Geology of the Caribou Deposit, Bathurst, New Brunswick

1971 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 1125-1136 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. E. Roscoe

The Caribou deposit occurs in a mixed volcanic–sedimentary zone which is transitional between graphitic argillite and silicic tuffaceous rocks. The silicic tuffaceous rocks form the core, and the graphitic argillite the outside, of the steeply plunging Caribou synform.The Ore Zone Unit consists of the volcanic–sedimentary transition zone and the sulfides. The Caribou deposit consists of three or more en echelon lenses of pyrite – sphalerite – galena – chalcopyrite and footwall disseminated sulfides. Sulfide zoning in the deposit indicates that the stratigraphic top is towards the silicic volcanic rocks. The deposit has a galena–sphalerite zone on the silicic volcanic side and the hangingwall contact is sharp. There is a chalcopyrite-rich zone on the sedimentary side and the contact is indistinct. Very fine spheres, cubes, and framboids of pyrite in both the deposit and the sedimentary wallrocks, as well as pyrite colloform structures in the deposit, appear to be relict primary or diagenetic structures.All the rocks, including the sulfides, have been regionally metamorphosed to lower greenschist facies and contain a pervasive slaty cleavage or schistosity, which is the earliest imprint of structural deformation. Pyrite, sphalerite, galena, chalcopyrite, arsenopyrite, quartz, stilpnomelane, and sericite are in a granoblastic intergrowth typical of metamorphosed sulfides. This early structural deformation has fractured and granulated pyrite and, to a limited extent, sphalerite; and chalcopyrite, galena, and sphalerite flowed plastically. The early slaty cleavage or schistosity has been deformed by minor structures and folded into the Caribou synform.Many features of the Caribou deposit and similarities to other volcanic-associated stratiform base metal deposits indicate a syngenetic origin involving submarine deposition of sulfides derived from volcanic, exhalative, hydrothermal solutions and possibly as pyroclastic debris.

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 241-270
Author(s):  
Kyle L. Schusler ◽  
David M. Pearson ◽  
Michael McCurry ◽  
Roy C. Bartholomay ◽  
Mark H. Anders

The eastern Snake River Plain (ESRP) is a northeast-trending topographic basin interpreted to be the result of the time-transgressive track of the North American plate above the Yellowstone hotspot. The track is defined by the age progression of silicic volcanic rocks exposed along the margins of the ESRP. However, the bulk of these silicic rocks are buried under 1 to 3 kilometers of younger basalts. Here, silicic volcanic rocks recovered from boreholes that penetrate below the basalts, including INEL-1, WO-2 and new deep borehole USGS-142, are correlated with one another and to surface exposures to assess various models for ESRP subsidence. These correlations are established on U/Pb zircon and 40Ar/39Ar sanidine age determinations, phenocryst assemblages, major and trace element geochemistry, δ18O isotopic data from selected phenocrysts, and initial εHf values of zircon. These data suggest a correlation of: (1) the newly documented 8.1 ± 0.2 Ma rhyolite of Butte Quarry (sample 17KS03), exposed near Arco, Idaho to the upper-most Picabo volcanic field rhyolites found in borehole INEL-1; (2) the 6.73 ± 0.02 Ma East Arco Hills rhyolite (sample 16KS02) to the Blacktail Creek Tuff, which was also encountered at the bottom of borehole WO-2; and (3) the 6.42 ± 0.07 Ma rhyolite of borehole USGS-142 to the Walcott Tuff B encountered in deep borehole WO-2. These results show that rhyolites found along the western margin of the ESRP dip ~20º south-southeast toward the basin axis, and then gradually tilt less steeply in the subsurface as the axis is approached. This subsurface pattern of tilting is consistent with a previously proposed crustal flexural model of subsidence based only on surface exposures, but is inconsistent with subsidence models that require accommodation of ESRP subsidence on either a major normal fault or strike-slip fault.


1972 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Calvert C. Bristol

X-ray powder diffraction methods, successful in quantitative determination of silicate minerals in fine-grained rocks, have been applied to the determination of calcite, dolomite, and magnesite in greenschist facies meta-volcanic rocks. Internal standard graphs employing two standards (NaCl and Mo) have been determined.Carbonate mineral modes (calcite and dolomite) for 6 greenschist facies meta-volcanic rocks obtained by the X-ray powder method have been compared to normative carbonate mineral contents calculated for the same rocks. This comparison showed a maximum variation of 7.7 wt.% between the X-ray modes and the normative carbonate mineral contents of the rocks. Maximum standard deviation for the X-ray modes of these rocks was equivalent to 4.4 wt.%.


1985 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 881-892 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Greenough ◽  
S. R. McCutcheon ◽  
V. S. Papezik

Lower to Middle Cambrian volcanic rocks occur within the Avalon Zone of southern New Brunswick at Beaver Harbour and in the Long Reach area. The Beaver Harbour rocks are intensely altered, but the major- and trace-element geochemistry indicates that they could be highly evolved (basaltic andesites) within-plate basalts. The mafic flows from the Long Reach area form two chemically and petrologically distinct groups: (1) basalts with feldspar phenocrysts that represent evolved continental tholeiites with some oceanic characteristics; and (2) a group of aphyric basalts showing extremely primitive continental tholeiite compositions, also with oceanic affinities and resembling some rift-related Jurassic basalts on the eastern seaboard. Felsic pyroclastic rocks in the Long Reach area make the suite bimodal. This distribution of rock types supports conclusions from the mafic rocks that the area experienced tension throughout the Early to Middle Cambrian.


Author(s):  
Zhonghua Tian ◽  
Wenjiao Xiao ◽  
Brian F. Windley ◽  
Peng Huang ◽  
Ji’en Zhang ◽  
...  

The orogenic architecture of the Altaids of Central Asia was created by multiple large-scale slab roll-back and oroclinal bending. However, no regional structural deformation related to roll-back processes has been described. In this paper, we report a structural study of the Beishan orogenic collage in the southernmost Altaids, which is located in the southern wing of the Tuva-Mongol Orocline. Our new field mapping and structural analysis integrated with an electron backscatter diffraction study, paleontology, U-Pb dating, 39Ar-40Ar dating, together with published isotopic ages enables us to construct a detailed deformation-time sequence: During D1 times many thrusts were propagated northwards. In D2 there was ductile sinistral shearing at 336−326 Ma. In D3 times there was top-to-W/WNW ductile thrusting at 303−289 Ma. Two phases of folding were defined as D4 and D5. Three stages of extensional events (E1−E3) separately occurred during D1−D5. Two switches of the regional stress field were identified in the Carboniferous to Early Permian (D1-E1-D2-D3-E2) and Late Permian to Early Triassic (D4-E3-D5). These two switches in the stress field were associated with formation of bimodal volcanic rocks, and an extensional interarc basin with deposition of Permian-Triassic sediments, which can be related to two stages of roll-back of the subduction zone on the Paleo-Asian oceanic margin. We demonstrate for the first time that two key stress field switches were responses to the formation of the Tuva-Mongol Orocline.


2021 ◽  
Vol 57 ◽  
pp. 239-273
Author(s):  
Allan Ludman ◽  
Christopher McFarlane ◽  
Amber T.H. Whittaker

Volcanic rocks in the Miramichi inlier in Maine occur in two areas separated by the Bottle Lake plutonic complex: the Danforth segment (Stetson Mountain Formation) north of the complex and Greenfield segment to the south (Olamon Stream Formation). Both suites are dominantly pyroclastic, with abundant andesite, dacite, and rhyolite tuffs and subordinate lavas, breccias, and agglomerates. Rare basaltic tuffs and a small area of basaltic tuffs, agglomerates, and lavas are restricted to the Greenfield segment. U–Pb zircon geochronology dates Greenfield segment volcanism at ca. 469 Ma, the Floian–Dapingian boundary between the Lower and Middle Ordovician. Chemical analyses reveal a calc-alkaline suite erupted in a continental volcanic arc, either the Meductic or earliest Balmoral phase of Popelogan arc activity. The Maine Miramichi volcanic rocks are most likely correlative with the Meductic Group volcanic suite in west-central New Brunswick. Orogen-parallel lithologic and chemical variations from New Brunswick to east-central Maine may result from eruptions at different volcanic centers. The bimodal Poplar Mountain volcanic suite at the Maine–New Brunswick border is 10–20 myr younger than the Miramichi volcanic rocks and more likely an early phase of back-arc basin rifting than a late-stage Meductic phase event. Coeval calc-alkaline arc volcanism in the Miramichi, Weeksboro–Lunksoos Lake, and Munsungun Cambrian–Ordovician inliers in Maine is not consistent with tectonic models involving northwestward migration of arc volcanism. This >150 km span cannot be explained by a single east-facing subduction zone, suggesting more than one subduction zone/arc complex in the region.


Early cratonal development of the Arabian Shield of southwestern Saudi Arabia began with the deposition of calcic to calc-alkalic, basaltic to dacitic volcanic rocks, and immature sedimentary rocks that subsequently were moderately deformed, metamorphosed, and intruded about 960 Ma ago by dioritic batholiths of mantle derivation (87Sr/86Sr = 0.7029). A thick sequence of calc-alkalic andesitic to rhyodacitic volcanic rocks and volcanoclastic wackes was deposited unconformably on this neocraton. Regional greenschistfacies metamorphism, intensive deformation along north-trending structures, and intrusion of mantle-derived (87Sr/86Sr = 0.7028) dioritic to granodioritic batholiths occurred about 800 Ma. Granodiorite was emplaced as injection gneiss about 785 Ma (87Sr/86Sr = 0.7028- 0.7035) in localized areas of gneiss doming and amphibolite to granulite facies metamorphism. Deposition of clastic and volcanic rocks overlapped in time and followed orogeny at 785 Ma. These deposits, together with the older rocks, were deformed, metamorphosed to greenschist facies, and intruded by calc-alkalic plutons (87Sr/86Sr = 0.7035) between 600 and 650 Ma. Late cratonal development between 570 and 550 Ma involved moderate pulses of volcanism, deformation, metamorphism to greenschist facies, and intrusion of quartz monzonite and granite. Cratonization appears to have evolved in an intraoceanic, island-arc environment of comagmatic volcanism and intrusion.


1958 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 301-314
Author(s):  
B. Gutenberg

Abstract More than 700 seismograms of 39 shocks recorded mainly in southern California at epicentral distances between 105 and 140 degrees are used to investigate records of phases which have penetrated the earth's core. Properties of PKIKP, SKP, SKIKP, PKS, and PKIKS are discussed. Portions of travel-time curves of these phases are revised. Travel times of waves starting and ending at the surface of the core, and wave velocities in the core, are recalculated. Between about 1,500 and 1,200 km. from the earth's center in the transition zone from the liquid outer to the probably solid inner core, waves having lengths of the order of 10 km. travel faster than longer waves. This is probably caused by a rather rapid increase in viscosity toward the earth's center in this transition zone.


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