Paleo-Proterozoic thick-skinned tectonics: Lithoprobe seismic reflection results from the eastern Trans-Hudson Orogen

Abstract

New seismic reflection data collected by Lithoprobe across the Trans-Hudson Orogen (Manitoba and Saskatchewan) provide striking images of juvenile paleo-Proterozoic arc rocks (Flin Flon and Kisseynew belts) juxtaposed against the deformed northwestern margin of the Archean Superior craton. Crustal imbrication on a scale imaged in few other orogens is observed within the Flin Flon Belt where a package of shallowly east-dipping reflections extends from the surface to 14 s. These reflections are attributed to middle to lower crustal arc rocks that appear to have been stacked below a major detachment that underlies the upper crustal rocks of the Flin Flon Belt. Surprisingly, the seismic images show the juvenile arc rocks dipping moderately eastward beneath the craton in apparent contradiction to existing tectonic models. Geological and geochronological evidence suggest that the observed crustal imbrication probably reflects late-collisional or postcollisional convergence rather than earlier oceanic subduction polarity. The east-dipping reflection fabric, marking a Hudsonian tectonic overprint, extends across the Superior Boundary Zone up to the Pikwitonei Granulite Belt where upper crustal reflections are west dipping. An east-dipping seismic boundary between these domains, which soles into the mid-crust, may represent a west-verging thrust fault along which the crust of the Archean Superior craton was uplifted.