An 40Ar/39Ar geochronological study of the Elzevir batholith and its bearing on the tectonothermal history of the southwestern Grenville Province, Canada

Abstract

Results of 40Ar/39Ar step heating for muscovite, potassium feldspar, and plagioclase from the ca. 1240 Ma Elzevir trondhjemite in the Central Metasedimentary Belt of the Canadian Grenville Province have been combined with earlier data and used to deduce a thermal history for the eastern Elzevir terrane following the Ottawan orogeny (1050–950 Ma). Muscovite yielded precise plateau dates of ca. 900 Ma, whereas the potassium feldspar displayed disturbed age spectra with ca. 730–760 Ma dates for broad "plateau" regions. This age difference could be explained by slow cooling or by thermal overprinting at 760–800 Ma that has updated the microcline. The plagioclase spectra provide evidence for a low-temperature hydrothermal event ca. 380 Ma ago that has generated sericite in saussurite and has caused partial argon loss from the microcline. This result agrees with the other plagioclase thermochronometry and paleomagnetism on the Cordova gabbro 25 km to the west but provides a lower estimate for the upper age bracket of this event. It is suggested that earlier models of protracted, post-700 Ma cooling of this part of the Grenville orogen may be a consequence of variable updating of plagioclase by this Devonian alteration event.Results of 40Ar/39Ar step heating for muscovite and microcline from the Bark Lake diorite in the Bancroft terrane are in agreement with earlier work in this area, and the cooling path of the Elzevir trondhjemite is seen to be indistinguishable, within the limitations of the method, from that of the Bark Lake diorite in the time period 1050–750 Ma.