Geophysical reassessment of the role of ancient lineaments on the development of the western Laurentian margin and its sediment-hosted Zn-Pb deposits, Yukon and NWT, Canada

A new 3-D inversion strategy is applied to new compilations of gravity and magnetic data, to reassess the role of crustal lineaments in the development of the western Laurentian margin, Selwyn basin and associated sediment-hosted Zn-Pb deposits. The region’s history is obscured by multiple tectonic overprints including terrane accretion, plutonism, and thrust faulting. Regionally continuous, broadly NE-trending crustal lineaments including the Liard line, Fort Norman structure, and Leith Ridge fault, were interpreted as having had long-standing influence on craton, margin, and sedimentary basin development. An ENE-trending lineament, Mackenzie River, traced from the Misty Creek Embayment to Great Bear Lake, is interpreted as the southern edge of a cratonic promontory. The location of the Liard line, associated with a transfer fault that bounds the Macdonald Platform promontory, is refined. New geophysical results support the continuity of the Fort Norman structure below the Selwyn basin, but limited evidence exists for the Leith Ridge fault in this area. A NW-trending lineament that bounds the craton is interpreted as a crustal manifestation of lithospheric thinning of the Laurentian margin, as echoed by a change in the depth of the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary. The structure delimits the eastern extent of mid-Late Cretaceous granitic intrusions and is straddled by Mississippi Valley-type Zn-Pb occurrences, following their palinspastic restoration. Clastic-dominated Zn-Pb occurrences are aligned along another NW-trending lineament interpreted to be associated with a shallowing of lower crustal rocks.

Zircons to the front: accretionary history of the Rheno-Hercynian active margin (Variscides, Germany)

Our paper reports the detrital zircon record from Late Devonian to late Carboniferous foreland basin deposits in the Rheno-Hercynian (RH) Variscides of Germany. Together with a review of petrography and detrital mineral ages from the literature, the data permit to reconstruct accretion and exhumation along the RH active margin. From Frasnian to latest Carboniferous, the main source (now eroded) was a north-Armorican microcontinent (Franconia) with magmatic rocks representing late Neoproterozoic arc or back-arc, Cambro-Ordovician rift and Silurian–Early Devonian subduction of the Rheic ocean and (or) RH rifting. At ca. 380 Ma, detrital magmatic zircons combined with high- to medium-pressure mica and detrital glaucophane suggest the existence of a paired metamorphic belt at the RH tectonic front. From the Viséan onwards, zircons reveal younging of granitoid debris from ca. 380–360 Ma in Late Devonian sediments to ca. 320–300 Ma in the Westphalian C–D and Stephanian. Greywackes of the Namurian A record a change from dominant magmatic clasts toward meta-arenites associated with Baltoscandian zircons, which document accretion to and exhumation from the base of the orogenic wedge. Their source must be sought in metamorphosed Devonian sandstones of the type presently encountered in parts of the active margin crystallines (Mid-German Crystalline High), but in eroded higher units. Basal accretion implies heating of the lower plate beyond the brittle–ductile boundary and supports the model of a high-temperature regime before and during Variscan collision. Palinspastic restoration of the estimated volume of recycled material yields >100 km of distal shelf deposits lost in the process, which adds to the known shortening of the RH basin. The Variscan geology of southwestern England and southern Portugal and provenance studies in those areas are compatible with a geodynamic evolution similar to that in Germany.

Palinspastic restoration of an exhumed deepwater system: A workflow to improve paleogeographic reconstructions

The Permian Laingsburg depocenter, Karoo Basin, South Africa, is the focus of sedimentological and stratigraphic research as an exhumed analog for offshore hydrocarbon reservoirs in deepwater basins. Thin-skinned thrust tectonics during the Permo-Triassic Cape Orogeny result in postdepositional deformation of the Permian basin fill. Regional-scale cross sections reveal two structural domains: a southern domain in the Laingsburg depocenter comprising 8–11-km wavelength north-verging fault-propagation folding, driven by buried low-angle ([Formula: see text]) reverse faults that coalesce at depth as part of a megadetachment below the Lower Paleozoic Cape Supergroup; and a northern domain to the north of the Laingsburg depocenter of short-wavelength, low-amplitude, asymmetrical folding facilitated by a detachment within the Permian Ecca Group. Five detailed structural cross sections permit the palinspastic restoration, and a calculation of the amount of shortening, across a [Formula: see text] area in the Laingsburg depocenter. Average shortening across the study area is −16.9% (5.8 km), and it decreases south to north. Shortening estimates from the Upper Ecca Group increase from 4.3 km near Matjiesfontein in the west to 10.4 km near Prince Albert in the east. Three-dimensional restorations of stratigraphic surfaces are consistent with these figures (−17%), and they allow paleogeographic and isopach thickness maps to be resorted to their configuration at the time of deposition. Structural restoration can be routinely used in outcrop studies to improve the accuracy of dimensions (e.g., volumetrics) and reconstructions (e.g., sediment dispersal patterns) derived from ancient sedimentary systems. The workflow presented here will add value to exhumed basin analogs by presenting prekinematic configurations at the frontal margins of fold-thrust belts.

Deep transverse basement structural control of mineral systems in the southeastern Canadian Cordillera1Geological Survey of Canada Contribution 20110294.

Intermittent reactivation of deep Paleoproterozoic- and Archean-aged transverse structures in the North American cratonic basement beneath the southeastern Canadian Cordillera exerted an important influence on the subsequent sedimentary, intrusive, deformation, and mineralization history. Two regional crossbelt transverse structural corridors recognized by recurrent episodic changes in sediment thickness and facies, and anomalous transverse structural trends, occur within the thrust and fold belt. Palinspastic restoration of the exposed transported structural corridors showed that the northern and southern structural corridors are cover expressions of the Red Deer zone and Vulcan Low structures in the cratonic basement, respectively. Transverse basement-controlled structural corridors enhanced the mineral potential and mineralization systems along them by localization of sedimentary facies favourable for mineralization, hydrothermal flow, intrusions, and favourable structures for mineralization. Greatest enhancement of hydrothermal flow and mineralization occurred near the intersection of basin-parallel and transverse structures. Greater opportunity for mineralization and intrusion occurred not only along the exposed corridors, but also in the west, above their undeformed “root” in the basement. The processes that intensified mineralization and localized intrusions along transverse basement-controlled structural corridors in the southeastern Canadian Cordillera should have occurred in thrust and fold belts elsewhere. The niobium-bearing Aley carbonatite complex in the eastern Cordillera of northeastern British Columbia may be an example of this.