Middle Jurassic to earliest Cretaceous mid-crustal tectono-metamorphism in the northern Canadian Cordillera: Recording foreland-directed migration of an orogenic front

Abstract

In situ sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe monazite geochronology and garnet isopleth thermobarometry reveal a previously unrecognized Middle Jurassic to earliest Cretaceous mid-crustal tectono-metamorphic event in the eastern part of the Yukon-Tanana terrane (Finlayson Lake district, southeast Yukon) in the northern Canadian Cordillera. Intersection of garnet end-member compositional isopleths applied to single-stage, growth-zoned garnet records progressive garnet growth from 550 °C and 6.1–6.6 kbar to 600 °C and 7.5 kbar. Monazite textures, chemical zoning, and in situ U-Pb ages record a single protracted episode of monazite growth from ca. 169 to 142 Ma coeval with the development of transposition fabrics and the late stages of garnet growth. This event post-dates widespread Early Jurassic exhumation of Yukon-Tanana terrane rocks west of the Tintina fault in west-central Yukon, which were previously ductily deformed and metamorphosed in the Permo-Triassic. The lack of evidence for Permo-Triassic ductile deformation and high-grade metamorphism within the Finlayson Lake district, and its position east of the Permian arc center and west of Permian blueschists and eclogites, suggests this eastern part of the terrane occupied the cool forearc at this time. These data indicate younger, more protracted mid-crustal orogenesis in the northern Cordillera than was previously recognized, with deformation and metamorphism migrating toward the foreland and downwards in the Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous, in part contemporaneous with and analogous to that in the southeastern Canadian Cordillera.