Restoring Proterozoic deformation within the Superior craton

Abstract

Geometrical patterns of Paleoproterozoic dyke swarms in the Superior craton, North America, and paleomagnetic studies of those dykes, both indicate relative motion across the Kapuskasing Structural Zone (KSZ) that divides the craton into eastern and western sectors. Previous work has optimized the amount of vertical-axis rotation necessary to bring the dyke trends and paleomagnetic remanence declinations into alignment, yet such calculations are not kinematically viable in a plate-tectonic framework. Here we subdivide the Superior craton into two internally rigid subplates and calculate Euler parameters that optimally group the paleomagnetic remanence data from six dyke swarms with ages between 2470 and 2070 Ma. Our dataset includes 59 sites from the Matachewan dykes for which directional results are reported for the first time. Our preferred restoration of the eastern Superior subprovince relative to the western subprovince is around an Euler pole at 51°N, 85°W, with a rotation angle of 14° CCW. Although we do not include data from the KSZ in our rigid-subplate calculations, we can align its dyke strikes by applying a 23° CCW distributed shear that preserves line length of all dykes pinned to the western margin. Our model predicts approximately 90 km of dextral transpressional displacement at ca. 1900 Ma, about half of which is accommodated by distributed strain within the KSZ, and the other half by oblique lateral thrusting (with NE-vergence) across the Ivanhoe Lake shear zone. We produce a combined apparent polar wander path for the early Paleoproterozoic Superior craton that incorporates data from both western and eastern subplates, and that can be rotated to either of the subplates’ reference frames for the purposes of Archean-Paleoproterozoic supercraton reconstructions.