40Ar/39Ar thermochronology along a western Québec transect of the Grenville Province, Canada |
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| Authors: | J MARTIGNOLE & P REYNOLDS |
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| Institution: | Universitéde Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada (;), Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada |
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| Abstract: | Ar/Ar thermochronology on 24 hornblendes, 3 biotites, 2 muscovites and 2 K-feldspars, collected along a 400 km-long NW-SE geotraverse through the Grenville Province in western Québec, is employed to provide time constraints on the intermediate and low temperature stages of cooling of part of the Grenville orogen. In the Grenville Front zone, the c. 1000 Ma time of exhumation previously established from thermobarometric and isotopic studies, is supported by the hornblende age data presented here. From 60 km to 160 km SE of the Front, reworked Archaean migmatites of the parautochthonous Réservoir Dozois terrane (RDT; 1004 Ma-old metamorphic monazites) contain hornblendes with 972– 950 Ma cooling ages. Assuming metamorphic geotherms between 25 and 30 °C km?1, calculated cooling and unroofing rates are about 6 °C Ma?1 and 0.33 km Ma?1 in the P–T range 725 °C–800 MPa and 450 °C–400 MPa. Hornblendes from monocyclic rocks of the Mont-Laurier and Morin terranes (MLT and MT; monazite ages c. 1165 Ma) give ages of about 1040 and 1010 Ma, respectively. Calculation of cooling-unroofing rates from peak metamorphic conditions in this area is hampered by thermal perturbations associated with the still poorly dated Grenville collision which took place approximately between 1060 and 1020 Ma. Cooling ages of c. 900 Ma for muscovite and biotite and 860–810 Ma for K-feldspar, show that cooling rates decreased to around 1.5 °C Ma?1 under retrograde greenschist facies conditions in the MLT. On a time vs. distance diagram, the hornblende data define several distinct age ranges, suggesting that each terrane had a characteristic thermal history. Thus, cooling was diachronous and probably non-homogeneous throughout this segment of the Grenville orogen. The time-lag between the cooling history of the parautochthon (972–950 Ma) and the allochthons (1040–1010 Ma) is compatible with an earlier (pre-1040 Ma) peak of metamorphism in the allochthons. The Réservoir Cabonga allochthon was transported toward the NNW from its probable root zone in the MLT during the 1060–1020 Ma Grenvillian collision as a partially cooled slab. The remobilization of the Archaean parautochthon is attributed to this collision. In the Grenville Front zone, slightly older cooling ages and cooling rates initially faster than in the remaining part of the parautochthon are probably as a result of rapid (tectonic?) exhumation shortly after collision. The minor delay (20–30 Ma) in unroofing of the MT compared to the adjacent MLT is most likely related to post-1040 Ma extensional displacement along the Labelle shear zone. In terranes like those described above where metamorphism is diachronous, determination of cooling rates and the history of exhumation may be meaningless without a firm control on the regional structure. However, identification of contrasting cooling histories contributes to unravelling the independent movement of terranes. |
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| Keywords: | Ar thermochronology cooling rates Grenville Province Québec terrane analysis |
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