Rb–Sr biotite and whole-rock data from the Kapuskasing uplift and their bearing on the cooling and exhumation history

Abstract

Rb–Sr isotopic ratios were measured on biotite and whole rocks from a suite of 21 granitoid rocks from the southern Kapuskasing uplift. Results of 18 of the whole-rock analyses fall on an isochron with an age of 2.677 ± 0.057 Ga and Sri = 0.70080. Biotite model ages range from 2.50 to 1.93 Ga in a general spatial relationship of decreasing age with depth in the structural section as calibrated with the igneous hornblende barometer for tonalitic rocks and garnet–pyroxene barometers for granulites. Near the Michipicoten belt in the west, biotite ages of ~ 2 Ga reflect disturbances also recorded by paleomagnetic and whole-rock Rb–Sr systems. To the east, in a 70 km long northwest–southeast transect toward the Ivanhoe Lake fault zone, ages decrease from 2.50 to 1.95 Ga. In a southern transect ages are in the range 2.30–2.38 Ga to within 15 km of the fault, reflecting consistent erosion levels corresponding to ~ 0.53 MPa, but decrease to 1.93 Ga to the east, in concert with paleopressures in the 0.7–1.0 GPa range.A plateau of low Rb–Sr biotite dates is not evident, suggesting that the Kapuskasing uplift event exposed a frozen-in cooling profile, rather than setting the Rb–Sr clock by rapid cooling of the rocks from above their closure temperature. The youngest biotite date of 1.93 Ga therefore provides a maximum age for uplift, consistent with paleomagnetic data from Archean rocks and Early Proterozoic dykes, but in conflict with some K–Ar and 40Ar/39Ar biotite age data.