Paleomagnetism and the origin of the Mackenzie Arc of northwestern Canada

Abstract

Analysis of paleomagnetic data obtained from 1966 alternating-field treatment and from recent thermal demagnetization of the same samples of Late Proterozoic (770 Ma) diabase sills and dykes distributed about the Mackenzie Arc from northeastern British Columbia to the Alaskan border has revealed a primary magnetization in seven sites that is similar to existing data from 10 sites confined to the central Mackenzie Mountains region (N = 17 site poles; 222.2°W, 01.6°N; R = 16.73; K = 60; A95 = 5°). The diabases are confined to the dominantly clastic Late Proterozoic Tsezotene Formation and Katherine Group of the Mackenzie Mountains Supergroup. Tests of Carey's orocline hypothesis for the arc using linear regression and a plan-view application of the fold test suggest, in line with earlier structural studies, that the arc is largely nonrotational and that it is not an orocline resulting from the Cretaceous and early Tertiary Laramide Orogeny. Rather, it conforms to the arcuate foreland margin predating deposition of the Late Proterozoic Mackenzie Mountains Supergroup.