Gravity and magnetic anomalies of the Sutton Mountains region, Quebec and Vermont: expressions of rift volcanics related to the opening of Iapetus

Abstract

Prominent, nearly coincident, positive gravity and magnetic anomalies occur in the Sutton Mountains region, centered about 100 km east of Montreal, Quebec. Several lines of evidence indicate that the gravity anomaly stems from two principal sources: a deep (mid and lower crustal) source of speculative origin and a shallow source identifiable with a narrow belt of late Precambrian – early Cambrian metavolcanic rocks, the Tibbit Hill volcanics. The magnetic anomaly seems to be produced mainly by the metavolcanic rocks. Three-dimensional modelling of a residual gravity anomaly, supplemented by two-dimensional modelling of the magnetic anomaly, shows that the seemingly minor belt of metavolcanic rocks constitutes the surface expression of a thick (maximum thickness ~8 km) pile of dominantly mafic volcanics, which are only slightly exposed at the present level of erosion.The Tibbit Hill volcanics are regarded as products of rift-related volcanism that occurred at an rrr triple junction developed during the early stages of the opening of the Iapetus Ocean. The Ottawa graben is probably the failed arm of this triple junction. The emplacement of the Grenville dike swarm whose trend is nearly coincident with that of the Ottawa graben was probably coeval with the volcanism in the Sutton Mountains region. The present work shows that the volcanism in the region was on a much larger scale than hitherto recognized.