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Crustal outgassing and LILE enrichment in major lithosphere structures, Archean Abitibi greenstone belt: evidence on the source reservoir from strontium and carbon isotope tracers

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Abstract

Major structural discontinuities in the Abitibi greenstone belt acted as conduits for outgassing of the Archean crust, as reflected in fixation of a select group of lithophile elements including Si, C, K, Rb, Ba, Li, Cs, B and Pb, in metasomatized faults. For two of the largest structures, the Destor-Porcupine (DP) and Kirkland Lake — Cadillac (KC) fault zones ∼6×1015 g Si, 3×1015 g CO2 and 1015 g K were introduced into the faults during expulsion of an estimated 6×1018 g aqueous fluids. Strontium isotope ratios of tourmaline, piemontite, actinolite and scheelite mineral separates, characterized by Rb/Sr≤0.02, are concordant with respect to 87Sr/86Sr initial ratios over local sectors of the faults. The Sr isotope data record geographic variations which, from east to west on the KC fault is 0.7031–0.7041 (Val d'Or), 0.7008–0.7022 (Bourlemaque), 0.7017–0.7019 (Bousquet), 0.7029–0.7031 (Noranda), and 0.7013 to 0.7015 (Kirkland Lake). At Timmins, on the PD fault, 87Sr/86Sr initial ratios cluster at 0.7010 to 0.7020. Metasomatised fault zones are systematically more radiogenic than contiguous host lithologies, and imply a source reservoir (0.7010 to 0.7041) generally more radiogenic than the upper mantle at 2690 Ma (0.700±0.001), or contemporaneous volcanic rocks of mafic to ultramafic composition (0.700 to 0.7012). Whereas certain minerals are concordant and retentive, Rb-Sr isochrons based on suites of rocks at progressive intensities of metasomatism, have been systematically reset over an elpased time of ∼200 Ma after termination of outgassing, due to disturbance accompanying incremental displacements on structures.

Carbon isotope compositions of ferroan dolomites in faults are tightly clustered along local fault sectors, but also display a marked provinciality: from east to west δ 13C=−6.0 to −8.5 (Malartic), −8.0 to −9.0 (Cadillac), −2.0 to −4.5 (Kirkland Lake), and −0.5 to −3.5 (Timmins). The observed provinciality of both δ 13C values and 87Sr/86Sr initial ratios is interpreted to reflect compositional heterogeneities in a radiogenic sialic crust and the green-stone belt supracrustal sequence, both of which supplied volatiles, magmas and lithophile elements to the fault structures during late stage transpressive tectonics.

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  1. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, S7N OWO, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

    R. Kerrich

  2. Department of Earth Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, A1B 3X5, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada

    B. J. Fryer

  3. Department of Geology, University of Western Ontario, N6A 5B7, London, Ontario, Canada

    R. W. King & L. M. Willmore

  4. 165 Tamarack Street, P4N 6P7, Timmins, Ontario, Canada

    E. van Hees

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Kerrich, R., Fryer, B.J., King, R.W. et al. Crustal outgassing and LILE enrichment in major lithosphere structures, Archean Abitibi greenstone belt: evidence on the source reservoir from strontium and carbon isotope tracers. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 97, 156–168 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00371236

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