Grenville Province and Monteregian carbonatite and nepheline syenite distribution related to rifting, collision, and plume passage

Abstract

Stimulated by the recognition of a rifted continental margin to pre-Grenville Laurentia, we interpret the deformed alkaline igneous rocks and carbonatites (DARCs) adjacent to that margin in the Bancroft domain of Ontario, Canada, to be rocks initially erupted as alkaline rocks and carbonatites (ARCs) in an intra-continental rift. When an ocean began to form, rupturing Laurentia on the site of that rift, the newly formed Laurentian rifted continental margin contained ARCs that had erupted into the intra-continental rift. Later in a Wilson cycle of ocean opening and closing, those ARCs became DARCs during a collision that sutured the Grenville province composite arc belt and Bancroft domain rocks against the margin of Laurentia on the Central Meta-sedimentary Belt boundary thrust zone. Using this interpretation we show that DARCs of the down-dip Bancroft domain suture zone in the mantle at a depth of ~100 km are likely sources of the Early Cretaceous ARC rocks in the Monteregian province.