A seismic-reflection-based regional cross section of the southern Abitibi greenstone belt

1995 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. L. Jackson ◽  
A. R. Cruden ◽  
D. White ◽  
B. Milkereit
Keyword(s):  
Greenstone Belt ◽  
Seismic Reflection ◽  
Lower Layer ◽  
Middle Layer ◽  
Shear Zones ◽  
Low Pressure ◽  
Crustal Thickening ◽  
Upper Crust ◽  
Abitibi Greenstone Belt ◽  
Seismic Reflection Profiles

Seismic reflection profiles from the southern Abitibi greenstone belt reveal four first-order subdivisions: (1) Between 0 and ~4.5 s, the upper crust is weakly reflective, with prominent local to laterally extensive reflections. (2) Between ~4 and ~9 s, the crust is strongly and heterogeneously reflective with laterally continuous reflections. (3) From ~9 to ~13 s, the crust is more homogeneously reflective and displays downward decreasing reflectivity. (4) Below ~13 s (Moho?) the upper mantle is weakly reflective. The upper layer may correspond to subgreenschist–greenschist-facies supracrustal rocks cut by low-angle shear zones and intruded by regional tabular batholiths; the middle layer, to ductiley deformed amphibolite-facies gneisses, granitoids, and (or) metasediments; and the lower layer, to more homogeneously deformed granulite-facies rocks. North-dipping, low-angle reflections extending beneath both diverse supracrustal assemblages and regional batholiths may represent structural detachments upon which both the supracrustal assemblages and batholiths were imbricated and translated southward. However, the preservation of regional low-pressure metamorphic rocks and the common para-autochthonous relationships between assemblages suggest that thrust-related vertical separations and the magnitude of crustal thickening were not large. Steeply dipping regional shear zones within the greenstone belt appear to disrupt subhorizontal reflections down to ~15 km and may represent late-tectonic strains, which were progressively concentrated into linear zones during continued north–south shortening. The crustal-scale structure determined from the seismic reflection profiles, combined with surface geology, is compatible with post-2.70 Ga north–south shortening accommodated by south-directed(?) thrusting in a thermally softened mid crust and by upright folding in the upper crust. This scenario is comparable to recently proposed models for the Paleozoic, high-temperature, low-pressure Lachlan fold belt of Australia.

An expanding spread seismic reflection survey across the Snake Bay–Kakagi Lake greenstone belt, northwestern Ontario

1979 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. 1599-1612 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. G. Green ◽  
N. L. Anderson ◽  
O. G. Stephenson
Keyword(s):  
Greenstone Belt ◽  
Seismic Reflection ◽  
Lower Layer ◽  
Signal To Noise Ratio ◽  
Middle Layer ◽  
High Signal ◽  
Total Charge ◽  
Crustal Layer ◽  
Northwestern Ontario ◽  
Long Bay

An expanding spread seismic reflection survey has been conducted across the Snake Bay–Kakagi Lake greenstone belt in northwestern Ontario. Receiver and shot arrays with multiple shots per location helped to maintain a high signal to noise ratio in most of the data. Distances between the shots and receivers ranged from 1.04–8.48 km and the total charge per shot location varied from 26–86 kg. After computer processing the data, numerous coherent reflections were observed from near vertical and near horizontal discontinuities.Prominent early reflections were used to map a granite–greenstone contact to the south of the profile and a section of the Long Bay fault zone to the northeast of the profile. A noticeable absence of reflections from the Aulneau granite batholith–greenstone contact suggests that this contact dips westwards, towards the centre of the batholith.From the later reflections a model of the deep crust beneath the Snake Bay–Kakagi Lake greenstone belt was derived. This model, which represents a lateral extension of the Aulneau crustal model, consists of a three-layered crust. The top crustal layer is 19 km thick with Pg and Sg velocities of 6.2 and 3.5 km/s respectively, the middle layer is 3 km thick, and the lower layer extends to the Mohorovicic discontinuity at 38 km depth.

Southern Abitibi greenstone belt: Archean crustal structure from seismic-reflection profiles

Geology ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 18 (11) ◽  
pp. 1086 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. L. Jackson ◽  
R. H. Sutcliffe ◽  
J. N. Ludden ◽  
C. Hubert ◽  
A. G. Green ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Crustal Structure ◽  
Greenstone Belt ◽  
Seismic Reflection ◽  
Abitibi Greenstone Belt ◽  
Seismic Reflection Profiles

Archean terrane docking: upper crust collision tectonics, Abitibi greenstone belt, Quebec, Canada

1996 ◽  
Vol 265 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 127-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.U Mueller ◽  
R Daigneault ◽  
J.K Mortensen ◽  
E.H Chown
Keyword(s):  
Greenstone Belt ◽  
Upper Crust ◽  
Abitibi Greenstone Belt ◽  
Collision Tectonics

Deep Into the Chibougamau Area, Abitibi Greenstone Belt: Structure of a Neoarchean Crust Revealed by Seismic Reflection Profiling

Tectonics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucie Mathieu ◽  
David B. Snyder ◽  
Pierre Bedeaux ◽  
Saeid Cheraghi ◽  
Bruno Lafrance ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Greenstone Belt ◽  
Seismic Reflection ◽  
Abitibi Greenstone Belt ◽  
Seismic Reflection Profiling

scholarly journals Crustal velocity structure of the Superior and Grenville provinces of the southeastern Canadian Shield

1997 ◽  
Vol 34 (8) ◽  
pp. 1167-1184 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Winardhi ◽  
R. F. Mereu
Keyword(s):  
Greenstone Belt ◽  
Velocity Structure ◽  
Canadian Shield ◽  
Crustal Thickening ◽  
Surface Velocity ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Tectonic Zone ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Abitibi Greenstone Belt ◽  
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.

Two-stage evolution in an Archean tonalite suite: the Taschereau stock, Abitibi (Quebec, Canada)

1991 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel Jébrak ◽  
Luc Harnois
Keyword(s):  
Rare Earth ◽  
Rare Earth Elements ◽  
Trace Element ◽  
Greenstone Belt ◽  
Shear Zones ◽  
Granitic Rocks ◽  
Element Abundances ◽  
Abitibi Greenstone Belt ◽  
Rock Types ◽  
End Members

The Taschereau stock occurs north of Timmins and Val-d'Or, Quebec, in the Abitibi greenstone belt of the Superior Province. This late Archean composite pluton is composed mainly of diorite–tonalite–trondhjemite cut by granitic rocks. Gold–molybdenum occurrences are associated with a zone of albite-rich rocks surrounding the granitic rocks. Diabase dykes and shear zones postdate all rock units. Field and geochemical evidence suggests that the Taschereau stock was emplaced diachronously. Trace-element geochemical modelling shows that trace-element abundances (rare-earth elements, Ti, Zr) of Taschereau granitic rocks are consistent with partial melting of preexisting Taschereau tonalitic rocks and implies that these two rock types are not end members of a single magma that evolved through fractional crystallization.

Orogen parallel and transverse shearing in the Opatica belt, Quebec: implications for the structure of the Abitibi Subprovince

1992 ◽  
Vol 29 (11) ◽  
pp. 2429-2444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Benn ◽  
Edward W. Sawyer ◽  
Jean-Luc Bouchez
Keyword(s):  
Greenstone Belt ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Structural Evolution ◽  
Fault Zones ◽  
Crustal Thickening ◽  
Superior Province ◽  
Northern Margin ◽  
Abitibi Greenstone Belt ◽  
Ductile Shearing ◽  
Abitibi Subprovince

The late Archean Opatica granitoid-gneiss belt is situated within the northern Abitibi Subprovince, along the northern margin of the Abitibi greenstone belt. Approximately 200 km of structural section was mapped along three traverses within the previously unstudied Opatica belt. The earliest preserved structures are penetrative foliations and stretching and mineral lineations recording regional ductile shearing (D1). Late-D1 deformation was concentrated into kilometre-scale ductile fault zones, typically with L > S tectonite fabrics. Two families of lineations are associated with D1, indicating shearing both parallel and transverse to the east-northeast trend of the belt. Lineations trending east-northeast or northwest–southeast tend to be dominant within domains separated by major fault zones. In light of the abundant evidence for early north–south compression documented throughout southern Superior Province, including the Abitibi greenstone belt, D1 is interpreted in terms of mid-crustal thrusting, probably resulting in considerable crustal thickening. Movement-sense indicators suggest that thrusting was dominantly southward vergent. D2 deformation resulted in the development of vertical, regional-scale dextral and sinistral transcurrent fault zones and open to tight upright horizontal folds of D1 fabrics. In the context of late Archean orogenesis in southern Superior Province, the tectonic histories of the Abitibi and Opatica belts should not be considered separately. The Opatica belt may correlate with the present-day mid-crustal levels of the Abitibi greenstone belt, and to crystalline complexes within the Abitibi belt. It is suggested that the Abitibi Subprovince should be viewed, at the regional scale, as a dominantly southward-vergent orogenic belt. This work demonstrates that structural study of granitoid-gneiss belts adjacent to greenstone belts can shed considerable light on the regional structure and structural evolution of late Archean terranes.

The southern Omineca Belt, British Columbia: new perspectives from the Lithoprobe Geoscience Program

1995 ◽  
Vol 32 (10) ◽  
pp. 1720-1739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon D. Carr
Keyword(s):  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Seismic Reflection ◽  
Shear Zones ◽  
Crustal Thickening ◽  
Seismic Reflection Data ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Basement Rocks ◽  
Peraluminous Granites ◽  
Surface Geology ◽  
Lower Crustal

Geological, isotopic, and geochronology studies carried out by university and government researchers, concurrently with the Lithoprobe program, have greatly refined our understanding of the regional geology, crustal structure, and tectonics of the Omineca Belt. Sound correlations have been established between surface geology and seismic reflection data. Cretaceous–Eocene thrust faults that are imaged in the subsurface in the Shuswap complex may be part of a break-forward thrust system that feeds into the Purcell Anticlinorium and the Foreland Belt. The Monashee décollement is the western continuation of the sole thrust beneath the Foreland Belt and provides a means of linking shortening across the entire orogen. The thermal peak of metamorphism in the central and southern Shuswap complex is now known to have occurred in the Late Cretaceous–Paleogene in contrast with earlier held views. North American basement rocks are now known to extend beneath the eastern half of the Canadian Cordillera. Geochronology studies have revealed Early Proterozoic and Late Cretaceous–Eocene metamorphism in basement rocks of the Monashee complex, and suggest that these rocks were located to the east of the metamorphic front throughout the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. Anatectic peraluminous granites were produced in the Shuswap complex between 135 and 52 Ma in response to pulses of crustal thickening and heating, and in some cases served to localize Eocene extensional shear zones and to transfer extensional displacement from one shear zone to another. A flat Moho and other seismic reflection data are consistent with interpretations of lower crustal flow to balance early Tertiary extension in the upper crust. Crustal-scale extension and the Slocan Lake fault zone provided the source and setting for Ag–Pb–Zn–Au mineralization in the Nelson–Silverton area.

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