Problems of the time of foundation and the tectonic evolution of the Onega — Kandalaksha paleorift in the light of the data of isotopic geochronology

Kandalaksha graben, located in the water-area of the White sea, is a part of the Onega-Kandalaksha paleorift of the Riphean time of foundation. It is filled with the terrigenous formations of the Terskaya suites ranging from 3 to 8 km by depth, while the age of the rocks of the Terskaya suite is still controversial, and according to different sources, ranges from 1300 to 670 Ma. This means that the time of the formation of Kandalaksha Graben is not precisely defined. In 2016, on the Tersky Bank of the Kola Peninsula, a sample of sandstones of the suite was selected. The age of the rock of 1390±25 Ma, i.e. the boundary of the early and middle Riphean, was determined by the K-Ar isotope method.. This corresponds to the time of the beginning of the stretching of the lithosphere and continental rifting. Quartz-microcline metasomatites formed on sand-shale spit of Terskaya suite in the zone of amethyst deposit of Cape Korablik gave the age of 821±170 Ma, determined by Sm-Nd method, and fluorite of the same rocks gave the age of 690±71 Ma. The last value is close to the age of the basalts from the Onega depression, defined by the same method. These data correspond to the momentum of stretching of the passive Timan margin of the Baltic area at the end of the late Riphean.

Rb-Sr Isotopic Geochronology and Geological Implications of Dongfeng Gold Deposit in Jiaodong Area

<p>The superlarge Dongfeng gold deposit is located in the Potouqing faults-alteration belt of the eastern part of the ‘Zhao-Lai-gold ore belt’, which belongs to the northwestern part of the Jiaodong area. Tectonically, ore bodies are controlled by faults and gold mainly occurs in the pyrite and polymetallic sulfide-bearing quartz vein. In this paper, Rb–Sr isotopic analysis is carried out with the beresite, which formed by hydrothermal metasomatism, and the Rb–Sr isochron age is 125.5±6.7Ma, indicating this deposit set up in the early Cretaceous of the late Yanshanian. Based on the relationship between the Dongfeng gold deposit and the Mesozoic granite, it is suggested that the formation of the gold deposit is a complex geological process of gradual enrichment and precipitation of the ore-forming elements. The initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio of the beresite is 0.711502±0.000069, which indicates the ore-forming materials mainly come from the crust. Combined with the complex mineralization process of the Dongfeng gold deposit and the reported H-O isotopic data, it is suggested that the ore-forming materials are mainly derived from the crust with some mantle materials, while the ore-forming fluids are originated primarily from magmatic hydrothermal and mantle with some precipitate water.</p>

Grenvillia and Laurentia — a Precambrian Wilson cycle?

John Tuzo Wilson coined the term “plate” in plate tectonics. He is famous for inventing transform boundaries, hot spot tracks, and the Wilson cycle of ocean birth, growth, and decline. Less well remembered is his work in the 1950s on tectonic and radiometric age provinces of the Canadian Shield, as part of which he fathered U/Pb geochronology in Canada. This work gave strong support to the notion of continental growth through accretion of successively younger terranes onto an ancient cratonic core. The present paper reviews how paleomagnetism can trace the motions of continents to test Wilson’s ideas. Continental accretion often involves deep burial of one of the colliding elements through subduction or crustal underplating; such was the case with the Grenville orogen and its subprovinces in their Proterozoic accretion onto the Laurentian craton. The resulting heating and metamorphism erases most pre-collisional magnetic information but adds something new: the possibility of following the post-metamorphic uplift and cooling history, in time and space. The time element is provided by a new form of isotopic geochronology, thermochronometry, which provides dates for specific minerals together with the temperatures at which they became closed to isotopic migration. U/Pb dating of sphene is one method used; another is the 40Ar/39Ar variant of K/Ar dating applied to hornblende, micas, and feldspars, which have a wide range of Ar closure temperatures. The two specific Grenville studies described deal with parallel uplift histories determined by 40Ar/39Ar dating and by magnetics for the accreted terranes of the Central Metasedimentary Belt in Ontario and with the paleomagnetic detection of the post-1240 Ma closing of a small ocean between the Elsevir terrane and Laurentia during the Grenvillian orogeny.