A felsic dyke swarm formed under the sea: the Archean Hunter Mine Group, south-central Abitibi Belt, Quebec, Canada

Abstract

An extensive rhyolitic dyke swarm has intruded subaqueous pyroclastic deposits, iron-formations, hyaloclastite breccias and lava flows of the 2730 Ma Hunter Mine Group (HMG) in the south-central part of the Archean Abitibi belt, Quebec. The dyke swarm has a minimum width of 500 m and can be traced perpendicular to the section for 2.4 km. Based on crosscutting relationships, chilled margins, quartz content and colour, five distinct dyke generations have been established. Each dyke generation has several magmatic pulses as indicated by parallel rows of columnar joints. Absence of brecciation between parallel rows suggests extremely brief intervals between magma pulses. The central parts of most dykes display inverted V-shaped patterns of columnar-joint convergence, inferred to indicate differential cooling during the late stages of dyke propagation. The dykes commonly display delicate spherulites suggesting rapid cooling, solidification temperatures between 400 and 600°C and penecontemporaneous devitrification. Quartz-feldspar aggregates in the groundmass have locally developed microgranophyric textures. Large spherulites near the chilled margins probably formed at temperatures below 400°C. Percolation of abundant water throughout the dyke complex is suggested by ubiquitous prominent chilled dyke margins. Development of a chilled margin 500 m along one dyke suggests that water percolated at least 500 m below the water/rock interface. Because the dykes intruded subaqueous pyroclastic deposits of similar composition, dyke emplacement below the sea floor is inferred. Interstratification of pillowed flows and brecciated pillowed flows containing rhyolite fragments at the top of the 4–5-km-thick sequence indicates that the central felsic complex probably never emerged during its evolutionary history, supporting the contention that the felsic dyke complex was emplaced beneath the Archean sea floor.