A felsite from the Wilson Island Group has an age of 1928 ± 11 Ma. The Wilson Island Group is intruded by epizonal granites (Butte Island Intrusive Suite), one of which has an age of 1895 ± 8 Ma. The Wilson Island Group and the Butte Island Instrusive Suite are entirely allochthonous with respect to the Slave craton. Rocks of the Great Slave Supergroup overlie mylonitized Wilson Island Group rocks and both were involved in northeast-directed thrusting. The Compton laccoliths intrude rocks of the Great Slave Supergroup, postdate thrusting, and are about 1865 Ma old.The Blachford Lake Intrusive Suite is significantly older than both the rift sequence in Wopmay Orogen (ca. 1900 Ma) and the Wilson Island Group; it probably is genetically unrelated. The age of the Wilson Island Group and Butte Island Intrusive Suite is considerably younger than previous estimates and is close to the minimum age of rifting in Wopmay Orogen. The Compton laccoliths are very similar to intrusive rocks in the Great Bear Magmatic Zone of Wopmay Orogen and may be related to east-dipping subduction beneath the aulacogen.The new ages strengthen the correlations between Athapuscow aulacogen and Wopmay Orogen and suggest a link with events in the Trans-Hudson Orogen to the south.


2008 ◽  
Vol 145 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. STRACHAN ◽  
J. A. EVANS

AbstractWithin the Scottish Caledonides, the Glen Scaddle Metagabbro was intruded into the Moine Supergroup of the Northern Highland Terrane after Grampian D2 folding and prior to regional D3 and D4 upright folding and amphibolite-facies metamorphism. A U–Pb zircon age of 426 ± 3 Ma obtained from the metagabbro is interpreted to date emplacement. D3–D4 folding is constrained to have occurred during the Scandian orogenic event. In contrast, polyphase folding and regional metamorphism of the Dalradian Supergroup southeast of the Great Glen Fault is entirely Grampian. These differences are consistent with published tectonic models that invoke a minimum of 700 km of post-Scandian sinistral displacements across the Great Glen Fault to juxtapose the Grampian and Northern Highland terranes.


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