Tectonic and thermal history of the Anialik River area, northwestern Slave Province, Canada

1999 ◽  
Vol 36 (7) ◽  
pp. 1207-1226 ◽  
Author(s):  
C Relf ◽  
H A Sandeman ◽  
M E Villeneuve

The Anialik River area in the northwestern Slave Province comprises two geological domains of different age and origin that were tectonically juxtaposed at ca. 2650 Ma. The older domain, the Kangguyak gneiss belt, comprises ca. 3300-2700 Ma orthogneisses and paragneisses, interpreted as the remnants of a Mesoarchean continental margin. The younger domain, the Anialik River greenstone belt, consists of ca. 2680 Ma mafic to felsic volcanic rocks interpreted to have formed in an ensimatic island-arc setting. Structural and geochronological evidence suggest collision of the two domains began around 2650 Ma in a transpressive regime that involved oblique (sinistral) subduction of the greenstone belt beneath the Kangguyak domain along the Tokhokatak shear zone. Displacement continued until at least ca. 2600 Ma, when late, two-mica granites intruded along and were deformed in the shear zone. Following ca. 2600 Ma, rocks in both domains and along the fault cooled rapidly to about 350°C. Strongly overprinted muscovite spectra and the young ages for biotite throughout the region imply that a thermal event reset all biotites (but not muscovite) at ca. 2000-1900 Ma, possibly associated with crustal thickening associated with Wopmay (Calderian) orogenesis. The tectonic history of the Anialik River area is significantly different from that documented in the south-central part of the Slave Province, suggesting the Kangguyak domain is a distinct fragment of continental crust that accreted independently from continental crust in the southern Slave Province.

1999 ◽  
Vol 36 (7) ◽  
pp. 1149-1168 ◽  
Author(s):  
S J Pehrsson ◽  
M E Villeneuve

New U-Pb age data from the southwestern Slave Province demonstrate that units of the Indin Lake supracrustal belt form an imbricated structural stack. The oldest rocks of the belt are undated mafic volcanic flows of the Hewitt Lake group that are crosscut by a 2670 Ma felsic sill, itself coeval with mafic through felsic volcanic rocks of the 2668-2671 Ma Leta Arm group. The youngest rocks of the belt are 2647-2629 Ma turbidites and felsic volcanic rocks of the unconformably overlying Chalco Lake group. Tonalite orthogneiss of the adjacent Cotterill gneiss complex is 2680 Ma, suggesting that it does not represent in situ basement to the supracrustal belt. Intercalation of the older Hewitt Lake and Leta Arm groups with the younger Chalco Lake group is interpreted to result from D1 imbrication and folding between 2629 and 2609 Ma, the age of a crosscutting tonalite intrusion. Subsequent D2 folding and regional low-pressure metamorphism occurred between 2609 Ma and ca. 2590 Ma. D3 normal faulting between the belt and Cotterill gneisses, ca. 2590 Ma, is interpreted to overlap with retrograde amphibolite-facies metamorphism and decompression of the gneiss complex. Comparisons between the tectonic history of the Indin Lake area and the central Slave Province show that turbidite deposition was regionally diachronous and overlapped with regional deformation elsewhere, supporting existing models favouring some form of accretionary orogenesis. The imbricated and intercalated 2670-2629 Ma supracrustal sequence may characterize a distinct crustal block in the southwestern Slave Province.


2002 ◽  
Vol 39 (11) ◽  
pp. 1635-1656 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Cousens ◽  
Kathy Facey ◽  
Hendrik Falck

This study investigates the geochemistry and tectonic setting of the 2.66 Ga Banting Group, the younger sequence of volcanic rocks in the Yellowknife greenstone belt, and its relationship to older tholeiitic volcanic rocks of the 2.72–2.70 Ga Kam Group. The Banting Group includes a much higher proportion of felsic volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks than the Kam Group, but mafic to intermediate volcanic rocks are common. Banting basalts are tholeiitic and are melts of Archean depleted upper mantle, as are basalts of the Kam Group. In contrast, Banting dacites and rhyolites have much lower heavy rare earth element abundances and generally have higher initial 143Nd/144Nd than Kam felsic rocks. The chemistry of the felsic rocks provides a geochemical signature to distinguish rocks of Kam versus Banting age where complex structures have obscured the stratigraphy. Whereas Kam felsic rocks evolved from mafic parents by assimilation – fractional crystallization processes, Banting felsic rocks have compositions similar to Archean tonalite–trondhjemite–dacite suites, as well as modern adakites, and appear to be melts of juvenile, garnet-bearing, hydrated mafic crust, possibly underplated Kam basalts. The nearby 2.66 Ga felsic complex at Clan Lake mimics the geochemical systematics of the Banting Group, and thus Banting-like rocks may reflect a regional crustal melting event at this time.


2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (9) ◽  
pp. 1063-1078 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle J. Markley ◽  
Steven R. Dunn ◽  
Michael J. Jercinovic ◽  
William H. Peck ◽  
Michael L. Williams

The Central Metasedimentary Belt boundary zone (CMBbz) is a crustal-scale shear zone that juxtaposes the Central Gneiss Belt and the Central Metasedimentary Belt of the Grenville Province. Geochronological work on the timing of deformation and metamorphism in the CMBbz is ambiguous, and the questions that motivate our study are: how many episodes of shear zone activity did the CMBbz experience, and what is the tectonic significance of each episode? We present electron microprobe data from monazite (the U–Th–Pb chemical method) to directly date deformation and metamorphism recorded in five garnet–biotite gneiss samples collected from three localities of the CMBbz of Ontario (West Guilford, Fishtail Lake, and Killaloe). All three localities yield youngest monazite dates ca. 1045 Ma; most of the monazite domains that yield these dates are high-Y rims. In comparison with this common late Ottawan history, the earlier history of the three CMBbz localities is less clearly shared. The West Guilford samples have monazite grain cores that show older high-Y domains and younger low-Y domains; these cores yield a prograde early Ottawan (1100–1075 Ma) history. The Killaloe samples yield a well-defined prograde, pre- to early Shawinigan history (i.e., 1220–1160 Ma) in addition to some evidence for a second early Ottawan event. In other words, the answers to our research questions are: three events; a Shawinigan event possibly associated with crustal thickening, an Ottawan event possibly associated with another round of crustal thickening, and a late Ottawan event that resists simple interpretation in terms of metamorphic history but that coincides chronologically with crustal thinning at the base of an orogenic lid.


1992 ◽  
Vol 29 (7) ◽  
pp. 1448-1458 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. R. Laflèche ◽  
C. Dupuy ◽  
J. Dostal

The late Archean Blake River Group volcanic sequence forms the uppermost part of the southern Abitibi greenstone belt in Quebec. The group is mainly composed of mid-ocean-ridge basalt (MORB)-like tholeiites that show a progressive change of several incompatible trace element ratios (e.g., Nb/Th, Nb/Ta, La/Yb, and Zr/Y) during differentiation. The compositional variations are inferred to be the result of fractional crystallization coupled with mixing–contamination of tholeiites by calc-alkaline magma which produced the mafic–intermediate lavas intercalated with the tholeiites in the uppermost part of the sequence. The MORB-like tholeiites were probably emplaced in a back-arc setting.


2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-186
Author(s):  
A. B. Vrevskii

The paper reports new data on the composition and age of the Neoarchean calc-alkaline volcanic rocks of the Uraguba–Kolmozero–Voron’ya greenstone belt (UKV GB). Petrological-geochemical modeling indicates a polygenetic origin of primary melts of the basalt–andesite–dacite association and non-subduction geodynamic mechanisms for the crustal growth in the largest greenstone belt of the Kola–Norwegian Block of the Fennoscandian shield.


1991 ◽  
Vol 128 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. R. Dunning ◽  
H. S. Swinden ◽  
B. F. Kean ◽  
D. T. W. Evans ◽  
G. A. Jenner

AbstractThe Lake Ambrose volcanic belt (LAVB) outcrops as a 45 km long northeast-trending belt of mafic and felsic volcanic rocks along the eastern side of the Victoria Lake Group in south-central Newfoundland. It comprises roughly equal proportions of mafic pillow basalt and high silica rhyolite, locally interbedded with epiclastic turbidites. Volcanic rocks have been metamorphosed in the greenschist facies and are extensively carbonatized.U-Pb (zircon) dates from rhyolite at two, widely separated localities give identical ages of 513 ± 2 Ma (Upper Cambrian), and this is interpreted as the eruptive age of the volcanic sequence. Primitive arc and low-K tholeiites can be recognized on the basis of major and trace element geochemistry, ranging from LREE-depleted to LREE-enriched. Geochemical variation between mafic volcanic types is interpreted predominantly to reflect contrasts in source characteristics and degree of partial melting; some variation within each geochemical type attributable to fractional crystallization can be recognized. Detailed examination of some samples indicates that the heavy REE and related elements have locally been mobile, probably as a result of carbonate complexing.The LAVB is the oldest well-dated island arc sequence in Newfoundland, and perhaps in the Appalachian–Caledonian Orogen. Its age requires modification of widely held models for the tectonic history of central Newfoundland. It is older than the oldest known ophiolite, demonstrating that arc volcanism was extant before the generation of the oldest known oceanic crust in this part of Iapetus. It further demonstrates that there was a maximum of approximately 30 Ma between the rift-drift transition which initiated Iapetus, and the initiation of subduction. This suggests that the oceanic sequences preserved in Newfoundland represent a series of arcs and back arc basins marginal to the main Iapetus Ocean, and brings into question whether the Appalachian accreted terranes contain any remnants of normal mid-ocean ridge type Iapetan crust.


1986 ◽  
Vol 123 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Ludden ◽  
Claude Hubert ◽  
Clement Gariépy

AbstractBased on structural, geochemical, sedimentological and geochronological studies, we have formulated a model for the evolution of the late Archaean Abitibi greenstone belt of the Superior Province of Canada. The southern volcanic zone (SVZ) of the belt is dominated by komatiitic to tholeiitic volcanic plateaux and large, bimodal, mafic-felsic volcanic centres. These volcanic rocks were erupted between approximately 2710 Ma and 2700 Ma in a series of rift basins formed as a result of wrench-fault tectonics.The SVZ superimposes an older volcanic terrane which is characterized in the northern volcanic zone (NVZ) of the Abitibi belt and is approximately 2720 Ma or older. The NVZ comprises basaltic to andesitic and dacitic subaqueous massive volcanics which are cored by comagmatic sill complexes and layered mafic-anorthositic plutonic complexes. These volcanics are overlain by felsic pyroclastic rocks that were comagmatic with the emplacement of tonalitic plutons at 2717 ±2 Ma.The tectonic model envisages the SVZ to have formed in a series of rift basins which dissected an earlier formed volcanic arc (the NVZ). Analogous rift environments have been postulated for the Hokuroko basin of Japan, the Taupo volcanic zone of New Zealand and the Sumatra and Nicaragua arcs. The difference between rift related ‘submergent’ volcanism in the SVZ and ‘emergent’ volcanism in the NVZ resulted in the contrasting metallogenic styles, the former being characterized by syngenetic massive sulphide deposits, whilst the latter was dominated by epigenetic ‘porphyry-type’ Cu(Au) deposits.


1999 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 605-625 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia L Peterson ◽  
Eva Zaleski

Structural analysis of the Manitouwadge greenstone belt, integrated with detailed mapping and geochronological and petrographic studies, reveals a complex early deformation history that significantly modified the primary distribution of base-metal deposits and alteration zones. The (D3) Manitouwadge synform dominates the map pattern; however, penetrative fabric development and establishment of the tectono-stratigraphy of base-metal deposits mostly predated D3. The D1 Garnet Lake fault, which repeats mineralized horizons within a distinctive lithological sequence, is delineated locally by annealed mylonite. D1 planar fabrics are preserved locally in outcrop and thin section. D2 folding accompanied peak regional metamorphism at upper amphibolite facies. The F2 Agam Lake syncline repeats the volcanic sequence across the southern limb of the Manitouwadge synform. A map-scale F2 sheath fold deforms the Garnet Lake fault. Minor D2 structures include prevalent outcrop-scale folds, locally with sheath geometry, the dominant S2 foliation, and mineral lineations (parallel to fold axes). Northwest-southeast-directed D3 shortening produced the Manitouwadge synform and related regional folds without extensive penetrative fabric development. Flexural slip folding is evident in the inner hinge of the synform where rocks of differing competency are interlayered. Higher strain, stronger fabric development, and a component of simple shear were preferentially partitioned to fold limbs. Relative pre-D3 structural geometries in the inner hinge region of the Manitouwadge synform are not significantly complicated by D3 and younger deformation. Retrodeformation of the mineralized sequence shows systematic stratigraphic patterns in iron formation types, stacked massive sulphide orebodies, and alteration types that can be applied to exploration models.


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