Concurrent MORB-type and ultrapotassic volcanism in an extensional basin along the Laurentian Iapetus margin: Tectonomagmatic response to Ordovician arc-continent collision and subduction polarity flip

Arc-continent collision, followed by subduction polarity flip, occurs during closure of oceanic basins and contributes to the growth of continental crust. Such a setting may lead to a highly unusual association of ultrapotassic and mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB)-type volcanic rocks as documented here from an Ordovician succession of the Scandinavian Caledonides. Interbedded with deep-marine turbidites, pillow basalts evolve from depleted-MORB (εNdt 9.4) to enriched-MORB (εNdt 4.8) stratigraphically upward, reflecting increasingly deeper melting of asthenospheric mantle. Intercalated intermediate to felsic lava and pyroclastic units, dated at ca. 474−469 Ma, are extremely enriched in incompatible trace elements (e.g., Th) and have low εNdt (−8.0 to −6.6) and high Sri (0.7089−0.7175). These are interpreted as ultrapotassic magmas derived from lithospheric mantle domains metasomatized by late Paleoproterozoic to Neoproterozoic crust-derived material (isotopic model ages 1.7−1.3 Ga). Detrital zircon spectra reveal a composite source for the interbedded turbidites, including Archean, Paleo-, to Neoproterozoic, and Cambro-Ordovician elements; clasts of Hølonda Porphyrite provide a link to the Hølonda terrane of Laurentian affinity. The entire volcano-sedimentary succession is interpreted to have formed in a rift basin that opened along the Laurentian margin as a result of slab rollback subsequent to arc-continent collision, ophiolite obduction and subduction polarity flip. The association of MORBs and ultrapotassic rocks is apparently a unique feature along the Caledonian-Appalachian orogen. Near-analogous modern settings include northern Taiwan and the Tyrrhenian region of the Mediterranean, but other examples of strictly concurrent MORB and ultrapotassic volcanism remain to be documented.

Physical volcanology of the footwall rocks near the Mattabi massive sulphide deposit, Sturgeon Lake, Ontario

Subaerial and shallow subaqueous mafic hyalotuffs, lava flows, and flow breccias, felsic lava flows, and pyroclastic flows and falls form a 2 km thick succession beneath the Mattabi massive sulphide deposit. The lowermost 800 m of section comprises massive to amygdaloidal mafic flows and flow breccias interlayered with repetitive sequences of thinly bedded felsic tuff: pillow lavas and hyaloclastites are absent. Amygdaloidal felsic lavas overlie the mafic flows and are locally capped by coarse explosion breccia. This breccia is believed to represent the start of mafic hydrovolcanism, which produced ash falls, surges, and flows. These pyroclastic deposits formed thin- to thick-bedded hyalotuffs that contain highly vesicular and quenched juvenile and accessory lithic fragments. Periods of water influx probably led to the construction of a tuff cone, which represents a submergent hydrovolcanic cycle.In the Mattabi area, pyroclastic flow deposits form the immediate mine footwall strata and include (i) massive basal beds and overlying bedded ash tuffs and (ii) massive pumiceous units. These deposits overlie and, to the west in the Darkwater Lake area, are intercalated with the mafic hyalotuff sequence. The morphology of the footwall volcanic rocks indicates that the Mattabi and the F-zone massive sulphide deposits formed in a shallow subaqueous environment.