Tonian rift successions in Newfoundland, Canada: A window to late tectonic events in the Mesoproterozoic Laurentian margin

Abstract

Basement rocks in the Humber terrane of the Appalachian Orogen record the last stages in the history of the Mesoproterozoic Laurentian margin in Canada. These stages were revealed by recent work in the East Pond Metamorphic Suite on the western Baie Verte Peninsula, Newfoundland, where two Tonian bimodal volcaniclastic-sedimentary successions were recognized (Pine Pond successions). The older, ca. 980 Ma succession contains detrital igneous zircon and titanite (ca. 1160‒1057 Ma) presumably derived from the Mesoproterozoic Laurentian margin, while the younger, ca. 950 Ma succession, contains 980 Ma detrital igneous zircon and titanite. Although metamorphosed to eclogite facies during the assembly of the Appalachian Orogen, the successions preserve protolith features and geochemical data that indicate melt likely originated in an extensional setting. The new ages, integrated with geochemical and Sm–Nd isotopic data suggest that the felsic volcaniclastic units of the Pine Pond successions are related to 975–950 Ma granitic plutons in the Pinware terrane of the eastern Grenville Province, in southeastern Labrador. These new data solidify a previous interpretation that the Pine Pond successions were deposited at the continental apex of the Asgard Sea and that the Pinware terrane intrusions are a part of this event. Furthermore, these new Tonian ages for rift-related strata call into question the interpretation of Ediacaran depositional ages for clastic sequences in the northern Appalachian Orogen, with youngest detrital zircons that are Tonian, and show that the tectonic evolution of the Mesoproterozoic Laurentian margin in Canada is more complex than previously known.