A late Precambrian rift-related igneous suite in western Newfoundland

Abstract

A granite that yields a U–Pb zircon age of 602 ± 10 Ma is associated with mafic and silicic volcanic rocks and metamorphic equivalents near Deer Lake in western Newfoundland. The granitic rocks are named the Round Pond granite, and the combined granite–volcanic suite is assigned to the Hughes Lake complex. All of the rocks are contained in the Hughes Lake structural slice that occurs above other allochthonous rocks and the autochthonous Cambrian–Ordovician carbonate sequence of western Newfoundland.The Round Pond granite is cut by metadiabase dykes. Mafic volcanic rocks, interpreted as coeval with the dykes, occur along the southeast side of the granite. A thick sequence of arkosic metagreywackes and psammitic to pelitic schists of the Mount Musgrave Group occurs stratigraphically above the mafic volcanic rocks. Regional correlations imply that the Mount Musgrave Group is of late Precambrian – Early Cambrian age, thus setting an upper stratigraphic limit to the age of the Hughes Lake complex.Perthitic and granophyric textures and the chemistry of the Round Pond granite are typical of anorogenic high-level hypersolvus intrusions. Nearby pink silicic volcanic rocks are probably consanguineous with the granite and together with the mafic volcanics form a bimodal suite.Bimodal volcanic suites and related mafic dykes and granitic intrusions imply rift tectonic settings. Occurrences along the west flank of the Appalachian Orogen are equated with the initiation of an ancient continental margin and the opening of an Iapetus Ocean. The 602 ± 10 Ma age of the Round Pond granite dates the rifting in western Newfoundland. Older isotopic ages on similar rocks in the southern Appalachians of the United States suggest a diachronous Precambrian rifting and Iapetus opening that propagated northward, much like the Mesozoic opening of the North Atlantic Ocean.