1.1 Ga K-rich alkaline plutonism in the SW Grenville Province

Abstract

U−Pb zircon and baddeleyite dating of six syenitic stocks establishes that the ultrapotassic, potassic alkaline and shoshonitic magmatism with island-arc affinities in the Central Metasedimentary Belt (CMB) of the southwestern Grenville Province, Canada took place between 1089 and 1076 Ma, along a 400-km-long, northeast-trending plutonic belt. These ages indicate that ultrapotassic rocks with arc affinities are not unique to the Phanerozoic. West to east emplacement ages along a northern and southern cross-section of this belt range from 1083±2 Ma (Kensington), through 1081±2 Ma (Lac Rouge) to 1076 −1 +3 Ma (Loranger) in the north, and from 1089 −3 +4 Ma (loon Lake) and 1088±2 Ma (Calabogie), to 1076±2 Ma (Westport) in the south. Although closely spaced in time, in detail these ages suggest a slight younging of this magmatic activity to the southeast. Integration of the geochronological data with the spatial extent and potassic character of the plutons shows that the K-rich alkaline suite is distinct from the nepheline-syenite belt of the Bancroft terrane and from the syenite-monzonite suite of the Frontenac terrane of the CMB, and it is considered to be a magmatic episode unique to the Elzevir terrane and its Gatineau segment. The timing and the postmetamorphic emplacement of these plutons indicate that the regional greenschist to granulite-facies metamorphism of the country rock (precise age unknown) is older than 1089 Ma throughout the entire Elzevir terrane. The potassic magmatism is interpreted as the initiation of the 1090–1050 Ma Ottawan Orogeny in the Elzevir terrane; thus, the regional metamorphism in this terrane, previously assigned to the Ottawan Orogeny, is an earlier event. The contemporaneous emplacement of this postmetamorphic plutonic belt with Keweenawan volcanism is at variance with current tectonic models which consider the Keweenawan rift to be formed at the same time as regional metamorphism in the CMB.