scholarly journals Report of activities for High Arctic Large Igneous Province (HALIP) - GEM 2 Western Arctic Region Project: bedrock mapping and mineral exploration

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
M -C Williamson
Keyword(s):  
Mineral Exploration ◽  
Arctic Region ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Large Igneous Province ◽  
Igneous Province ◽  
Western Arctic

Enigmatic massive sulphide mineralization in the High Arctic Large Igneous Province, Nunavut, Canada

2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (7) ◽  
pp. 790-801 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek H.C. Wilton ◽  
Benoit M. Saumur ◽  
Adrian Gordon ◽  
Marie-Claude Williamson
Keyword(s):  
Mineral Exploration ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
High Heat ◽  
Massive Sulphide ◽  
Large Igneous Province ◽  
Sulphur Isotope ◽  
Sulphide Mineralization ◽  
Sulphide Minerals ◽  
Igneous Province ◽  
Axel Heiberg Island

Modern mineral exploration strategies should take into account nontraditional metallogenic models for a given geological environment. Here we document the first detailed study of a massive sulphide showing associated with the High Arctic Large Igneous Province (HALIP) and Sverdrup Basin and in fact, only the second example of mineralization described from Axel Heiberg Island, Queen Elizabeth Islands, Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The Between Lake showing (western Axel Heiberg Island) is a small massive sulphide occurrence within scree/talus below a large ridge of gabbro. It was originally described by explorationists as an orthomagmatic sulphide occurrence hosted within a dioritic dyke. New petrographic and mineralogical analyses indicate that the showing consists predominantly of pyrrhotite with lesser pyrite, trace chalcopyrite, and rare sphalerite. No Ni- or Pb-bearing sulphide minerals were detected. Geochemically, the showing contains some Co and Cu, rare Zn, and generally very low Ni contents (<9 ppm). Sulphur isotope ratios of sulphide minerals range from +3.6 to + 6.6‰, somewhat heavier than expected for magmatic-derived S but isotopically lighter than S associated with local evaporite diapirs (+5.8‰ to +12.2‰). Orthomagmatic sulphides hosted in the diorite typically exhibit even lighter isotopic ratios of –3.9‰ to –1.00‰. The data are consistent with potential mafic–siliciclastic volcanogenic massive sulphide mineralization, or the like, the first documented in the HALIP. High heat flow associated with extensive HALIP magmatism was likely the driving force for such mineralization. Mineral prospectivity in Canada’s High Arctic had been predicated upon the potential presence of magmatic Ni – Cu – platinum group element sulphide mineralization. Rather than negating this potential, our findings provide evidence for additional metallogenic potential for this region of Nunavut.

scholarly journals New constraints on the age, geochemistry, and environmental impact of High Arctic Large Igneous Province magmatism: Tracing the extension of the Alpha Ridge onto Ellesmere Island, Canada

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.V. Naber ◽  
S.E. Grasby ◽  
J.P. Cuthbertson ◽  
N. Rayner ◽  
C. Tegner
Keyword(s):  
Volcanic Rocks ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Ellesmere Island ◽  
Large Igneous Province ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Trace Element Geochemistry ◽  
Volcanic Complex ◽  
Northern Coast ◽  
Element Geochemistry ◽  
Igneous Province

The High Arctic Large Igneous Province (HALIP) represents extensive Cretaceous magmatism throughout the circum-Arctic borderlands and within the Arctic Ocean (e.g., the Alpha-Mendeleev Ridge). Recent aeromagnetic data shows anomalies that extend from the Alpha Ridge onto the northern coast of Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada. To test this linkage we present new bulk rock major and trace element geochemistry, and mineral compositions for clinopyroxene, plagioclase, and olivine of basaltic dykes and sheets and rhyolitic lavas for the stratotype section at Hansen Point, which coincides geographically with the magnetic anomaly at northern Ellesmere Island. New U-Pb chronology is also presented. The basaltic and basaltic-andesite dykes and sheets at Hansen Point are all evolved with 5.5−2.5 wt% MgO, 48.3−57.0 wt% SiO2, and have light rare-earth element enriched patterns. They classify as tholeiites and in Th/Yb vs. Nb/Yb space they define a trend extending from the mantle array toward upper continental crust. This trend, also including a rhyolite lava, can be modeled successfully by assimilation and fractional crystallization. The U-Pb data for a dacite sample, that is cut by basaltic dykes at Hansen Point, yields a crystallization age of 95.5 ± 1.0 Ma, and also shows crustal inheritance. The chronology and the geochemistry of the Hansen Point samples are correlative with the basaltic lavas, sills, and dykes of the Strand Fiord Formation on Axel Heiberg Island, Nunavut, Canada. In contrast, a new U-Pb age for an alkaline syenite at Audhild Bay is significantly younger at 79.5 ± 0.5 Ma, and correlative to alkaline basalts and rhyolites from other locations of northern Ellesmere Island (Audhild Bay, Philips Inlet, and Yelverton Bay West; 83−73 Ma). We propose these volcanic occurrences be referred to collectively as the Audhild Bay alkaline suite (ABAS). In this revised nomenclature, the rocks of Hansen Point stratotype and other tholeiitic rocks are ascribed to the Hansen Point tholeiitic suite (HPTS) that was emplaced at 97−93 Ma. We suggest this subdivision into suites replace the collective term Hansen Point volcanic complex. The few dredge samples of alkali basalt available from the top of the Alpha Ridge are akin to ABAS in terms of geochemistry. Our revised dates also suggest that the HPTS and Strand Fiord Formation volcanic rocks may be the hypothesized subaerial large igneous province eruption that drove the Cretaceous Ocean Anoxic Event 2.

Paleomagnetism and U–Pb geochronology of the Clarence Head dykes, Arctic Canada: orthogonal emplacement of mafic dykes in a large igneous province

2009 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 155-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven W. Denyszyn ◽  
Don W. Davis ◽  
Henry C. Halls
Keyword(s):  
Remanent Magnetization ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Large Igneous Province ◽  
Dyke Swarm ◽  
Canadian High Arctic ◽  
The North ◽  
Igneous Province ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Age Range ◽  
Chemical Remanent Magnetization

The north–south-trending Clarence Head dyke swarm, located on Devon and Ellesmere Islands in the Canadian High Arctic, has a trend orthogonal to that of the Neoproterozoic Franklin swarm that surrounds it. The Clarence Head dykes are dated by the U–Pb method on baddeleyite to between 716 ± 1 and 713 ± 1 Ma, ages apparently younger than, but within the published age range of, the Franklin dykes. Alpha recoil in baddeleyite is considered as a possible explanation for the difference in ages, but a comparison of the U–Pb ages of grains of equal size from both swarms suggests that recoil distances in baddeleyite are lower than those in zircon and that the Clarence Head dykes are indeed a distinctly younger event within the period of Franklin magmatism. The Clarence Head dykes represent a large swarm tangential to, and cogenetic with, a giant radiating dyke swarm ∼800 km from the indicated source. The preferred mechanism for the emplacement of the Clarence Head dykes is the exploitation of concentric zones of extension around a depleting and collapsing plume source. While the paleomagnetism of most Clarence Head dykes agrees with that of the Franklin dykes, two dykes have anomalous remanence directions, interpreted to be a chemical remanent magnetization carried by pyrrhotite. The pyrrhotite was likely deposited from fluids mobilized southward from the Devonian Ellesmerian Orogeny to the north that used the interiors of the dykes as conduits and precipitated pyrrhotite en route.

Tracking compositional changes within the High Arctic Large Igneous Province using zircon Hf isotopes from altered volcanic ash layers of the Sverdrup Basin, Canada

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Pointon ◽  
Michael Flowerdew ◽  
Peter Hülse ◽  
Simon Schneider ◽  
Ian Millar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Volcanic Ash ◽  
Volcanic Belt ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Ellesmere Island ◽  
Hf Isotope ◽  
Large Igneous Province ◽  
Volcanic Material ◽  
Igneous Province ◽  
Sverdrup Basin

&lt;p&gt;During Late Cretaceous times the Sverdrup Basin, Arctic Canada, received considerable air-fall volcanic material. This is manifested as numerous centimetre- to decimetre-thick diagenetically altered volcanic ash layers (bentonites) that occur interbedded with mudstones of the Kanguk Formation. Previous research on bentonite samples from an outcrop section in the east of the basin (Sawtooth Range, Ellesmere Island) revealed two distinct volcanic sources for the bentonites: most of the bentonites analysed (n=9) are relatively thick (0.1 to 5 m), were originally alkaline felsic ashes, and were likely sourced from local volcanic centres on northern Ellesmere Island or the Alpha Ridge that were associated with the High Arctic Large Igneous Province (HALIP). Two thinner (&lt;5 cm) bentonites with contrasting subalkaline geochemistry were also identified. These were inferred to have been derived from further afield, from volcanic centres within the Okhotsk-Chukotka Volcanic Belt, Russia.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To better understand volcanism within the vicinity of the Sverdrup Basin during Late Cretaceous times, and further test the above interpretations, a larger suite of bentonite samples was investigated, drawing on samples from outcrop sections in the central and eastern Sverdrup Basin. Whole-rock geochemical analyses and combined zircon U-Pb age and Hf isotope analyses were undertaken. The vast majority of bentonites analysed to date have alkaline geochemistry and were likely sourced from proximal volcanic centres related to the HALIP. The combined U-Pb and Hf isotope data from these bentonites show a progression from evolved (-2 to 0) to moderately juvenile (+9 to +10) &amp;#949;Hf&lt;sub&gt;(t)&lt;/sub&gt; values between late Cenomanian and early Campanian times (&lt;em&gt;c&lt;/em&gt;. 97&amp;#8211;81 Ma). This is interpreted to record compositional change through time within the local HALIP magmatic system.&lt;/p&gt;

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