An Archean metamorphic core complex in the southern Slave Province: basement–cover structural relations between the Sleepy Dragon Complex and the Yellowknife Supergroup

1992 ◽  
Vol 29 (10) ◽  
pp. 2133-2145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald T. James ◽  
James K. Mortensen

Archean rocks in the Fenton Lake – Brown Lake area, southern Slave Province, are subdivided into two lithotectonic domains: a supracrustal domain, which consists mainly of the Archean Yellowknife Supergroup, and a gneiss–granite domain. The latter is composed of gneissic and metaigneous rocks of the Sleepy Dragon Complex, determined to be basement to the Yellowknife Supergroup, and granite plutons, including the 2641 ± 3.5 Ma Suse Lake granite and the 2583.5 ± 1 Ma Morose Granite. Volcanic rocks of the Cameron River Belt and greywacke–mudstone turbiditic metasedimentary rocks of the Burwash Formation constitute the supracrustal domain.A late Archean, amphibolite- to greenschist-facies, ductile to local brittle, high-strain zone separates the domains. Kinematic indicators demonstrate that the zone experienced two kinematically opposed episodes of displacement. The older episode involved pre- to synthermal peak thrusting of the supracrustal rocks over the gneiss–granite domain. Thrusting is kinematically and temporally consistent with late Archean, pre- to synthermal peak, regional contractional deformation. Structural and metamorphic relations and kinematic indicators suggest that thrusting and regional contraction were followed shortly by intrusion of the peraluminous Morose Granite and thereafter by a late syn- to post-thermal peak episode of extension, resulting in tectonic unroofing of the gneiss–granite domain.The sequential history of contraction and attendant regional metamorphism, granite intrusion, and, ultimately, extensional collapse, which is documented in the Archean rocks in the area, is a common feature of Phanerozoic collisional orogens. Moreover, the tectonic history of the gneiss–granite domain is broadly similar to the evolution of metamorphic core complexes in the North American Cordillera.

1987 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 813-825 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald Doig

The Churchill Province north of the Proterozoic Cape Smith volcanic fold belt of Quebec may be divided into two parts. The first is a broad antiform of migmatitic gneisses (Deception gneisses) extending north from the fold belt ~50 km to Sugluk Inlet. The second is a 20 km wide zone of high-grade metasedimentary rocks northwest of Sugluk Inlet. The Deception gneisses yield Rb–Sr isochron ages of 2600–2900 Ma and initial ratios of 0.701–0.703, showing that they are Archean basement to the Cape Smith Belt. The evidence that the basement rocks have been isoclinally refolded in the Proterozoic is clear at the contact with the fold belt. However, the gneisses also contain ubiquitous synclinal keels of metasiltstone with minor metapelite and marble that give isochron ages less than 2150 Ma. These ages, combined with low initial ratios of 0.7036, show that they are not part of the basement, as the average 87Sr/86Sr ratio for the basement rocks was about 0.718 at that time.The rocks west of Sugluk Inlet consist mainly of quartzo-feldspathic sediments, quartzites, para-amphibolites, marbles, and some pelite and iron formation. In contrast to the Proterozoic sediments in the Deception gneisses, these rocks yield dates of 3000–3200 Ma, with high initial ratios of 0.707–0.714. These initial ratios point to an age (or a provenance) much greater than that of the Archean Deception gneisses. The rocks of the Sugluk terrain are intruded by highly deformed sills of granitic rocks with ages of about 1830 Ma, demonstrating again the extent and severity of the Proterozoic overprint. The eastern margin of this possibly early Archean Sugluk block is a discontinuity in age, lithology, and geophysical character that could be a suture between two Archean cratons. It is not known if such a suturing event is of Archean age, or if it is related to the deformation of the Cape Smith Fold Belt.Models of evolution incorporating both the Cape Smith Belt and the Archean rocks to the north need to account for the internal structure of the fold belt, the continental affinity of many of the volcanic rocks, the continuity of basement around the eastern end of the belt, and the increase in metamorphism through the northern part of the belt into a broad area to the north. The Cape Smith volcanic rocks may have been extruded along a continental rift, parallel to a continental margin at Sugluk. Continental collison at Sugluk would have thrust the older and higher grade Sugluk rocks over the Deception gneisses, produced the broad Deception antiform, and displaced the Cape Smith rocks to the south in a series of north-dipping thrust slices.


1965 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 622-647 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Donaldson ◽  
G. D. Jackson

Archaean sedimentary rocks of the North Spirit Lake area show little evidence of having been derived predominantly from associated Archaean volcanic rocks. Instead, compositions of the sediments reflect significant sedimentary and (or) granitoid provenance. A remarkably high content of clastic quartz in thick units of sandstone and conglomerate suggests either reworking of older quartzose sediments, or reduction of the labile constituents in quartz-rich granitoid rocks through prolonged weathering and rigorous transport. Observations for other sedimentary sequences in the region between Red Lake and Lansdowne House suggest that the North Spirit sediments are not unique in the Superior Province. Quartzose sandstones commonly are regarded as atypical of the Archaean, but such rocks arc abundant in northwestern Ontario. Frameworks of many Archaean greywackes actually are richer in quartz than typical greywackes from numerous Proterozoic and Phanerozoic sequences.The concept of rapidly rising volcanic arcs as the sole source of Archaean sedimentary detritus is rejected for the North Spirit area. The volcanies, rather than representing relicts of protocontinents, probably record events removed from initial volcanism in the history of the earth by one or more orogenic cycles. Major unconformities may therefore exist not only between sedimentary and volcanic units, but also between these units and older granitoid rocks.


1989 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Turek ◽  
R. Keller ◽  
W. R. Van Schmus ◽  
W. Weber

The Archean Rice Lake greenstone belt in southeastern Manitoba is made up of mafic to felsic volcanic rocks and associated intrusive and metasedimentary rocks. The belt is flanked to the north by the Wanipigow River granitic complex and to the south by the Manigotagan gneissic belt. The Ross River quartz diorite pluton is intrusive into the centre of the greenstone belt. U–Pb zircon ages indicate a major volcanic and plutonic event in the area at 2730 Ma. Ages for two volcanic units of the Rice Lake Group are 2731 ± 3 and 2729 ± 3 Ma. The Ross River pluton yields an age of 2728 ± 8 Ma and the Gunnar porphyry gives an age of 2731 ± 13 Ma; both intrude rocks of the Rice Lake Group. Granitic rocks of the Wanipigow River granitic complex give ages of 2731 ± 10 and 2880 ± 9 Ma, while a post-tectonic granite in the Manigotagan gneissic belt has an age of 2663 ± 7 Ma.


1999 ◽  
Vol 36 (7) ◽  
pp. 1149-1168 ◽  
Author(s):  
S J Pehrsson ◽  
M E Villeneuve

New U-Pb age data from the southwestern Slave Province demonstrate that units of the Indin Lake supracrustal belt form an imbricated structural stack. The oldest rocks of the belt are undated mafic volcanic flows of the Hewitt Lake group that are crosscut by a 2670 Ma felsic sill, itself coeval with mafic through felsic volcanic rocks of the 2668-2671 Ma Leta Arm group. The youngest rocks of the belt are 2647-2629 Ma turbidites and felsic volcanic rocks of the unconformably overlying Chalco Lake group. Tonalite orthogneiss of the adjacent Cotterill gneiss complex is 2680 Ma, suggesting that it does not represent in situ basement to the supracrustal belt. Intercalation of the older Hewitt Lake and Leta Arm groups with the younger Chalco Lake group is interpreted to result from D1 imbrication and folding between 2629 and 2609 Ma, the age of a crosscutting tonalite intrusion. Subsequent D2 folding and regional low-pressure metamorphism occurred between 2609 Ma and ca. 2590 Ma. D3 normal faulting between the belt and Cotterill gneisses, ca. 2590 Ma, is interpreted to overlap with retrograde amphibolite-facies metamorphism and decompression of the gneiss complex. Comparisons between the tectonic history of the Indin Lake area and the central Slave Province show that turbidite deposition was regionally diachronous and overlapped with regional deformation elsewhere, supporting existing models favouring some form of accretionary orogenesis. The imbricated and intercalated 2670-2629 Ma supracrustal sequence may characterize a distinct crustal block in the southwestern Slave Province.


1989 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. E. King ◽  
H. Helmstaedt

Archean metasedimentary rocks in the eastern Point Lake area of the Slave Structural Province preserve a sequence of Archean structures consisting of two generations of folds (F1 and F2) with little associated penetrative cleavage and two subsequent generations of cleavage (S3 and S4) with little associated folding. Gneissic layering in the high-grade margin of the belt is composed of transposed bedding and the S3 cleavage. Folding occurred prior to the thermal peak of metamorphism, whereas the develoment of subsequent cleavages spanned the thermal peak. The regional orientation of the folds and cleavages appears to be independent of the emplacement of granitoid intrusions, although their orientation is modified adjacent to syn- to late tectonic plutons. The supracrustal belt is interpreted as being part of a pre- to early metamorphic, west-verging fold (thrust?) belt whose strain pattern has been modified by post-folding, synmetamorphic shortening, and syn- to post-tectonic plutons. This deformation sequence is similar to those described in other supracrustal belts of the Slave Province and supports the concept that the Slave Province has undergone regional, horizontally directed compression before and during intrusion of large amounts of granitoids.


1874 ◽  
Vol 1 (5) ◽  
pp. 205-210
Author(s):  
Edward Hull

Carboniferous Period.—The Lower Carboniferous rocks, both of the North of England, of Scotland, and of Ireland, afford examples of contemporaneous volcanic action of considerable intensity. The so-called “toad-stones” of Derbyshire, and the great sheets of melaphyre, porphyrite, and ashes of the central valley of Scotland, forming the Kilpatrick, Campsie, and Dairy Hills, appear to have been erupted over the bed of the same sea as that in which were poured out similar materials in County Limerick, forming the well-known Carboniferous volcanic rocks of “the Limerick Basin.” These rocks have been already so fully described by several observers, that I shall confine myself to a very short description, such as is essential to the brief history of volcanic action which I am here endeavouring to draw up.


1976 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 737-748 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manfred M. Kehlenbeck

In the de Courcey – Smiley Lakes Area, the boundary between the Quetico and Wabigoon Belts is expressed by a sequence of pelitic to semi-pelitic schists and gneisses. At the present level of erosion, these metasedimentary rocks are in contact with granodioritic gneisses, granites, and pegmatites, which are exposed to the south.To the north of this area, regional metamorphism of volcanic and sedimentary rocks has resulted in greenschist facies assemblages, which characterize the Wabigoon Belt in general. In the boundary zone, the metamorphic grade increases southward toward de Courcey and Smiley Lakes.Formation of three distinct foliation surfaces was accompanied by syn-tectonic as well as post-tectonic recrystallization, producing polymetamorphic schists.In the boundary zone, mineral assemblages comprising andalusile, sillimanite, cordierite, garnet. biotite, and muscovite form a facies series of the Abukuma type.The boundary between the Quetico and Wabigoon Belts in this area is a complex zone in which rocks of both belts have been reconstituted by multiple-phase metamorphism and partial melting.


1999 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin M Ansdell ◽  
Karen A Connors ◽  
Richard A Stern ◽  
Stephen B Lucas

Lithological and structural mapping in the east Wekusko Lake area of the Flin Flon Belt, Trans-Hudson Orogen, suggested an intimate relationship between magmatism, fluvial sedimentation, and initiation of fold and thrust belt deformation. Conventional U-Pb geochronology of volcanic rocks in fault-bounded assemblages provides a minimum age of 1876 ± 2 Ma for McCafferty Liftover back-arc basalts, and ages of between 1833 and 1836 Ma for the Herb Lake volcanic rocks. A rhyolite which unconformably overlies Western Missi Group fluvial sedimentary rocks has complex zircon systematics. This rock may be as old as about 1856 Ma or as young as 1830 Ma. The sedimentary rocks overlying this rhyolite are locally intercalated with 1834 Ma felsic volcanic rocks, and yield sensitive high resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) U-Pb and Pb-evaporation detrital zircon ages ranging from 1834 to 2004 Ma. The Eastern Missi Group is cut by an 1826 ± 4 Ma felsic dyke, and contains 1832-1911 Ma detrital zircons. The dominant source for detritus in the Missi Group was the Flin Flon accretionary collage and associated successor arc rocks. The fluvial sedimentary rocks and the Herb Lake volcanic rocks were essentially coeval, and were then incorporated into a southwest-directed fold and thrust belt which was initiated at about 1840 Ma and active until at least peak regional metamorphism.


1998 ◽  
Vol 135 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
IVAN S. ZAGORCHEV

The Paril Formation (South Pirin and Slavyanka Mountains, southwestern Bulgaria) and the Prodromos Formation (Orvilos and Menikion Mountains, northern Greece) consist of breccia and olistostrome built up predominantly of marble fragments from the Precambrian Dobrostan Marble Formation (Bulgaria) and its equivalent Bos-Dag Marble Formation (Greece). The breccia and olistostrome are interbedded with thin layers of calcarenites (with occasional marble pebbles), siltstones, sandstones and limestones. The Paril and Prodromos formations unconformably cover the Precambrian marbles, and are themselves covered unconformably by Miocene and Pliocene sediments (Nevrokop Formation). The rocks of the Paril Formation are intruded by the Palaeogene (Late Eocene–Early Oligocene) Teshovo granitoid pluton, and are deformed and preserved in the two limbs of a Palaeogene anticline cored by the Teshovo pluton (Teshovo anticline). The Palaeocene–Middle Eocene age of the formations is based on these contact relations, and on occasional finds of Tertiary pollen, as well as on correlations with similar formations of the Laki (Kroumovgrad) Group throughout the Rhodope region.The presence of Palaeogene sediments within the pre-Palaeogene Pirin–Pangaion structural zone invalidates the concept of a ‘Rhodope metamorphic core complex’ that supposedly has undergone Palaeogene amphibolite-facies regional metamorphism, and afterwards has been exhumed by rapid crustal extension in Late Oligocene–Miocene times along a regional detachment surface. Other Palaeogene formations of pre-Priabonian (Middle Eocene and/or Bartonian) or earliest Priabonian age occur at the base of the Palaeogene sections in the Mesta graben complex (Dobrinishka Formation) and the Padesh basin (Souhostrel and Komatinitsa formations). The deposition of coarse continental sediments grading into marine formations (Laki or Kroumovgrad Group) in the Rhodope region at the beginning of the Palaeogene Period marks the first intense fragmentation of the mid- to late Cretaceous orogen, in particular, of the thickened body of the Morava-Rhodope structural zone situated to the south of the Srednogorie zone. The Srednogorie zone itself was folded and uplifted in Late Cretaceous time, thus dividing Palaeocene–Middle Eocene flysch of the Louda Kamchiya trough to the north, from the newly formed East Rhodope–West Thrace depression to the south.


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