scholarly journals Destruction of Subcratonic Mantle Keel: the Wyoming Province

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Wyoming Province

Lithospheric roots beneath western Laurentia: the geochemical signal in mantle garnets

2003 ◽  
Vol 40 (8) ◽  
pp. 1027-1051 ◽  
Author(s):  
D Canil ◽  
D J Schulze ◽  
D Hall ◽  
B C Hearn Jr. ◽  
S M Milliken
Keyword(s):  
Rare Earth ◽  
North America ◽  
Trace Element ◽  
Earth Element ◽  
Geochemical Data ◽  
Trace Element Data ◽  
Mantle Lithosphere ◽  
Western North America ◽  
Wyoming Province ◽  
Thick Mantle

This study presents major and trace element data for 243 mantle garnet xenocrysts from six kimberlites in parts of western North America. The geochemical data for the garnet xenocrysts are used to infer the composition, thickness, and tectonothermal affinity of the mantle lithosphere beneath western Laurentia at the time of kimberlite eruption. The garnets record temperatures between 800 and 1450°C using Ni-in-garnet thermometry and represent mainly lherzolitic mantle lithosphere sampled over an interval from about 110–260 km depth. Garnets with sinuous rare-earth element patterns, high Sr, and high Sc/V occur mainly at shallow depths and occur almost exclusively in kimberlites interpreted to have sampled Archean mantle lithosphere beneath the Wyoming Province in Laurentia, and are notably absent in garnets from kimberlites erupting through the Proterozoic Yavapai Mazatzal and Trans-Hudson provinces. The similarities in depths of equilibration, but differing geochemical patterns in garnets from the Cross kimberlite (southeastern British Columbia) compared to kimberlites in the Wyoming Province argue for post-Archean replacement and (or) modification of mantle beneath the Archean Hearne Province. Convective removal of mantle lithosphere beneath the Archean Hearne Province in a "tectonic vise" during the Proterozoic terminal collisions that formed Laurentia either did not occur, or was followed by replacement of thick mantle lithosphere that was sampled by kimberlite in the Triassic, and is still observed there seismically today.

Geologic Map of the Park Reservoir Quadrangle, Sheridan County, Wyoming

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 375-388
Author(s):  
Ryan Bessen ◽  
Jennifer Gifford ◽  
Zack Ledbetter ◽  
Sean McGuire ◽  
Kyle True ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Structural Features ◽  
Geologic Mapping ◽  
Rock Types ◽  
Basement Rocks ◽  
Geologic Maps ◽  
Geologic Map ◽  
Tear Fault ◽  
Mapping Techniques ◽  
Wyoming Province ◽  
Bighorn Mountains

This project involved the construction of a detailed geologic map of the Park Reservoir, Wyoming 7.5-Minute Quadrangle (Scale 1:24,000). The Quadrangle occurs entirely in the Bighorn National Forest, which is a popular recreation site for thousands of people each year. This research advances the scientific understanding of the geology of the Bighorn Mountains and the Archean geology of the Wyoming Province. Traditional geologic mapping techniques were used in concert with isotopic age determinations. Our goal was to further subdivide the various phases of the 2.8–3.0 Ga Archean rocks based on their rock types, age, and structural features. This research supports the broader efforts of the Wyoming State Geological Survey to complete 1:24,000 scale geologic maps of the state. The northern part of the Bighorn Mountains is composed of the Bighorn batholith, a composite complex of intrusive bodies that were emplaced between 2.96–2.87 Ga. Our mapping of the Park Reservoir Quadrangle has revealed the presence of five different Archean quartzofeldspathic units, two sets of amphibolite and diabase dikes, a small occurrence of the Cambrian Flathead Sandstone, two Quaternary tills, and Quaternary alluvium. The Archean rock units range in age from ca. 2.96–2.75 Ga, the oldest of which are the most ancient rocks yet reported in the Bighorn batholith. All the Archean rocks have subtle but apparent planar fabric elements, which are variable in orientation and are interpreted to represent magmatic flow during emplacement. The Granite Ridge tear fault, which is the northern boundary of the Piney Creek thrust block, is mapped into the Archean core as a mylonite zone. This relationship indicates that the bounding faults of the Piney Creek thrust block were controlled by weak zones within the Precambrian basement rocks.

Archean geochronological framework of the Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming

2006 ◽  
Vol 43 (10) ◽  
pp. 1399-1418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol D Frost ◽  
C Mark Fanning
Keyword(s):  
Ion Microprobe ◽  
Entire Area ◽  
Wind River Range ◽  
Gneiss Complex ◽  
Granitic Intrusion ◽  
Northern Portion ◽  
Tonalitic Gneiss ◽  
Archean Crust ◽  
Wyoming Province ◽  
Bighorn Mountains

The Bighorn Mountains of the central Wyoming Province expose a large tract of Archean crust that has been tectonically inactive and at relatively high crustal levels since ~2.7 Ga. Seven sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) U–Pb zircon and titanite age determinations on samples of the main lithologic units provide a geochronological framework for the evolution of this area. The oldest, precisely dated magmatic event occurred at 2950 ± 5 Ma, when diorite to granite dykes and sills intruded an older gneiss complex exposed in the central and southern Bighorn Mountains. Rocks as old as 3.25 Ga may be present in this gneissic basement, as indicated by the oldest dates obtained on areas of zircon grains that are interpreted as inherited cores. A tonalitic gneiss was intruded into the gneiss complex at 2886 ± 5 Ma. Deformation of the central and southern gneisses preceded the intrusion of the Bighorn batholith, a tonalitic to granitic intrusion that occupies the northern portion of the uplift. This composite batholith was intruded over the period 2.86–2.84 Ga. Ca. 3.0–2.8 Ga crust is also present in the Beartooth Mountains, the Washakie block of the northeastern Wind River Range, the Owl Creek Mountains, and the northern Granite Mountains, but late Archean deformation and plutonism has obscured much of the earlier history in the southern portion of this area. The entire area, referred to as the Beartooth–Bighorn Magmatic Zone, has been undeformed since 2.6 Ga. Proterozoic extension was focused in those parts of the Wyoming Province outside of this domain.

scholarly journals The Medicine Hat Block and the Early Paleoproterozoic Assembly of Western Laurentia

Geosciences ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 271
Author(s):  
Jennifer N. Gifford ◽  
Shawn J. Malone ◽  
Paul A. Mueller
Keyword(s):  
Ocean Basin ◽  
Geochemical Data ◽  
Drill Core ◽  
Tectonic Zone ◽  
Aggregation Model ◽  
Wyoming Craton ◽  
Crystalline Crust ◽  
Wyoming Province ◽  
Crustal Xenoliths ◽  
Complex Block

The accretion of the Wyoming, Hearne, and Superior Provinces to form the Archean core of western Laurentia occurred rapidly in the Paleoproterozoic. Missing from Hoffman’s (1988) original rapid aggregation model was the Medicine Hat block (MHB). The MHB is a structurally distinct, complex block of Precambrian crystalline crust located between the Archean Wyoming Craton and the Archean Hearne Province and overlain by an extensive Phanerozoic cover. It is distinguished on the basis of geophysical evidence and limited geochemical data from crustal xenoliths and drill core. New U-Pb ages and Lu-Hf data from zircons reveal protolith crystallization ages from 2.50 to 3.28 Ga, magmatism/metamorphism at 1.76 to 1.81 Ga, and εHfT values from −23.3 to 8.5 in the Archean and Proterozoic rocks of the MHB. These data suggest that the MHB played a pivotal role in the complex assembly of western Laurentia in the Paleoproterozoic as a conjugate or extension to the Montana Metasedimentary Terrane (MMT) of the northwestern Wyoming Province. This MMT–MHB connection likely existed in the Mesoarchean, but it was broken sometime during the earliest Paleoproterozoic with the formation and closure of a small ocean basin. Closure of the ocean led to formation of the Little Belt arc along the southern margin of the MHB beginning at approximately 1.9 Ga. The MHB and MMT re-joined at this time as they amalgamated into the supercontinent Laurentia during the Great Falls orogeny (1.7–1.9 Ga), which formed the Great Falls tectonic zone (GFTZ). The GFTZ developed in the same timeframe as the better-known Trans-Hudson orogen to the east that marks the merger of the Wyoming, Hearne, and Superior Provinces, which along with the MHB, formed the Archean core of western Laurentia.

Extended history of a 3.5 Ga trondhjemitic gneiss, Wyoming Province, USA: evidence from UPb systematics in zircon

1996 ◽  
Vol 78 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 41-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul A. Mueller ◽  
Joseph L. Wooden ◽  
David W. Mogk ◽  
Allen P. Nutman ◽  
I.S. Williams
Keyword(s):  
History Of ◽  
Wyoming Province

Geochemistry and origin of Archean granites from the Black Hills, South Dakota

1990 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. C. Gosselin ◽  
J. J. Papike ◽  
C. K. Shearer ◽  
Z. E. Peterman ◽  
J. C. Laul
Keyword(s):  
Rare Earth ◽  
South Dakota ◽  
Partial Melting ◽  
Residence Time ◽  
Earth Element ◽  
Black Hills ◽  
Isotopic Data ◽  
Tectonic Environment ◽  
Sedimentary Source ◽  
Wyoming Province

The Little Elk Granite (2549 Ma) and granite at Bear Mountain (BMG) (~2.5 Ga) of the Black Hills formed as a result of a collisional event along the eastern margin of the Wyoming Province during the late Archean. Geochemical modelling and Nd isotopic data indicate that the Little Elk Granite was generated by the partial melting of a slightly enriched (εNd = −1.07 to −3.69) granodioritic source that had a crustal residence time of at least 190 Ma. The medium-grained to pegmatitic, peraluminous, leucocratic BMG was produced by melting a long-lived (>600 Ma), compositionally variable, enriched (εNd = −7.6 to −12.3) crustal source. This produced a volatile-rich, rare-earth-element-poor magma that experienced crystal–melt–volatile fractionation, which resulted in a lithologically complex granite.The production of volatile-rich granites, such as the BMG and the younger Harney Peak Granite (1715 Ma), is a function of the depositional and post-depositional tectonic environment of the sedimentary source rock. These environments control protolith composition and the occurrence of dehydration and melting reactions that are necessary for the generation of these volatile-rich leucocratic granites. These types of granites are commonly related to former continental–continental accretionary boundaries, and therefore their occurrence may be used as signatures of ancient continental suture zones.

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