Age of the Brookville Gneiss and associated rocks, southeastern New Brunswick

Abstract

The Brookville Gneiss is a medium- to high-grade quartz–feldspar–biotite and hornblende–quartz–feldspar–biotite gneiss found north and northeast of Saint John, New Brunswick. The Green Head Group, a sequence of low-grade metasediments, surrounds the Brookville Gneiss. Analyses of zircons with euhedral to subhedral overgrowths and rounded to subrounded cores from the Brookville Gneiss yield an upper intercept age on concordia of 1641 Ma, considered to be the age of the source area for the zircons. The zircon analyses also indicate two Pb-loss events at approximately 780 and 370 Ma. These ages are confirmed by zircon analyses of a quartz diorite gneiss from Green Head Island, which yields ages of 827 and 333 Ma. A small euhedral single zircon from the Brookville Gneiss, believed to be formed during metamorphism, gives a concordant age of 814 Ma corresponding to the first Pb-loss event. Rb–Sr whole-rock analyses of a granite from the east side of Musquash Harbour southwest of Saint John give an age of 392 Ma and an initial Sr ratio of 0.7187 substantiating the second Pb-loss event.The results indicate that the Brookville Gneiss and Green Head Group are older than 800 Ma and probably younger than 1200 Ma. The zircon source area age (1641 Ma) and first Pb-loss event (800 Ma) are similar to ages found in rocks of the eastern margin of the Appalachian orogen from Massachusetts and Cape Breton Island, respectively. They suggest a setting and tectonic event correlated in time for the Late Precambrian of the eastern margin distinct from the younger so-called "Avalonian."