scholarly journals U-Pb and Hf Analyses of Detrital Zircons from Paleozoic and Cretaceous Strata on Vancouver Island, British Columbia: Constraints on the Paleozoic Tectonic Evolution of Southern Wrangellia

Lithosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Alberts ◽  
George E. Gehrels ◽  
Joanne Nelson
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Sedimentary Rocks ◽  
Vancouver Island ◽  
Detrital Zircons ◽  
Late Devonian ◽  
Significant Information ◽  
Tectonic Model ◽  
South Central ◽  
Lake Formation ◽  
Alexander Terrane

Abstract Wrangellia is a late Paleozoic arc terrane that occupies two distinct coastal regions of western Canada and Alaska. The Skolai arc of northern Wrangellia in south-central Alaska and Yukon has been linked to the older, adjacent Alexander terrane by shared Late Devonian rift-related gabbros and also by Late Pennsylvanian postcollisional plutons. Late Devonian to Early Permian Sicker arc rocks of southern Wrangellia are exposed in uplifts on Vancouver Island, southwestern British Columbia, surrounded by younger strata and lacking physical connections to other terranes. Utilizing the detrital zircon record of Paleozoic and Cretaceous sedimentary rocks, we provide insight into the magmatic and depositional evolution of southern Wrangellia and its relationships to both northern Wrangellia and the Alexander terrane. 1422 U-Pb LA-ICPMS analyses from the Fourth Lake Formation (Mississippian–Permian) reveal syndepositional Carboniferous age peaks (344, 339, 336, 331, and 317 Ma), sourced from the Sicker arc of southern Wrangellia. These populations overlap in part known ages of volcanism, but the Middle Mississippian cumulative peak (337 Ma) documents a previously unrecognized magmatic episode. Paleozoic detrital zircons exhibit intermediate to juvenile ƐHft values between +15 and +5, indicating that southern Wrangellia was not strictly built on primitive oceanic crust, but instead on transitional crust with a small evolved component. The Fourth Lake samples yielded 49 grains (3.4% of the total grains analyzed) with ages between 2802 Ma and 442 Ma, and with corresponding ƐHft values ranging from +13 to -20. In age—ƐHft space, these grains fall within the Alexander terrane array. They were probably derived from sedimentary rocks in the basement of the Sicker arc. By analogy with northern Wrangellia, this basement incorporated rifted fragments of the Alexander terrane margin as the combined Sicker-Skolai arc system advanced ocean-ward due to slab rollback in Late Devonian to Early Mississippian time. Ultimately, data from detrital zircons preserved in the Fourth Lake Formation provides significant information allowing for an updated tectonic model of Paleozoic Wrangellia.

U–Pb ages and tectonic significance of late Archean alkalic magmatism and nonmarine sedimentation: Timiskaming Group, southern Abitibi belt, Ontario

1991 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 489-503 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Corfu ◽  
S. L. Jackson ◽  
R. H. Sutcliffe
Keyword(s):  
Greenstone Belt ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Sedimentary Rocks ◽  
Detrital Zircons ◽  
Geochemical Data ◽  
Lake Area ◽  
Quartz Porphyry ◽  
Bear Lake ◽  
Lake Formation ◽  
Dominant Period

The paper presents U–Pb ages for zircons of the calc-alkalic to alkalic igneous suite and associated alluvial–fluvial sedimentary rocks of the Timiskaming Group in the late Archean Abitibi greenstone belt, Superior Province. The Timiskaming Group rests unconformably on pre-2700 Ma komatiitic to calc-alkalic volcanic sequences and is the expression of the latest stages of magmatism and tectonism that shaped the greenstone belt. An age of 2685 ± 3 Ma for the Bidgood quartz porphyry, an age of about 2685–2682 Ma for a quartz–feldspar porphyry clast in a conglomerate, and ages ranging from 2686 to 2680 Ma for detrital zircons in sandstones appear to reflect an early stage in the development of the Timiskaming Group. The youngest detrital zircons in each of three sandstones at Timmins, Kirkland Lake, and south of Larder Lake define maximum ages of sedimentation at about 2679 Ma; the latter sandstone is cut by a porphyry dyke dated by titanite at [Formula: see text], identical to the 2677 ± 2 Ma age for a volcanic agglomerate of the Bear Lake Formation north of Larder Lake. Similar ages have previously been reported for syenitic to granitic plutons of the region. The dominant period of Timiskaming sedimentation and magmatism was thus 2680–2677 Ma. Xenocrystic zircons found in a porphyry and a lamprophyre dyke have ages of 2750–2720 Ma, which correspond to the ages of the oldest units in the belt, predating the volumetrically dominant ca. 2700 Ma greenstone sequences. The presence of these xenocrysts and the onlapping of the Timiskaming Group on all earlier lithotectonic units of the southern Abitibi belt support the concept that the 2700 Ma ensimatic sequences were thrust onto older assemblages during a phase of compression that culminated with the generation of tonalite and granodiorite at about 2695–2688 Ma. Published geochemical data for the Timiskaming igneous suite, notably the enrichments in large-ion lithophile elements and light rare-earth elements and the relative depletion of Nb, Ta, and Ti compare with the characteristics of suites at modern convergent settings such as the Eolian and the Banda arcs and are consistent with generation of the melts from deep metasomatized mantle in the final stages of, or after cessation of, subduction. Late- and post-Timiskaming compression caused north-directed thrusting and folding. Turbiditic sedimentary units of the Larder Lake area which locally structurally overly the alluvial–fluvial sequence and were earlier thought to be part of the Timiskaming Group, appear to be older "flyschoid" sequences, possibly correlative with sedimentary rocks deposited in the Porcupine syncline at Timmins between 2700 and 2690 Ma.

scholarly journals RECOGNIZING PORPHYRY COPPER POTENTIAL FROM TILL ZIRCON COMPOSITION: A CASE STUDY FROM THE HIGHLAND VALLEY PORPHYRY DISTRICT, SOUTH-CENTRAL BRITISH COLUMBIA

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert G. Lee ◽  
Alain Plouffe ◽  
Travis Ferbey ◽  
Craig J.R. Hart ◽  
Pete Hollings ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Trace Element ◽  
Detrital Zircon ◽  
Porphyry Copper ◽  
Detrital Zircons ◽  
Late Triassic ◽  
Ionization Mass ◽  
South Central ◽  
Copper Mineralization ◽  
Porphyry Copper Mineralization

Abstract The detrital zircons in tills overlying the Guichon Creek batholith, British Columbia, Canada, have trace element concentrations and ages similar to those of zircons from the bedrock samples from which they are interpreted to have been sourced. Rocks from the core of the batholith that host porphyry copper mineralization have distinct zircon compositions relative to the distal, barren margin. We analyzed 296 zircons separated from 12 subglacial till samples to obtain U-Pb ages and trace element compositions. Laser ablation U-Pb ages of the detrital zircons overlap within error with chemical abrasion-thermal ionization mass spectrometry U-Pb ages of the Late Triassic Guichon Creek batholith and confirm that the detrital zircons are likely derived from the batholith. The youngest intrusions of the batholith produced the Highland Valley Copper porphyry deposits and contain distinctive zircons with elevated Eu/EuN* >0.4 attributed to high magmatic water contents and oxidation states, indicating higher porphyry copper potential. Zircon from till samples adjacent to and 9 km down-ice from the mineralized centers have mean Eu/EuN* >0.4, which are indicative of potential porphyry copper mineralization. Detrital zircon grains from more distal up- and down-ice locations (10–15 km) have zircon Eu/EuN* mean values of 0.26 to 0.37, reflecting background values. We conclude that detrital zircon compositions in glacial sediments transported several kilometers can be used to establish the regional potential for porphyry copper mineralization.

Structural setting and age of the Partridge Island block, southern New Brunswick, Canada: a link to the Cobequid Highlands of northern mainland Nova Scotia

2014 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian F. Park ◽  
Robert L. Treat ◽  
Sandra M. Barr ◽  
Chris E. White ◽  
Brent V. Miller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
New Brunswick ◽  
Tectonic Setting ◽  
Sedimentary Rocks ◽  
Alkali Feldspar ◽  
Early Carboniferous ◽  
Late Devonian ◽  
Island Formation ◽  
Lake Formation ◽  
Saint John

The Partridge Island block is a newly identified tectonic element in the Saint John area of southern New Brunswick, located south of and in faulted contact with Proterozoic and Cambrian rocks of the Ganderian Brookville and Avalonian Caledonia terranes. It includes the Lorneville Group and Tiner Point complex. The Lorneville Group consists of interbedded volcanic and sedimentary rocks, subdivided into the Taylors Island Formation west of Saint John Harbour and West Beach Formation east of Saint John Harbour. A sample from thin rhyolite layers interbedded with basaltic flows of the Taylors Island Formation at Sheldon Point yielded a Late Devonian – Early Carboniferous U–Pb (zircon) age of 358.9 +6/–5 Ma. Petrological similarities indicate that all of the basaltic rocks of the Taylors Island and West Beach formations are of similar age and formed in a continental within-plate tectonic setting. West of Saint John Harbour, basaltic and sedimentary rocks of the Taylors Island Formation are increasingly deformed and mylonitic to the south, and in part tectonically interlayered with mylonitic granitoid rocks and minor metasedimentary rocks of the Tiner Point complex. Based on magnetic signatures, the deformed rocks of the Tiner Point complex can be traced through Partridge Island to the eastern side of Saint John Harbour, where together with the West Beach Formation, they occupy a thrust sheet above a redbed sequence of the mid-Carboniferous Balls Lake Formation. The Tiner Point complex includes leucotonalite and aegirine-bearing alkali-feldspar granite with A-type chemical affinity and Early Carboniferous U–Pb (zircon) ages of 353.6 ± 5.7 and 346.4 ± 0.7 Ma, respectively. Based on similarities in age, petrological characteristics, alteration, iron oxide – copper – gold (IOCG)-type mineralization, and deformation style, the Partridge Island block is correlated with Late Devonian – Early Carboniferous volcanic–sedimentary–plutonic rocks of the Cobequid Highlands in northern mainland Nova Scotia. Deformation was likely a result of dextral transpression along the Cobequid–Chedabucto fault zone during juxtaposition of the Meguma terrane.

scholarly journals U-PB AND HF ISOTOPIC ANALYSIS OF DETRITAL ZIRCONS FROM PALEOZOIC AND CRETACEOUS STRATA OF SOUTHERN VANCOUVER ISLAND, BRITISH COLUMBIA

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel G. Alberts ◽  
◽  
George Gehrels ◽  
George Gehrels ◽  
JoAnne L. Nelson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Isotopic Analysis ◽  
Vancouver Island ◽  
Detrital Zircons

Upper Paleozoic rocks of the western Canadian Cordillera and their bearing on Cordilleran evolution

1977 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 1832-1859 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. W. H. Monger
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Pacific Ocean ◽  
Sedimentary Rocks ◽  
Ocean Floor ◽  
Canadian Cordillera ◽  
Island Arcs ◽  
South Central ◽  
Early Mesozoic ◽  
Basic Volcanics ◽  
Paleozoic Rocks

Volcanic and sedimentary successions of late Paleozoic and locally Mesozoic age in the Canadian Cordillera form six assemblages, based mainly on lithological association and similar stratigraphy. From east to west these assemblages are: (1) Eastern assemblage, located along the Omineca Crystalline Belt and consisting of Mississippian to Permian largely sedimentary rocks overlain by mainly Permian basic volcanics and ultramafics; (2) poorly known rocks in south-central British Columbia characterized by abundant volcaniclastics of Pennsylvanian and Permian ages; (3) Cache Creek – Bridge River assemblage of the Intermontane Bell, ranging from Lower Mississippian to Middle Jurassic and composed of chert, argillite, carbonate, basic volcanics, and ultramafics: (4) Stikine assemblage of northwestern and north-central British Columbia of Mississippian and Permian age, with basic to acidic volcanics, argillite, and carbonate; (5) Chilliwack Group on the west side of the Cascade Mountains, of Pennsylvanian and Permian age, with basic to acidic volcanics overlying a carbonate and clastic succession: and (6) Sicker–Skolai assemblage of Vancouver Island and the Saint Elias Mountains with basic to acidic volcanics overlain by sedimentary rocks. Coeval faunas in several of these assemblages differ. The assemblages may be largely unrelated to one another and came together in the Mesozoic, Their present distribution, with rocks typical of ocean basins (assemblages 1, 3) east of rocks that probably represent island arcs (assemblages, 2, 4, 5, 6) presents major problems. Two hypotheses attempt to explain this distribution. (1) The oceanic assemblages represent Paleozoic and early Mesozoic Pacific Ocean floor obducted over a broad arc terrane in the Jurassic, or (2) they are Paleozoic and early Mesozoic Pacific Ocean floor, trapped east of allochthonous arc terranes (assemblages 4, 5, 6) emplaced in the Mesozoic.

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