Fabrics and Deformation of Archean Metasedimentary Rocks, Ross Lake – Gordon Lake Area, Slave Province, Northwest Territories

Metagreywackes, which lie stratigraphically above metavolcanics fringing a granitic complex (part basement), exhibit late Archean multiphase fold structures. F1 folds are large linear depressions and anticlinal culminations trending partly concordant with margins of the granitic complex. Open to isoclinal F2 folds vary and curve in trend. Though usually near upright, some F2 folds are overturned away from the complex and others towards F1 depressions. F3 folds are small-scale structures not present in most outcrops, but throughout a large region they are accompanied by a steep S3 axial-plane schistosity striking NW to N.Original orientations of an S2 schistosity, axial planar to F2 folds, are preserved as inclusion trails in biotite porphyroblasts. Angular deflections from the trails show that regional horizontal flattening across the S3 schistosity formed the F3 folds and tightened curved trends of F2 folds. Estimates of strain from the fabrics indicate no increase near the complex.As for folds in other Archean terrains, F1 and F2 folds could have developed mainly as gravity structures during diapiric uprise of a granitic basement. In contrast, the F3 structures may reflect horizontal movements of early crustal plates.