Composition, age, and origin of granitoid rocks in the Davin Lake area, Rottenstone Domain, Trans-Hudson Orogen, northern Saskatchewan

Abstract

The Rottenstone Domain of the Trans-Hudson orogen is a 25-km-wide granitic–migmatitic belt lying between the La Ronge volcanic–plutonic island arc (1890–1830 Ma) to the southeast and the ensialic Wathaman Batholith (1855 Ma) to the northwest. The Rottenstone Domain consists of three lithotectonic belts parallel to the orogen: (i) southeast — gently folded migmatized quartzo-feldspathic metasedimentary and mafic metavolcanic rocks intruded by small concordant and discordant white tonalite–monzogranite bodies; (ii) central — intensely folded and migmatized metasedimentary rocks and minor metavolcanic rocks intruded by largely discordant, xenolith-rich, pink aplite-pegmatite monzogranite bodies; and (iii) northwest — steeply folded migmatized metasedimentary rocks cut by subvertical white tonalite–monzogranite sheets. Emplacement of granitoid rocks consists predominantly of contiguous, orogen-parallel, steeply dipping, syntectonic and post-tectonic sheets with prominent magmatic schlieren bands, overprinted by parallel solid-state deformation features. The white granitoid rocks have A/CNK (mol Al2O3/(mol CaO + Na2O + K2O)) = 1.14–1.22, K/Rb ≈ 500, ΣREE (sum of rare-earth elements) < 70 ppm, Eu/Eu* > 1, 87Sr/86Sri ≈ 0.7032, and εNdi ≈ –2. The pink monzogranites have A/CNK = 1.11–1.16, K/Rb ≈ 500, ΣREE > 90 ppm, Eu/Eu* < 1, 87Sr/86Sri ≈ 0.7031, and εNdi ≈ –2. The white granitoid rocks show a wider compositional range and more compositional scatter than the pink monzogranites, reflecting some combination of smaller volume melts, less homogenization, and less control by crystal–melt equilibria. All metavolcanic, metasedimentary, and granitic rocks in the Rottenstone Domain have the distinctive geochemical signatures of an arc environment. New sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) U–Pb geochronology on the Rottenstone granitoid rocks reveals complex growth histories for monazite and zircon, variably controlled by inheritance, magmatism, and high-grade metamorphism. Monazite ages for the granitoid bodies and migmatites cluster at ~1834 and ~1814 Ma, whereas zircon ages range from ~2480 Ma (rare cores) to ~1900–1830 Ma (cores and mantles), but also ~1818–1814 Ma for low Th/U recrystallized rims, overgrowths, and rare discrete euhedral prisms. These results demonstrate that at least some source material for the granitic magmas included earliest Paleoproterozoic crust (Sask Craton?), or its derived sediments, and that Rottenstone granitic magmatism postdated plutonism in the bounding La Ronge Arc and Wathaman Batholith. We estimate the age of terminal metamorphism in the Davin Lake area to be ~1815 Ma. Petrogenetically, the Rottenstone migmatites and granitoid rocks appear, for the most part, locally derived from their metasedimentary and metavolcanic host rocks, shed from the La Ronge Arc, Sask Craton, and possibly the Hearne Craton. The Rottenstone Domain was the least competent member in the overthrust stack and probably underwent a combination of fluid-present melting and fluid-absent decompression melting, resulting in largely syntectonic granitoid magmatism ~1835–1815 Ma, analogous to granite production in the High Himalayan gneiss belt.