The Pre-Grenvillian assembly of the southeastern Laurentian margin through the U–Pb–Hf detrital zircon record of Mesoproterozoic supracrustal sequences (Central Grenville Province, Quebec, Canada)

The detrital zircon perspective on the pre-collisional crustal evolution of the Grenville Province remains poorly explored. In this study, we conducted in situ laser ablation U–Pb–Hf isotopic microanalysis on detrital zircon grains from three pre-orogenic (>1 Ga) supracrustal sequences that crop out in the Central Grenville Province (Lac Saint-Jean region, QC, CA). Detrital zircon grains from vestiges of these sequences record three dominant age peaks at c. 1.46 Ga, 1.62 Ga, 1.85 Ga, and a subordinate peak at 2.7 Ga. The 1.46 Ga and 1.62 Ga age peaks are recorded in detrital zircon grains from a quartzite associated with a metavolcanic sequence (i.e. Montauban Group) with a maximum depositional age of c. 1.44 Ga. In contrast, the c.1.85 Ga age peak is observed from recycled zircon grains in metasediments with maximum depositional ages between 1.2 and 1.3 Ga. The suprachondritic Hf isotope composition in detrital zircon grains of the 1.46 Ga and 1.62 Ga age populations records juvenile crustal growth during peri-Laurentian accretionary orogenesis related to the Pinwarian (1.4–1.5 Ga) and Mazatzalian–Labradorian (1.6–1.7 Ga) events. The detrital zircon grains associated with Penokean–Makkovikian (1.8–1.9 Ga) source rocks record reworking of c. 2.7 Ga continental crust derived from a near-chondritic mantle reservoir. Overall, crust-forming and basement reworking events associated with accretionary orogenesis in southeastern Laurentia are retained in the detrital zircon load of Precambrian basins even after the terminal Grenvillian collision and assembly of Rodinia.

Concurrent MORB-type and ultrapotassic volcanism in an extensional basin along the Laurentian Iapetus margin: Tectonomagmatic response to Ordovician arc-continent collision and subduction polarity flip

Arc-continent collision, followed by subduction polarity flip, occurs during closure of oceanic basins and contributes to the growth of continental crust. Such a setting may lead to a highly unusual association of ultrapotassic and mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB)-type volcanic rocks as documented here from an Ordovician succession of the Scandinavian Caledonides. Interbedded with deep-marine turbidites, pillow basalts evolve from depleted-MORB (εNdt 9.4) to enriched-MORB (εNdt 4.8) stratigraphically upward, reflecting increasingly deeper melting of asthenospheric mantle. Intercalated intermediate to felsic lava and pyroclastic units, dated at ca. 474−469 Ma, are extremely enriched in incompatible trace elements (e.g., Th) and have low εNdt (−8.0 to −6.6) and high Sri (0.7089−0.7175). These are interpreted as ultrapotassic magmas derived from lithospheric mantle domains metasomatized by late Paleoproterozoic to Neoproterozoic crust-derived material (isotopic model ages 1.7−1.3 Ga). Detrital zircon spectra reveal a composite source for the interbedded turbidites, including Archean, Paleo-, to Neoproterozoic, and Cambro-Ordovician elements; clasts of Hølonda Porphyrite provide a link to the Hølonda terrane of Laurentian affinity. The entire volcano-sedimentary succession is interpreted to have formed in a rift basin that opened along the Laurentian margin as a result of slab rollback subsequent to arc-continent collision, ophiolite obduction and subduction polarity flip. The association of MORBs and ultrapotassic rocks is apparently a unique feature along the Caledonian-Appalachian orogen. Near-analogous modern settings include northern Taiwan and the Tyrrhenian region of the Mediterranean, but other examples of strictly concurrent MORB and ultrapotassic volcanism remain to be documented.

Tracking 40 Million Years of Migrating Magmatism across the Idaho Batholith Using Zircon U-Pb Ages and Hf Isotopes from Cretaceous Bentonites

Cretaceous strata preserved in Wyoming contain numerous large bentonite deposits formed from the felsic ash of volcanic eruptions, mainly derived from Idaho batholith magmatism. These bentonites preserve a near-continuous 40 m.y. chronology of volcanism and their whole-rock and mineral chemistry has been used to document igneous processes and reconstruct the history of Idaho magmatism as emplacement migrated across the Laurentian margin. Using LA-ICP-MS, we analyzed the U-Pb ages and Hf isotopic compositions of nearly 700 zircon grains from 44 bentonite beds from the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming. Zircon populations contain magmatic autocrysts and antecrysts which can be linked to the main pulses of the Idaho batholith and xenocrysts ranging from approx. 250 Ma to 1.84 Ga from country rocks and basement source terranes. Initial εHf compositions of Phanerozoic zircons are diverse, with compositions ranging from −26 to nearly +12. Based on temporal trends in zircon ages and geochemistry, four distinct periods of plutonic emplacement are recognized during the Mid- to Late Cretaceous that follow plutonic emplacement across the Laurentian suture zone in western Idaho and into western Montana with the onset of Farallon slab shallowing. Our data demonstrate the utility of using zircons in preserved tephra to track the regional-scale evolution of convergent margins related to terrane accretion and the spatial migration of magmatism related to changes in subduction dynamics.

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.

Structural, petrological, and tectonic constraints on the Loch Borralan and Loch Ailsh alkaline intrusions, Moine thrust zone, northwestern Scotland

During the Caledonian orogeny, the Moine thrust zone in northwestern Scotland (UK) emplaced Neoproterozoic Moine Supergroup rocks, metamorphosed during the Ordovician (Grampian) and Silurian (Scandian) orogenic periods, westward over the Laurentian passive margin in the northern highlands of Scotland. The Laurentian margin comprises Archean–Paleoproterozoic granulite and amphibolite facies basement (Scourian and Laxfordian complexes, Lewisian gneiss), Proterozoic sedimentary rocks (Stoer and Torridon Groups), and Cambrian–Ordovician passive-margin sediments. Four major thrusts, the Moine, Ben More, Glencoul, and Sole thrusts, are well exposed in the Assynt window. Two highly alkaline syenite intrusions crop out within the Moine thrust zone in the southern Assynt window. The Loch Ailsh and Loch Borralan intrusions range from ultramafic melanite-biotite pyroxenite and pseudoleucite-bearing biotite nepheline syenite (borolanite) to alkali-feldspar–bearing and quartz-bearing syenites. Within the thrust zone, syenites intrude up to the Ordovician Durness Group limestones and dolomites, forming a high-temperature contact metamorphic aureole with diopside-forsterite-phlogopite-brucite marbles exposed at Ledbeg quarry. Controversy remains as to whether the Loch Ailsh and Loch Borralan syenites were intruded prior to thrusting or intruded syn- or post-thrusting. Borolanites contain large white leucite crystals pseudomorphed by alkali feldspar, muscovite, and nepheline (pseudoleucite) that have been flattened and elongated during ductile shearing. The minerals pseudomorphing leucites show signs of ductile deformation indicating that high-temperature (~500 °C) deformation acted upon pseudomorphed leucite crystals that had previously undergone subsolidus breakdown. New detailed field mapping and structural and petrological observations are used to constrain the geological evolution of both the Loch Ailsh and the Loch Borralan intrusions and the chronology of the Moine thrust zone. The data supports the interpretation that both syenite bodies were intruded immediately prior to thrusting along the Moine, Ben More, and Borralan thrusts.

A Lower Devonian age for the Corvock Granite and its significance for the structural history of South Mayo and the Laurentian margin of western Ireland

The Silurian Croagh Patrick succession, which crops out just south of a fundamental Caledonian structural zone near Clew Bay, western Ireland, is a series of psammites and pelites with a strong penetrative cleavage. These rocks are intruded by the Corvock granite. A suite of minor intrusions associated with the granite contains the regional cleavage whereas the Corvock granite is undeformed. New U-Pb dates are 413 + 7 / -4 Ma for a strongly cleaved sill and 410 ± 4 Ma for the main granite and closely constrain the age of crystallization of the granite and coeval cleavage formation as Lower Devonian (Lochkovian or Pragian), implying syn- to late-kinematic granite emplacement. These data are consistent with evidence for strong sinistral shear shown by the Ox Mountains granodiorite just to the north-east dated at 412.3 ± 0.8 Ma. This Devonian cleavage is superimposed on Ordovician rocks of the South Mayo Trough. The localisation of the strong deformation is interpreted as being due to its position at a restraining bend during regional sinistral motion on a segment of the Fair Head-Clew Bay Line to the north. Contemporaneous deformation in the syn-kinematic Donegal batholith suggests a transfer of sinistral motion to this intra-Grampian structure rather than simple along-strike linkage to the Highland Boundary Fault in Scotland. Our new data indicate diachronous deformation during the late Silurian and early Devonian history of the Irish and Scottish Caledonides and also support previous interpretations of diachronous deformation between these areas and the Appalachian orogens.

Mid-Ordovician subduction, obduction, and eduction in western Newfoundland; an eclogite problem

The narrow, short-lived Taconic-Grampian Orogen occurs along the north-western margin of the Appalachian-Caledonian Belt from, at least, Alabama to Scotland, a result of the collision of a series of early Ordovician oceanic island arcs with the rifted margin of Laurentia. The present distribution of Taconian-Grampian ophiolites is unlikely to represent a single fore-arc from Alabama to Scotland colliding at the same time with the continental margin along its whole length; more likely is that there were several Ordovician arcs with separate ophiolites. The collision suture is at the thrust base of obducted fore-arc ophiolite complexes, and obduction distance was about two hundred kilometres. Footwalls to the ophiolites are, sequentially towards the continent, continental margin rift sediments and volcanics and overlying rise sediments, continental shelf slope carbonates, and sediments of foreland flexural basins. The regionally-flat obduction thrust complex between the ophiolite and the rifted Laurentian margin is the collision suture between arc and continent. A particular problem in drawing tectonic profiles across the Taconic-Grampian Zone is several orogen-parallel major strike-slip faults, both sinistral and dextral, of unknown displacements, which may juxtapose portions of different segments. In western Newfoundland, most of the Grenville basement beneath the Fleur-de-Lys metamorphic complex (Neoproterozoic to early Ordovician meta-sediments) was eclogitised during the Taconic Orogeny and separated by a massive shear zone from the overlying Fleur-de-Lys, which was metamorphosed at the same time but in the amphibolite facies. The shear zone continued either to a distal intracontinental “subduction zone” or to the main, sub-fore-arc, subduction zone beneath which the basement slipped down to depths of up to seventy kilometres at the same time as the ophiolite sheet and its previously-subcreted metamorphic sole were being obducted above. Subsequently, the eclogitised basement was returned to contact with the amphibolite-facies cover by extensional detachment eduction, possibly enhanced by subduction channel flow, which may have been caused by slab break-off and extension during subduction polarity flip. Although the basal ophiolite obduction thrust complex and the Fleur-de-Lys-basement subduction-eduction surfaces must have been initially gently-dipping to sub-horizontal, they were folded and broken by thrusts during late Taconian, late Ordovician Salinic-Mayoian, and Acadian shortening.