U–Pb geochronology of the Raglan gabbro belt, Central Metasedimentary Belt, Ontario: implications for an ensialic marginal basin in the Grenville Orogen

Abstract

The Raglan gabbro belt of the Ontario Grenville Orogen is coincident with the top of the Central Metasedimentary Belt boundary thrust zone, a major mid-crustal shear zone separating the Central Gneiss Belt in the footwall from the Central Metasedimentary Belt in the hanging wall. It has been suggested that the gabbros making up the belt are coeval, that they formed in a marginal basin within the Central Metasedimentary Belt, and that they formed a horizon of Theologically stiff material that controlled the localization of the top of the boundary thrust zone during its initiation as the marginal basin closed at ca. 1190 Ma. U–Pb zircon dating of plutons within the Raglan gabbro belt was undertaken to test the coeval nature of intrusions in the belt. Magmatic crystallization ages for three of the gabbros fall in the range 1246–1227 Ma, and a fourth yields a minimum age of ca. 1175 Ma. The results are permissive of a common origin for the gabbros and allow that the Raglan gabbro belt may have been related to the marginal basin, at least with respect to the later stages of its evolution. Inherited 1440–1301 Ma zircons in the gabbros suggest interaction with underlying Central Gneiss Belt crust during magmatism and support an ensialic marginal-basin model, as opposed to an island-arc model, for the evolution of the northwestern part of the Central Metasedimentary Belt.