Correction to: U–Pb geochronology of Paleoproterozoic gneiss from southeastern Ellesmere Island: implications for displacement estimates on the Wegener fault

Abstract

The Wegener fault is a sinistral transform in Nares Strait, which lies between Greenland and Ellesmere Island; it connects the opening of the Eurasian Basin with spreading in Baffin Bay after ≈ 56 Ma (magnetic anomaly 24) and before 36 Ma (magnetic anomaly 13). The amount of horizontal slip on the Wegener fault system can be estimated from the offset of the boundary between the Archean Rae craton to the south and Paleoproterozoic gneisses of the Thelon Tectonic Zone to the north. This boundary is best defined in Greenland due to recent U–Pb zircon geochronology, but is less well known on Ellesmere Island. We have dated zircon in five samples of Precambrian granitic to tonalitic gneiss from southeastern Ellesmere Island using secondary ion mass spectrometry. Cathodoluminescence images reveal complex zircons with oscillatory zoning that lack evidence of xenocrystic cores and are commonly overprinted by recrystallization and surrounded by homogeneous rims. Trace-element patterns show the range of disturbance in zircon. The intrusive age is Paleoproterozoic and ranges from 2007 ± 14 to 1958 ± 14 Ma. In one sample, a well-defined lower intercept age of 357 ± 16 Ma on late overgrowths corresponds to a disturbance during the Ellesmerian orogeny. The results enhance the sparse data set of U–Pb ages in southeast Ellesmere Island and corroborate the previous placement of the boundary with Archean gneiss to the south near Devon Island. The boundary is offset by a minimum of 215 km across Nares Strait, corresponding to the minimum offset on the Wegener fault.