Isotopic and petrologic constraints on intracontinental deformation and metamorphism, Churchill Province, Nunavut
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The Canadian Churchill Province was the locus of repeated, regional reworking in the Paleoproterozoic associated with five major orogenic events that ultimately resulted in the formation of Earth’s first supercontinent, Nuna. Tectonic models for the Archean and Paleoproterozoic evolution of the Churchill Province have been formulated at the broadest scale, and consequently, the timing, nature and regional extent of deformation and metamorphism associated with these collisional events are poorly constrained. In this thesis, the metamorphic and deformation histories of two relatively unexplored regions in Nunavut were characterized in order to contribute to the understanding of the processes that reworked the boundaries and interior of the Churchill Province during development of Nuna. Aeromagnetic data and geological mapping on Boothia Peninsula, Nunavut, revealed the presence of a ~165 km long, 5-10 km wide high-strain zone, named the Sanagak Lake shear zone (SLsz), that marks the transition from dominantly N-trending Thelon-related structures in the north to SW-trending Trans-Hudson-related structures in the south. Field, microstructural, petrologic and isotopic data indicated that the SLsz is a south-dipping, strike-slip (sinistral) shear zone that formed in the mid-crust (~ 0.52 GPa) at 1804 ± 6 Ma. The timing, geometry and kinematics of high-strain deformation is consistent with north-directed compression associated with far-field stresses derived from the Trans-Hudson orogeny, and marks the northern limit of Trans-Hudson related deformation. Geologic mapping, phase equilibria modelling, and multi-mineral geochronology coupled with previously collected petrological and isotopic data from the Baker Lake area outline four lithotectonic domains named the Woodburn Lake and Ketyet River groups, Quoich River domain, Kramanituar Complex and the Thirty Mile domain. Each of these domains experienced distinct pressure – temperature – time – deformation (P-T-t-d) histories and are separated by shear zones that facilitated differential burial-exhumation in the Paleoproterozoic. All domains were buried and reworked, to varying degrees, between ca. 1.93 and 1.90 Ga during the Snowbird Orogeny. The Kramanituar Complex was exhumed rapidly following ca. 1.9 Ga metamorphism, whereas the Quoich River and Thirty Mile domains exhumed between ca. 1.87 and 1.85 Ga during the accretionary phases of the Trans-Hudson Orogeny.