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The Mesoproterozoic Husky Creek Formation is an interlayered redbed and basalt package that overlies a ca. 2.5 km thick, regionally extensive basaltic plateau linked to the 1.27 Ga Mackenzie Large Igneous Province. This succession provides an opportunity to study the interaction between contemporaneous fluvial sedimentation and flood basalt volcanism. The Husky Creek Formation is approximately 1900 m thick, consisting predominantly of fluvial channel and subordinate floodplain and eolian strata dominated by lithic detritus intercalated with basalt flows. U–Pb dating of detrital zircon grains collected from four stratigraphic levels in the Husky Creek Formation reveals two main age groupings: (1) a 1270 Ma peak attributed to the Mackenzie Large Igneous Province; and (2) Pre-1.6 Ga detrital zircon ages, which reflect sources from a broad region of northwestern Laurentia and are interpreted to be recycled from underlying sedimentary rocks of the Hornby Bay Basin. An upsection decrease in the proportion of ca. 1270 Ma zircon grains, coupled with increasing sandstone compositional maturity, reflects the expansion of the drainage basin during burial of a volcanic pile, with recycling becoming more dominant as the Husky Creek Formation accumulated. The Husky Creek Formation was deposited in the waning stages of the Mackenzie Igneous Event by west-flowing rivers into a geographically restricted basin above an extensive mafic volcanic plateau. This paper provides insight into fluvial basin development during the aftermath of one of Earth's largest igneous events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geodynamic evolution in the late Paleozoic is significant for understanding the final amalgamation of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB). No consensus has yet been reached regarding the late Paleozoic geodynamic evolution of the northern Great Xing'an Range (GXR) in northeastern China, the eastern CAOB. Furthermore, late Paleozoic syenogranite–diabase dyke association is present in the Xiaokele area in northern GXR. It provides an important opportunity to understand the nature of magmatism and the geodynamic evolution during this period. This paper presents new zircon U–Pb ages, zircon Hf isotopic compositions, and geochemical data of whole rocks for Xiaokele syenogranite and diabase. Zircon U–Pb dating suggests that the Xiaokele syenogranite (292.5 ± 0.9 Ma) and diabase (298.3 ± 1.5 Ma) were emplaced during the early Permian. The Xiaokele syenogranites have high SiO2 contents, low MgO contents, and enriched zircon εHf(t) values, suggesting that their primary magma was generated by the partial melting of the juvenile crustal material. The Xiaokele diabases have low SiO2 contents, high MgO contents, are enriched in large-ion lithophile elements, depleted in high-field-strength elements, and exhibit enriched zircon εHf(t) values. They derived from a lithospheric mantle source that had previously been metasomatized by slab-derived fluids. Combined with previous research results, we believe that the continent–continent collision between the Xing'an and Songliao blocks occurred during the late early Carboniferous – early late Carboniferous (330–310 Ma), and the two blocks were transformed into a post-collisional extensional setting during the latest Carboniferous – early Permian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Zhanbuzhale region, in the Eastern Kunlun Orogen of northwestern China, is characterized by large volumes of Phanerozoic granitoid rocks and is an ideal region for investigating the tectonic evolution of the Paleo-Tethys system. However, the exact timing of the final closure of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean and initial continental collision remains controversial because of a lack of precise geochronological and detailed geochemical data. In this paper, we report new zircon U–Pb ages and mineralogical, petrographic, and geochemical data for samples of Middle Triassic granodiorite and alkali feldspar granite from the Zhanbuzhale region. The zircon U–Pb ages indicate that the granodiorite and alkali feldspar granite formed at 239 and 236 Ma, respectively. The granodiorites are high-K calc-alkaline, metaluminous, high Sr content, high Sr/Y ratios, low Y content, and show adakite-like affinities. The alkali feldspar granites display high SiO2, extremely low MgO, and low Zr+Nb+Ce+Y contents as well as low Fe2O3t/MgO ratios, showing metaluminous to peraluminous and high-K calc-alkaline features. Geochemical and petrological characteristics of the alkali feldspar granites suggest that they are highly fractionated I-type granites. The granodiorites and alkali feldspar granites have zircon εHf(t) values ranging from –2.26 to –0.18, and from –2.17 to +2.18, respectively. Together with regional geological data, we propose that the Triassic (approximately 239–236 Ma) granitoids were generated during the later stages of northward subduction of the Paleo-Tethys oceanic plate, and that the initial stage of collision between the East Kunlun and the Bayan Har–Songpan Ganzi terrane occurred at approximately 236–227 Ma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper reports the detrital zircon record from Late Devonian to late Carboniferous foreland basin deposits in the Rheno-Hercynian (RH) Variscides of Germany. Together with a review of petrography and detrital mineral ages from the literature, the data permit to reconstruct accretion and exhumation along the RH active margin. From Frasnian to latest Carboniferous, the main source (now eroded) was a north-Armorican microcontinent (Franconia) with magmatic rocks representing late Neoproterozoic arc or back-arc, Cambro-Ordovician rift and Silurian–Early Devonian subduction of the Rheic ocean and (or) RH rifting. At ca. 380 Ma, detrital magmatic zircons combined with high- to medium-pressure mica and detrital glaucophane suggest the existence of a paired metamorphic belt at the RH tectonic front. From the Viséan onwards, zircons reveal younging of granitoid debris from ca. 380–360 Ma in Late Devonian sediments to ca. 320–300 Ma in the Westphalian C–D and Stephanian. Greywackes of the Namurian A record a change from dominant magmatic clasts toward meta-arenites associated with Baltoscandian zircons, which document accretion to and exhumation from the base of the orogenic wedge. Their source must be sought in metamorphosed Devonian sandstones of the type presently encountered in parts of the active margin crystallines (Mid-German Crystalline High), but in eroded higher units. Basal accretion implies heating of the lower plate beyond the brittle–ductile boundary and supports the model of a high-temperature regime before and during Variscan collision. Palinspastic restoration of the estimated volume of recycled material yields >100 km of distal shelf deposits lost in the process, which adds to the known shortening of the RH basin. The Variscan geology of southwestern England and southern Portugal and provenance studies in those areas are compatible with a geodynamic evolution similar to that in Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents results of a laser ablation - inductively coupled plasma - quadrapole mass spectrometer (LA-ICP-QMS) U-Pb dating study of small in situ zircon grains from samples collected in the vicinity of the Greens Creek massive sulphide deposit, on northern Admiralty Island, southeast Alaska. The Greens Creek mine is a volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit in the central portion of the Alexander Triassic metallogenic belt (ATMB) and is one of the top global silver producers despite having a dominantly mafic metavolcanic stratigraphic footwall. The stratigraphic footwall is a Mississippian mafic metavolcanic sequence with a protolith age of approximately 340-330 Ma. The first U-Pb zircon constrained chronostratigraphy for the area places the deposit near, or at, the base of the host Late Triassic stratigraphy just above an approximately 100 million year old unconformity and probably 10-15 million years older than mineralization at the Palmer and Windy Craggy deposits in the northern portion of the ATMB. The stratigraphic location of the Greens Creek deposit is atypical for a syngenetic massive sulphide deposit, and this may, at least partly, explain its unusual metal endowment. Pre-mineralization Permian U-Pb zircon metamorphic ages are consistent with published 273-260 Ma white mica ages related to the collision of the Admiralty and Craig subterranes, the basement to the ATMB. The much older age of the footwall rocks and their Permian pre-mineralization metamorphism demonstrates that though the mafic volcanic rocks are not genetically linked to the deposit, they likely influenced the style of alteration and mineralization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

John Tuzo Wilson coined the term 'plate' in plate tectonics. He is famous for inventing transform boundaries, hot spot tracks, and the Wilson cycle of ocean birth, growth, and decline. Less well remembered is his work in the 1950s on tectonic and radiometric age provinces of the Canadian Shield, as part of which he fathered U/Pb geochronology in Canada. This work gave strong support to the notion of continental growth through accretion of successively younger terranes onto an ancient cratonic core. The present paper reviews how paleomagnetism can trace the motions of continents to test Wilson's ideas. Continental accretion often involves deep burial of one of the colliding elements through subduction or crustal underplating; such was the case with the Grenville orogen and its subprovinces in their Proterozoic accretion onto the Laurentian craton. The resulting heating and metamorphism erases most pre-collisional magnetic information but adds something new: the possibility of following the post-metamorphic uplift and cooling history, in time and space. The time element is provided by a new form of isotopic geochronology, thermochronometry, which provides dates for specific minerals together with the temperatures at which they became closed to isotopic migration. U/Pb dating of sphene is one method used; another is the 40Ar/39Ar variant of K/Ar dating applied to hornblende, micas, and feldspars, which have a wide range of Ar closure temperatures. The two specific Grenville studies described deal with parallel uplift histories determined by 40Ar/39Ar dating and by magnetics for the accreted terranes of the Central Metasedimentary Belt in Ontario and with the paleomagnetic detection of the post-1240 Ma closing of a small ocean between the Elsevir terrane and Laurentia during the Grenvillian orogeny. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Archean Blake River Group, mafic to intermediate fragmental units have controversially been proposed to have formed during the collapse of a giant submarine caldera. This paper describes and interprets these rocks, summarizing their physical characteristics, inferred origins, age relationships, and geochemical signatures. The widespread Stadacona member, south of Rouyn-Noranda, consists of several hundred metres of bedded volcaniclastic rocks interpreted to have been mostly deposited from aqueous density currents fed directly by explosive eruptions. The magmas involved in these eruptions were plagioclase-phyric, tholeiitic to transitional basalts. The similarly widespread D'Alembert tuff, in the northern part of the Blake River Group, shares many physical characteristics with the Stadacona member and is thought to have a similar origin. However, the D'Alembert tuff is approximately six million years younger than the Stadacona member. It is composed mostly of transitional to calc-alkaline andesites and basaltic andesites with very distinct trace element profiles. Volcaniclastic rocks from other areas, such as Tannahill Township in Ontario and the Monsabrais area in Quebec, are interpreted to represent mostly in situ to remobilized hyaloclastite, with no explosive eruptions involved in their genesis. Our observations and interpretations are not compatible with models in which the volcaniclastic units are emplaced during a catastrophic event in relation with the collapse of a giant caldera. Instead, the fragmental rocks were produced by various mechanisms at many distinct times during the evolution of the Blake River Group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Thompson Nickel Belt marks the boundary between the Archean Superior Province and the Trans-Hudson Orogen in Canada. It comprises Archean gneisses, and Paleoproterozoic rocks with metasediments and metavolcanites (Ospwagan Group) and intrusions. The gneisses are frequently migmatitic and host numerous pegmatites. The western belt boundary is a fault contact with the Kisseynew Domain of the Reindeer Zone. In the south, the transition zone between the belt and the Kisseynew Domain comprises granitoids and a detrital sequence (Grass River Group), part of which grades into turbidites in the Kisseynew Domain. The eastern belt boundary is a diffuse zone where the Archean east-west (E-W) structural trend changes into the north-northeast (NNE) trend of the belt. This paper presents U-Pb ages for granitoids and 207Pb/206Pb detrital zircon ages from the Ospwagan and Grass River groups. Ages and a comparison of events in the belt and in the eastern Reindeer Zone have major implications. The change from stable platform deposits to syn-tectonic filling and emplacement of mafic intrusions in the Ospwagan Group are attributed to the convergence between the Reindeer Zone and the Superior Province at 1891-1885 Ma. At ca. 1850 Ma, continuing convergence led to drowning of marginal basins of the Superior craton and to the development of a transpressive regime in the belt, the onset of which could be as old as ca. 1885 Ma. Metamorphic ages of 1818-1785 record closure of the Kisseynew basin and crustal thickening. Collision of the new continental block with the Superior Province was accommodated by transpression until 1750-1720 Ma. La ceinture de Thompson est située entre le Craton archéen du Supérieur et l'orogène paléoprotérozoïque du Trans-Hudson, au Canada. Elle comprend des gneiss archéens souvent migmatitiques, et des roches paléoprotéroïques, métasédiments et métavolcanites (Groupe Ospwagan), et intrusions. A l'ouest, une zone de faille marque le contact entre la ceinture et le domaine Kisseynew de la Zone de Reindeer. Vers le sud, cette zone de transition entre la ceinture et le domaine Kisseynew comprends des granitoïdes et une séquence détritique (Groupe Grass River), qui passe graduellement aux turbidites du domaine Kisseynew. Sur la bordure orientale de la ceinture, le grain structural E-W du Craton archéen se réoriente dans le grain NNE de la ceinture. Cet article présente des âges U-Pb pour différents granitoïdes et des âges 207Pb/206Pb pour les zircons détritiques des groupes Ospwagan et Grass River. Les âges et une comparaison des événements affectant la ceinture et l'est de la zone Reindeer ont des implications importantes. Dans le groupe Ospwagan, le passage de dépôts de type plate-forme à des dépôts syn-tectoniques, et l'intrusion de roches basiques, sont attribuées à la convergence entre la zone Reindeer et le Craton du Supérieur vers 1891-1885 Ma. Vers 1850 Ma, la convergence conduit à l'enfouissement des bassins de la marge du Craton et à un régime transpressif pouvant avoir débuté dès ca. 1885 Ma. La fermeture du bassin de Kisseynew et l'épaississement crustal sont enregistrés par des âges de métamorphisme entre 1818 et 1785 Ma. Le régime transpressif se poursuit jusqu'à ca. 1750-1720 Ma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mixodectidae (Mammalia, Archonta) are an unusual, poorly known family of dermopteran-like mammals that have been discovered at several North American localities of primarily early Paleocene age. Among the three or four recognized mixodectid genera, Eudaemonema Simpson is perhaps one of the least understood, being known from only a few localities of late Torrejonian and earliest Tiffanian age. This paper reports on a new species of Eudaemonema from the late Paleocene of Alberta, Canada, that significantly extends the geographic and stratigraphic ranges of the genus. Eudaemonema webbi sp. nov. is known from middle and late Tiffanian localities in central and south central Alberta, and it represents the youngest and northernmost species of Eudaemonema so far discovered. E. webbi differs from the genotypic species E. cuspidata in being larger and in having a suite of dental characters (e.g., molariform posterior premolars, enlarged molar protocone and hypocone, development of a second grinding platform on the lower molars) that suggests an increased emphasis on grinding during mastication. E. webbi possesses several dental features (e.g., broad, shelf-like molar paraconid-paracristid, lingually shifted molar hypoconulid) that resemble those of cynocephalids (Mammalia, Dermoptera), with these resemblances interpreted herein as convergent. The occurrence of E. webbi at Gao Mine extends the stratigraphic range of Eudaemonema into the late Tiffanian (Ti5) and represents the youngest known record of Mixodectidae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mountain building in the western part of the Archean Superior Province culminated with the formation of regional strike-slip faults. This paper reports on the kinematics and timing of several major faults at the juncture between the Uchi, English River, Winnipeg River, and western Wabigoon subprovinces. Sinistral-oblique mylonitization along the northeast-striking Miniss River fault occurred at 2681 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]