Docking of the Central Metasedimentary Belt to Laurentia in geon 12: evidence from the 1.17-1.16 Ga Chevreuil intrusive suite and host gneisses, Quebec

Abstract

The Chevreuil intrusive suite (1.17-1.16 Ga) represents a chronological field marker of regional extent that intruded the Central Metasedimentary Belt in the western Grenville Province of Quebec after peak metamorphism. Style and site of magma emplacement, and extent of deformation of Chevreuil plutons and dykes permit unravelling of the early Grenvillian evolution of the belt with respect to cratonal North America. The suite comprises a series of vertically layered gabbro stocks and monzonite-diorite-gabbro sheet intrusions, and a swarm of microdiorite dykes that cut across gneisses. The dykes display systematic variations in extent of deformation across the belt. We targeted U-Pb geochronology on gneisses within the identified strain windows; they preserve the record of a ca. 1.20 Ga high pressure-temperature (P-T) metamorphic event. The sheet intrusions define magmatic corridors all along, and concordant with, the western, northern, and eastern tectonic boundaries of the belt. The concordant and elongate shape of these bodies results from emplacement, not deformation. Chevreuil magmas thus sealed the belt boundaries largely in their current positions, with the implication that docking of Elzevirian and pre-Elzevirian terranes with cratonal North America predates 1.17 Ga. We interpret the 1.20 Ga metamorphism as evidence for the initiation of Grenvillian continent-continent collision during the culmination of the Elzevirian orogeny at ca. 1.22 Ga. Emplacement-related fabrics indicate that the Chevreuil suite and the coeval Morin anorthosite suite intruded during renewed orogenesis. This orogenic pulse (Shawinigan) is not accretionary, but represents a strongly partitioned, compressive, intraplate reactivation event.