Paleomagnetic and geobarometric study of the Late Cretaceous Mount Lorne stock, southern Yukon Territory

1999 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 905-915 ◽  
Author(s):  
M J Harris ◽  
DTA Symons ◽  
W H Blackburn ◽  
CJR Hart

The ~75 Ma Mount Lorne monzodiorite stock has been studied paleomagnetically to estimate the tectonic motion of the northern Canadian Cordillera since the Late Cretaceous. The stock is one of several paleomagnetic studies currently underway at the University of Windsor Paleomagnetic Laboratory which are funded by the Lithoprobe - Slave northern Cordillera Lithospheric Evolution (SNORCLE) Project. Al-in-hornblende geobarometry and plagioclase-amphibole geothermometry data suggest that the stock has not been tilted since emplacement but does provide evidence that the stock has a normal fault trending north-south through its centre with the east side uplifted relatively by ~1000 m. Paleomagnetic measurements from 12 of 19 granitoid sites yield a well-defined characteristic remanent magnetization direction that is south-southwest and up, and a further six sites yield a direction that is north-northeast and down. Data from a mafic dike yield a negative contact test, suggesting that the dike is coeval with the stock. Combining the 18 granitic site mean characteristic remanent magnetization directions yields a paleopole at 69.1°W, 78.3°N (dp = 4.1°, dm = 4.5°) which suggests that the host Stikine Terrane has been translated poleward by 10.5 ± 3.5° (1170 ± 390 km) and rotated clockwise by 57 ± 11° relative to the North American craton between 75 and 50 Ma. Except for the estimate from the nearby coeval Carmacks Group volcanic rocks, the Mount Lorne estimate is consistent with all other paleomagnetic results within the Stikine Terrane. These latter estimates are also consistent with plate-tectonic models that suggest the Pacific oceanic plates had an increased velocity northwards during the Late Cretaceous.

1997 ◽  
Vol 34 (10) ◽  
pp. 1379-1391 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Harris ◽  
D. T. A. Symons ◽  
W. H. Blackburn ◽  
C. J. R. Hart

This is the first of several Lithoprobe paleomagnetic studies underway to examine geotectonic motions in the northern Canadian Cordillera. Except for one controversial study, estimates for terranes underlying the Intermontane Belt in the Yukon have been extrapolated from studies in Alaska, southern British Columbia, and the northwestern United States. The Whitehorse Pluton is a large unmetamorphosed and undeformed tonalitic body of mid-Cretaceous age (~112 Ma) that was intruded into sedimentary units of the Whitehorse Trough in the Stikinia terrane. Geothermobarometric estimates for eight sites around the pluton indicate that postmagnetization tilting has been negligible since cooling through the hornblende-crystallization temperature and that the pluton is a high-level intrusion. Paleomagnetic measurements for 22 of 24 sites in the pluton yield a well-defined characteristic remanent magnetization (ChRM) direction that is steeply down and northwards. The ChRM direction gives a paleopole of 285.5°E, 81.7°N (dp = 53°, dm = 5.7°). When compared with the 112 Ma reference pole for the North American craton, this paleopole suggests that the northern Stikinia terrane has been translated northwards by 11.0 ± 4.8° (1220 ± 530 km) and rotated clockwise by 59 ± 17°. Except for an estimate from the ~70 Ma Carmacks Group volcanics, this translation and rotation estimate agrees well with previous estimates for units in the central and southern Intermontane Belt. They suggest that the terranes of the Intermontane Belt have behaved as a fairly coherent unit since the Early Cretaceous, moving northward at a minimum average rate of 2.3 ± 0.4 cm/a between ~140 and ~45 Ma.


Geosciences ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 102
Author(s):  
Paraskevi Nomikou ◽  
Dimitris Evangelidis ◽  
Dimitrios Papanikolaou ◽  
Danai Lampridou ◽  
Dimitris Litsas ◽  
...  

On 30 October 2020, a strong earthquake of magnitude 7.0 occurred north of Samos Island at the Eastern Aegean Sea, whose earthquake mechanism corresponds to an E-W normal fault dipping to the north. During the aftershock period in December 2020, a hydrographic survey off the northern coastal margin of Samos Island was conducted onboard R/V NAFTILOS. The result was a detailed bathymetric map with 15 m grid interval and 50 m isobaths and a morphological slope map. The morphotectonic analysis showed the E-W fault zone running along the coastal zone with 30–50° of slope, forming a half-graben structure. Numerous landslides and canyons trending N-S, transversal to the main direction of the Samos coastline, are observed between 600 and 100 m water depth. The ENE-WSW oriented western Samos coastline forms the SE margin of the neighboring deeper Ikaria Basin. A hummocky relief was detected at the eastern margin of Samos Basin probably representing volcanic rocks. The active tectonics characterized by N-S extension is very different from the Neogene tectonics of Samos Island characterized by NE-SW compression. The mainshock and most of the aftershocks of the October 2020 seismic activity occur on the prolongation of the north dipping E-W fault zone at about 12 km depth.


1989 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 296-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie E. Gales ◽  
Ben A. van der Pluijm ◽  
Rob Van der Voo

Paleomagnetic sampling of the Lawrenceton Formation of the Silurian Botwood Group in northeastern Newfoundland was combined with detailed structural mapping of the area in order to determine the deformation history and make adequate structural corrections to the paleomagnetic data.Structural analysis indicates that the Lawrenceton Formation experienced at least two folding events: (i) a regional northeast–southwest-trending, Siluro-Devonian folding episode that produced a well-developed axial-plane cleavage; and (ii) an episode of local north-trending folding. Bedding – regional cleavage relationships indicate that the latter event is older than the regional folding.Thermal demagnetization of the Lawrenceton Formation yielded univectorial southerly and shallow directions (in situ). A fold test on an early mesoscale fold indicates that the magnetization of the Botwood postdates this folding event. However, our results, combined with an earlier paleomagnetic study of nearby Lawrenceton Formation rocks, demonstrate that the magnetization predates the regional folding. Therefore, we conclude that the magnetization occurred subsequent to the local folding but prior to the period of regional folding.While a tectonic origin for local folding cannot be entirely excluded, the subaerial nature of these volcanics, the isolated occurrence of these folds, and the absence of similar north-trending folds in other areas of eastern Notre Dame Bay suggest a syndepositional origin. Consequently, the magnetization may be nearly primary. Our study yields a characteristic direction of D = 175°, I = +43°, with a paleopole (16°N, 131 °E) that plots near the mid-Silurian track of the North American apparent polar wander path. This result is consistent with an early origin for the magnetization and supports the notion that the Central Mobile Belt of Newfoundland was adjacent to the North American craton, in its present-day position, since the Silurian.


2003 ◽  
Vol 40 (7) ◽  
pp. 907-924 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renée-Luce Simard ◽  
Jaroslav Dostal ◽  
Charlie F Roots

The late Paleozoic volcanic rocks of the northern Canadian Cordillera lying between Ancestral North America to the east and the accreted terranes of the Omineca belt to the west record early arc and rift magmatism along the paleo-Pacific margin of the North American craton. The Mississippian to Permian volcano-sedimentary Klinkit Group extends discontinuously over 250 km in northern British Columbia and southern Yukon. The two stratotype areas are as follows: (1) in the Englishman Range, southern Yukon, the English Creek Limestone is conformably overlain by the volcano-sedimentary Mount McCleary Formation (Lower Clastic Member, Alkali-Basalt Member and Volcaniclastic Member), and (2) in the Stikine Ranges, northern British Columbia, the Screw Creek Limestone is conformably overlain by the volcano-sedimentary Butsih Formation (Volcaniclastic Member and Upper Clastic Member). The calc-alkali nature of the basaltic volcaniclastic members of the Klinkit Group indicates a volcanic-arc setting ((La/Yb)N = 2.77–4.73), with little involvement of the crust in their genesis (εNd = +6.7 to +7.4). Alkali basalts in the Mount McCleary Formation ((La/Yb)N = 12.5–17.8) suggest periodic intra-arc rifting events. Broadly coeval and compositionally similar volcano-sedimentary assemblages occur in the basement of the Mesozoic Quesnel arc, north-central British Columbia, and in the pericratonic Yukon–Tanana composite terrane, central Yukon, suggesting that they all represent pieces of a single long-lived, late Paleozoic arc system that was dismembered prior to its accretion onto Ancestral North America. Therefore, Yukon–Tanana terrane is possibly the equivalent to the basement of Quesnel terrane, and the northern Quesnel terrane has a pericratonic affinity.


1981 ◽  
Vol 18 (12) ◽  
pp. 1767-1775 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. C. Struik

Three tectonostratigraphic successions are established from remapping of the area near Barkerville and Cariboo River. The first, of Late Proterozoic to Cambrian sediments, was deposited on the shallow to moderately deep platformal shelf west of and derived from the exposed North American craton. The second is an unconformably overlying Ordovician to Permian sequence of sedimentary and volcanic rocks representing a basinal environment with periodic highs. These packages of sediments were deposited on the North American craton and its western transitional extensions. The third succession, composed of oceanic chert and basalt of the Permo-Pennsylvanian Antler Formation, was thrust eastward over the other two during the early Mesozoic. The three successions were folded, faulted, and metamorphosed during the mid-Mesozoic Columbian Orogeny. The Devono-Mississippian Cariboo Orogeny, which was thought to have affected all of the first sequence and part of the second, could not be documented in its type locality. The geology of the Barkerville – Cariboo River area has many similarities with that of Selwyn Basin and Cassiar platform of northern British Columbia and Yukon.


2004 ◽  
Vol 141 (5) ◽  
pp. 583-603 ◽  
Author(s):  
OSMAN PARLAK ◽  
VOLKER HÖCK ◽  
HÜSEYİN KOZLU ◽  
MICHEL DELALOYE

A number of Late Cretaceous ophiolitic bodies are located between the metamorphic massifs of the southeast Anatolian orogenic system. One of them, the Göksun ophiolite (northern Kahramanmaraş), which crops out in a tectonic window bounded by the Malatya metamorphic units on both the north and south, is located in the EW-trending nappe zone of the southeast Anatolian orogenic belt between Göksun and Afşin (northern Kahramanmaraş). It consists of ultramafic–mafic cumulates, isotropic gabbro, a sheeted dyke complex, plagiogranite, volcanic rocks and associated volcanosedimentary units. The ophiolitic rocks and the tectonically overlying Malatya–Keban metamorphic units were intruded by syn-collisional granitoids (∼ 85 Ma). The volcanic units are characterized by a wide spectrum of rocks ranging in composition from basalt to rhyolite. The sheeted dykes consist of diabase and microdiorite, whereas the isotropic gabbros consist of gabbro, diorite and quartzdiorite. The magmatic rocks in the Göksun ophiolite are part of a co-magmatic differentiated series of subalkaline tholeiites. Selective enrichment of some LIL elements (Rb, Ba, K, Sr and Th) and depletion of the HFS elements (Nb, Ta, Ti, Zr) relative to N-MORB are the main features of the upper crustal rocks. The presence of negative anomalies for Ta, Nb, Ti, the ratios of selected trace elements (Nb/Th, Th/Yb, Ta/Yb) and normalized REE patterns all are indicative of a subduction-related environment. All the geochemical evidence both from the volcanic rocks and the deeper levels (sheeted dykes and isotropic gabbro) show that the Göksun ophiolite formed during the mature stage of a suprasubduction zone (SSZ) tectonic setting in the southern branch of the Neotethyan ocean between the Malatya–Keban platform to the north and the Arabian platform to the south during Late Cretaceous times. Geological, geochronological and petrological data on the Göksun ophiolite and the Baskil magmatic arc suggest that there were two subduction zones, the first one dipping beneath the Malatya–Keban platform, generating the Baskil magmatic arc and the second one further south within the ocean basin, generating the Göksun ophiolite in a suprasubduction zone environment.


1979 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. 1988-1997 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregg W. Morrison ◽  
Colin I. Godwin ◽  
Richard L. Armstrong

Sixteen new K–Ar dates and four new Rb–Sr isochrons help define four plutonic suites in the Whitehorse map area, Yukon. The Triassic(?) suite, defined on stratigraphic evidence, is the southern extension of the Yukon Crystalline Terrane and is correlative with plutonic suites in the Intermontane Belt in British Columbia. The mid-Cretaceous (~100 Ma) suite in the Intermontane Belt in the Whitehorse map area is time equivalent to plutonic suites in the Omineca Crystalline Belt to the east. Late Cretaceous (~70 Ma) and Eocene (~55 Ma) suites include volcanic and subvolcanic as well as plutonic phases and are correlative with continental volcano–plutonic suites near the eastern margin of the Coast Plutonic Complex. The predominance of the mid-Cretaceous suite in the Intermontane Belt in Whitehorse and adjacent map areas in Yukon and northern British Columbia suggests that this area has undergone posttectonic magmatism more characteristic of the Omineca Crystalline Belt than of the Intermontane Belt elsewhere in the Canadian Cordillera.87Sr/86Sr initial ratio determinations suggest that the southern extension of the Yukon Crystalline Terrane in the western part of the Whitehorse map area and in northern British Columbia includes Precambrian crust separated from the North American craton by Paleozoic oceanic crust of the Intermontane Belt.


1996 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 381-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
William P. Elder ◽  
L. R. Saul

North American Pacific Slope deposits of Coniacian to Maastrichtian age have yielded eight biostratigraphically useful species of Anchura: A. (Helicaulax?) popenoei new species, Coniacian; A. halberdopsis new species, early Campanian; A. callosa Whiteaves, 1903, early Campanian; A. falciformis (Gabb, 1864), late early to middle Campanian; A. phaba new species, middle to late Campanian; A. ainikta new species, middle to late Campanian; A. gibbera Webster, 1983, late Campanian to early Maastrichtian; A. baptos new species, late Maastrichtian to early Danian. In addition, two other possible species are A. nanaimoensis (Whiteaves, 1879), middle to late Campanian, and Anchura? new species, late Maastrichtian. These species together with two additional Turonian species, A. (Helicaulax) tricosa Saul and Popenoe, 1993, and A. (H.) condoniana Anderson, 1902, allow the definition at least eight Late Cretaceous Anchura zones for the Pacific Slope. These zones have durations of 1.5 m.y. to 4 m.y.Anchura (H.?) popenoei from northern California appears most closely related to A. (Helicaulax) tricosa Saul and Popenoe, 1993, of Turonian age from southern California. Anchura callosa, A. falciformis, A. nanaimoensis, and A. phaba appear to be closely related based on sculptural elements, as does A. gibbera despite having an anterior spur on the wing. However, these species appear to belong to two latitudinally differentiated faunal provinces. Species having a northern range include A. callosa, A. falciformis, and A. nanaimoensis, whereas A. phaba and A. gibbera are from more southern deposits, as are also A. halberdopsis, A. ainikta, and A. baptos.


1981 ◽  
Vol 106 ◽  
pp. 65-68
Author(s):  
P.E Brown ◽  
I Parsons

The Kap Washington Group volcanic rocks outcrop on the north coast of Johannes V. Jensen Land and Lockwood ø, where they are in thrust contact with Palaeozoic metasediments of the North Greenland fold belt. Their outcrop is limited, from west to east, to Lockwood Ø, Kap Kane, Kap Washington and Kap Cannon (fig. 21). The vo1canic rocks post-date basic dykes which cut Carboniferous and Permian sediments (Håkansson et al., this report) and their age, as determined by whole rock Rb-Sr isotopes in rhyolitic material, is 63 Ma (Larsen et al., 1978) i.e. early Tertiary. This is somewhat younger than the late Cretaceous age established by micropalaeontological evidence (D. Batten, personal communication) from shales, found in 1980, interbedded with the voicanics.


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