Paleoproterozoic closure of an Australia–Laurentia seaway revealed by megaclasts of an obducted volcanic arc in Yukon, Canada

Abstract

The Slab volcanics are a late Paleoproterozoic volcanic succession in the Wernecke Mountains of Yukon Territory in northwestern Canada. Fragments of the succession are preserved as megaclasts in km-scale zones of hydrothermal breccia. The largest clast is 160×380m and consists of 31 mafic lava flows and minor intercalated sandstone and tephra. Hydrothermal activity during the brecciation led to extensive metasomatic alteration, both sodic and potassic. Despite the alteration, an igneous geochemical signal is discernible. The rocks are mafic to intermediate and moderately alkalic. Their trace element profiles indicate derivation from a hydrated, enriched mantle source, consistent with an origin as a volcanic arc affected by a plume, rift or slab window. Major and trace element patterns demonstrate a cyclical magmatic evolution involving intervals of fractional crystallization punctuated by recharge with mafic magma. The Slab volcanics were previously thought to have been deposited on Laurentia but are herein regarded as part of the exotic terrane Bonnetia that was obducted onto the Laurentian continental margin in late Paleoproterozoic time. Bonnetia may have developed on or near the eastern margin of Australia as a continental or fringing arc. In that scenario, Bonnetia grew through arc magmatism as oceanic crust between Australia and Laurentia was consumed prior to terrane obduction and continental collision in the late Paleoproterozoic to early Mesoproterozoic. Sediment or tephra derived from the arc was transported westward into the interior of Australia, raising εNd values of late Paleoproterozoic sedimentary strata. Vigorous hydrothermal brecciation followed and led to fragmentation of the crust, including the obducted terrane Bonnetia. Giant blocks of the Slab volcanics and other units of Bonnetia foundered into breccia zones and moved downward for thousands of meters. Erosion removed the obducted terrane and the uppermost Laurentian crust, exposing the megaclasts.