Geometry and kinematics of a major crustal shear zone segment in the Appalachians of southern New Brunswick

1994 ◽  
Vol 31 (10) ◽  
pp. 1523-1535 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian F. Park ◽  
Paul F. Williams ◽  
Steven Ralser ◽  
Albert Léger

In southern New Brunswick the Kennebecasis Fault follows the northern boundary of a crystalline portion of the late Precambrian – Cambrian Avalon terrane. This low-grade crystalline complex forms the basement to a series of Carboniferous through Triassic basins. This complex also contains a major shear zone relic that is largely flat lying but upturned adjacent to the fault, and that with it defines the Pocologan–Kennebecasis fault zone. The orientation of the main composite foliation (S1) and the included mineral (stretching) lineation (L1) indicate that this geometry is a primary feature of the shear zone, representing a linked pair of horizontal and vertical detachments bounding an allochthonous unit. Kinematic indicators show that this allochthon moved parallel to the strike of the north Appalachian orogen, with top towards the west or west-southwest. The bounding shear zone is not uniform, but consists of a mylonite–phyllonite adjacent to the detachment. The upturned segment of the shear zone has been the site of later, brittle reactivation, one episode of which is represented by the Kennebecasis Fault. The main shear zone relic relates to more fundamental events, such as the accretion of the Avalon terrane.

1990 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 590-604 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. Henderson ◽  
J. Broome

The Wager shear zone (WSZ) is characterized by progressive bending of northeast–southwest-trending aeromagnetic anomalies to the right as they merge with east–west-trending anomalies characterizing the shear zone. This feature indicates dextral net shear. Mapping of abundant and diverse asymmetrical structural fabric elements within the shear zone where it is well exposed along the south coast of Wager Bay, northwestern Hudson Bay, consistently confirmed dextral shear sense.Pervasive, dextral shear-zone mylonites were deformed by folds with hinges parallel to the shear direction (a folds), as well as by discrete, conjugate sinistral and dextral mylonitic shears. To form a folds in mylonites it is necessary for the mylonitic fabric to rotate out of a stable orientation in the plane of shear and flattening and also to rotate about an axis parallel to the shear direction, for which we have no general explanation.We conclude with the speculation that the WSZ is a strike-slip fault related to terminal collision of the Archean plate of Ungava with the Archean plate to the north marked by the 1.8 Ga Sugluk suture.


1990 ◽  
Vol 27 (9) ◽  
pp. 1209-1214 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. D. Dallmeyer ◽  
R. D. Nance

Concentrates of coarse-grained detrital muscovite from the Ratcliffe Brook Formation (lowermost Cambrian) display internally discordant 40Ar/39Ar age spectra. Gas fractions evolved at intermediate and high experimental temperatures record apparent ages of ca. 610–620 Ma. These are interpreted as dating initial cooling through temperatures appropriate for intracrystalline retention of 40Ar and may indicate derivation from mylonite zones developed within proximal late Precambrian granitic rocks. Gas fractions evolved at lower experimental temperatures record patterns of spectra discordance that suggest the constituent grains experienced partial, intracrystalline diffusive loss of 40Ar during a late Paleozoic, low-grade thermal overprint. A muscovite concentrate from pelitic schist beneath the allochthonous, latest Precambrian Cranberry Head granite records a 40Ar/39Ar plateau age of 318 ± 1 Ma. This is interpreted as closely dating Late Carboniferous thrust emplacement of the allochthon.


1992 ◽  
Vol 29 (11) ◽  
pp. 2445-2462 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. David Dallmeyer ◽  
R. Damian Nance

Within the Avalon composite terrane exposed in southern New Brunswick, late Precambrian, low-grade volcanic–sedimentary sequences are juxtaposed against late Precambrian gneisses (Brookville Gneiss) and older platformal metasedimentary rocks (Green Head Group) along the Caledonia Fault. Both assemblages host petrographically similar suites of calc-alkalic dioritic and granodioritic plutons. Those intruding volcanic–sedimentary sequences (Caledonia terrane) record ca. 615–625 Ma crystallization ages typical of arc-related magmatism throughout the Avalon composite terrane. However, 40Ar/39Ar age data from stocks intruding gneisses and platformal metasedimentary rocks (Brookville terrane) suggest significantly younger crystallization ages.36Ar/40Ar versus 39Ar/40Ar isotope correlation ages recorded by hornblende are interpreted to closely date postmagmatic cooling within six plutons: Fairville Granite (547 ± 1 Ma); French Village Quartz Diorite (539 ± 2 and 537 ± 1 Ma); Rockwood Park Granodiorite (529 ± 2 and 523 ± 3.5 Ma); Musquash Granite (526 ± 2 Ma); Milkish Head Granite (Red Bridge pluton, 520 ± 1.5 Ma); Lepreau Diorite (Talbot Road pluton, 519 ± 2 Ma and Hansen Stream pluton, 518 ± 1.5 Ma. A hornblende isotope correlation age of 530 ± 2 Ma from penetratively foliated amphibolite within the French Village Quartz Diorite suggests that the magmatic activity was locally accompanied by ductile shear. Muscovite within granitic pegmatite in the Brookville Gneiss records a 40Ar/39Ar plateau age of 510 ± 1 Ma interpreted to date final phases of associated magmatic activity.Arc-related magmatism extending into the Cambrian contrasts with the characteristic tectono-stratigraphic record in the Avalon composite terrane where late Precambrian igneous rocks are overstepped by Cambrian–Ordovician shallow-marine strata with only a local and minor record of rift-related volcanic activity. Although the Brookville terrane shows affinities with the Avalon composite terrane during the late Precambrian, the 40Ar/39Ar age data suggest that it was isolated as a distinct tectono-stratigraphic element by the Early Cambrian.


1994 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 818-824 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. David Dallmeyer ◽  
R. Damian Nance

Several variably deformed and metamorphosed, late Precambrian volcanic–sedimentary successions have been recognized within the Avalon composite terrane exposed in the Caledonian Highlands of southern New Brunswick. Whole-rock samples of metasedimentary phyllite and phyllitic metatuff from the oldest (ca. 600–635 Ma) Avalonian succession display similar, internally discordant 40Ar/39Ar age and apparent K/Ca spectra. Intermediate-temperature gas fractions were experimentally evolved solely from very fine grained, cleavage-aligned white micas. These yield apparent ages between ca. 430 and 410 Ma, and are interpreted to closely date a static Late Silurian – Early Devonian thermal rejuvenation.Evidence for a Silurian – Devonian thermal event has not been previously documented in Avalonian rocks of the Caledonian Highlands (Caledonia assemblage). However, a thermal overprint of similar age (ca. 400 Ma) is recorded by metamorphic muscovite in high-grade gneisses and platformal metasedimentary rocks (Brookville assemblage), which are in tectonic contact with the low-grade Caledonia assemblage. These potentially correlative thermal overprints may provide minimum age constraints on the juxtaposition of these contrasting tectono-stratigraphic assemblages, which are likely to have been palinspastically separate tectonic elements during the earliest Paleozoic.


2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maren Vormann ◽  
Wilfried Jokat

AbstractThe East African margin between the Somali Basin in the north and the Natal Basin in the south formed as a result of the Jurassic/Cretaceous dispersal of Gondwana. While the initial movements between East and West Gondwana left (oblique) rifted margins behind, the subsequent southward drift of East Gondwana from 157 Ma onwards created a major shear zone, the Davie Fracture Zone (DFZ), along East Africa. To document the structural variability of the DFZ, several deep seismic lines were acquired off northern Mozambique. The profiles clearly indicate the structural changes along the shear zone from an elevated continental block in the south (14°–20°S) to non-elevated basement covered by up to 6-km-thick sediments in the north (9°–13°S). Here, we compile the geological/geophysical knowledge of five profiles along East Africa and interpret them in the context of one of the latest kinematic reconstructions. A pre-rift position of the detached continental sliver of the Davie Ridge between Tanzania/Kenya and southeastern Madagascar fits to this kinematic reconstruction without general changes of the rotation poles.


1972 ◽  
Vol 104 (8) ◽  
pp. 1197-1207 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. F. Morris

AbstractThe number of predators inhabiting nests of Hyphantria cunea Drury was recorded annually for 13 years in four areas in New Brunswick and two areas on the coast of Nova Scotia. The most common groups were the pentatomids and spiders, which sometimes reproduced within the nests, but the mean number per nest was low in relation to the number of H. cunea larvae in the colonies. The rate of predation on fifth-instar larvae was low. Small or timid predators appeared to prey largely on moribund larvae or small saprophagans during the principal defoliating instars of H. cunea.No relationship could be detected between the number of larvae reaching the fifth instar and the number of predators in the colony; nor could any functional or numerical response of the predators to either the initial number of larvae per colony or the population density of colonies be found. It is concluded that the influence of the nest-inhabiting predators is small and relatively stable, and may be treated as a constant in the development of models to explain the population dynamics of H. cunea.H. cunea is a pest in parts of Europe and Asia, where it has been accidentally introduced from North America. The introduction to other continents of the North American predator, Podisus maculiventiis (Say), is discussed briefly.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quanlin Hou ◽  
Hongyuan Zhang ◽  
Qing Liu ◽  
Jun Li ◽  
Yudong Wu

A previous study of the Dabie area has been supposed that a strong extensional event happened between the Yangtze and North China blocks. The entire extensional system is divided into the Northern Dabie metamorphic complex belt and the south extensional tectonic System according to geological and geochemical characteristics in our study. The Xiaotian-Mozitan shear zone in the north boundary of the north system is a thrust detachment, showing upper block sliding to the NNE, with a displacement of more than 56 km. However, in the south system, the shearing direction along the Shuihou-Wuhe and Taihu-Mamiao shear zones is tending towards SSE, whereas that along the Susong-Qingshuihe shear zone tending towards SW, with a displacement of about 12 km. Flinn index results of both the north and south extensional systems indicate that there is a shear mechanism transition from pure to simple, implying that the extensional event in the south tectonic system could be related to a magma intrusion in the Northern Dabie metamorphic complex belt. Two 40Ar-39Ar ages of mylonite rocks in the above mentioned shear zones yielded, separately, ~190 Ma and ~124 Ma, referring to a cooling age of ultrahigh-pressure rocks and an extensional era later.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Aranya Sen ◽  
Koushik Sen ◽  
Amitava Chatterjee ◽  
Shubham Choudhary ◽  
Alosree Dey

Abstract The Himalaya is characterized by the presence of both pre-Himalayan Palaeozoic and syn-Himalayan Cenozoic granitic bodies, which can help unravel the pre- to syn-collisional geodynamics of this orogen. In the Bhagirathi Valley of Western Himalaya, such granites and the Tethyan Himalayan Sequence (THS) hosting them are bound to the south by the top-to-the-N extensional Jhala Normal Fault (JNF) and low-grade metapelite of the THS to its north. The THS is intruded by a set of leucocratic dykes concordant to the JNF. Zircon U–Pb laser ablation multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-MC-ICP-MS) geochronology of the THS and one leucocratic dyke reveals that the two rocks have a strikingly similar age distribution, with a common and most prominent age peak at ~1000 Ma. To the north of the THS lies Bhaironghati Granite, a Palaeozoic two-mica granite, which shows a crystallization age of 512.28 ± 1.58 Ma. Our geochemical analysis indicates that it is a product of pre-Himalayan Palaeozoic magmatism owing to extensional tectonics in a back-arc or rift setting following the assembly of Gondwana (500–530 Ma). The Cenozoic Gangotri Leucogranite lies to the north of Bhaironghati Granite, and U–Pb dating of zircon from this leucogranite gives a crystallization age of 21.73 ± 0.11 Ma. Our geochemical studies suggest that the Gangotri Leucogranite is a product of muscovite-dehydration melting of the lower crust owing to flexural bending in relation to steepening of the subducted Indian plate. The leucocratic dykes are highly refracted parts of the Gangotri Leucogranite that migrated and emplaced along extensional fault zones related to the JNF and scavenged zircon from the host THS during crystallization.


2007 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 441-455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cláudia R. Passarelli ◽  
Miguel A.S. Basei ◽  
Hélcio J. Prazeres-Filho ◽  
Oswaldo Siga-Jr. ◽  
Gergely A.J. Szabó ◽  
...  

The Juréia Massif, southeastern São Paulo State (Brazil), is part of the Registro Domain, limited to the north by the Cubatão-Itariri Shear System and to the south by the Serrinha Shear Zone. Mostly composed of migmatitic granitegneiss rocks, represents a Paleoproterozoic terrane (1.9-2.2 Ga) strongly deformed during the Neoproterozoic (750-580 Ma). The present tectonic scenario was established at the end of the Neoproterozoic, as a result of collages associated with the formation of Western Gondwana. The Ponta da Juréia, our study area within the Juréia Massif, is constituted by paragneisses (garnet-muscovite-biotite gneisses). The monazite U-Pb age of 750 Ma is related to a main regional metamorphic event that reached the high amphibolite facies, recorded in rocks from the Itatins Complex and Cachoeira Sequence as well, which also belongs to the Registro Domain. The paragneissic rocks of this study are affected by the E-W-trending Serrinha Shear Zone, registering a predominantly dextral movement. Biotite K-Ar ages of 482 ± 12 Ma may represent later movements and reflect the younger ages of reactivation of the major lineaments and juxtaposition of the tectonic blocks involved.


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