Inductive source EM sounding of the Sudbury Structure

The 1992 Lithoprobe Abitibi–Grenville Seismic Refraction Experiment was conducted using four profiles across the Grenville and Superior provinces of the southeastern Canadian Shield. Delay-time analysis and tomographic inversion of the data set demonstrate significant lateral and vertical variations in crustal velocities from one terrane to another, with the largest velocity values occurring underneath the Central Gneiss and the Central Metasedimentary belts south of the Grenville Front. The Grenville Front Tectonic Zone is imaged as a southeast-dipping region of anomalous velocity gradients extending to the Moho. The velocity-anomaly maps suggest an Archean crust may extend, horizontally, 140 km beneath the northern Grenville Province. Near-surface velocity anomalies correlate well with the known geology. The most prominent of these is the Sudbury Structure, which is well mapped as a low-velocity basinal structure. The tomography images also suggest underthrusting of the Pontiac and Quetico subprovinces beneath the Abitibi Greenstone Belt. Wide-angle PmP signals, indicate that the Moho varies from a sharp discontinuity south of the Grenville Front to a rather diffuse and flat boundary under the Abitibi Greenstone Belt north of the Grenville Front. A significant crustal thinning near the Grenville Front may indicate post-Grenvillian rebound and (or) the extensional structure of the Ottawa–Bonnechere graben. Crustal thickening resulting from continental collision may explain the tomographic images showing the Moho is 4–5 km deeper south of the Grenville Front.

Download Full-text

Sudbury Basin Sediments and the Meteoritic Impact Theory of Origin for the Sudbury Structure

Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences ◽

10.1139/e75-056 ◽

1975 ◽

Vol 12 (4) ◽

pp. 629-635 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

F. W. Beales ◽

G. P. Lozej

Keyword(s):

Marine Environment ◽

Large Impact ◽

Bottom Current ◽

Meteoritic Impact ◽

Basin Structure ◽

Sea Bottom ◽

Sudbury Structure ◽

Impact Theory ◽

Current Circulation

The Whitewater Group preserved within the Sudbury Basin structure conforms to a logical succession of beds to be expected for sediments accumulated in a large impact-generated crater. The lowest beds of the Group, the lower Onaping Formation, represent impact-generated breccia and fall-back material, the upper Onaping Formation and the overlying Onwatin Slates represent the restricted crater series, while the succeeding Chelmsford Sandstone represents an open marine turbidite sequence. The turbidites swept across the area at a time when the crater rim was no longer influencing sea bottom current circulation. The apparent anomaly of the occurrence of sediments deposited in an extensive marine environment and presently only found within the Sudbury Basin is attributed to preferential preservation, due to compaction-generated subsidence over the crater and impact-fractured area.

Download Full-text