Extrapolation of tectonic boundaries across the Labrador shelf: U–Pb geochronology of well samples

Abstract

Near Saglek Fiord, a northerly trending boundary between the early Archean Saglek block and the middle Archean Hopedale block extends between drill sites which, respectively, sampled Uivak amphibolite gneiss with U–Pb zircon intercept ages of 3742 ± 12 and 2752 ± 42 Ma, and migmatitic Lister gneiss with concordant ages of [Formula: see text] for restite and [Formula: see text], for leucosome. Titanite ages of ca. 2508 Ma are common to both rocks. A nearby metapsammitic gneiss has detrital zircon and monazite ages of 2681 ± 5, 2700 ± 4, ca. 2730, and 2750 ± 2 Ma representing high-grade metamorphism related to the Hopedale–Saglek collision and metamorphic monazite of ca. 2560 Ma age representing metamorphism of the sediment during reactivation of the Saglek–Hopedale suture. Two hundred kilometres southeast, a gneissic granite records a protolith age of 3170 Ma and Late Proterozoic Pb loss. Near the Nain–Makkovik boundary, 1269 ± 4 Ma zircons indicate a significant extension of the Nain Platonic Suite. South of the Makkovik boundary, a foliated granite yielded an upper intercept age defining intrusion at 1895 ± 8 Ma and concordant 1872 ± 5 Ma titanite ages that date subsequent metamorphism. Discordant U–Pb ages from an alkali-feldspar granite also constrain crystallization to ca. 1890 Ma and together with the gneiss represent the previously defined Iggiuk event in the Kaipokok domain. Wells near the southerly end of the transect record 1801 ± 5, 1813 ± 3, and 1806 ± 8 Ma ages, respectively, that are typical of the synorogenic granitoid suite representing the Cape Harrison domain of southern Makkovik Province.