Spelling suggestions: "subject:"northern canadian cordillera"" "subject:"northern canadian ordillera""
1 |
Burial and Exhumation History of the Mackenzie Mountains and Plain, NWT, Through Integration of Low-Temperature ThermochronometersPowell, Jeremy January 2017 (has links)
The integration of low-temperature thermochronometers, including apatite and zircon (U-Th)/He (AHe, ZHe) and apatite fission-track (AFT) methods, allows for a quantification of the thermal history experienced by rocks as they heat and cool through upper crustal temperature regimes (<200°C). Whereas these methods are practical in geologic terranes that have undergone rapid cooling, application to strata with protracted cooling histories is complicated by the enhanced role of grain-specific parameters (volume, chemistry, radiation damage) on the kinetics of helium diffusion and fission track annealing. The effects of these variables are most prevalent in sedimentary samples, where natural variance in detrital accessory mineral populations results in a broad range of diffusion kinetics and great dispersion in corresponding cooling dates.
This thesis integrates contemporary thermochronometer diffusion and annealing kinetics to investigate the burial and exhumation history of two natural laboratories. In the Mackenzie Mountains and Plain of the Northwest Territories, long-term radiation damage accumulation in zircon from Neoproterozoic siliciclastic units produces ZHe dates that track Albian to Paleocene burial and exhumation in front of the foreland-propagating fold-thrust belt. For the Phanerozoic stratigraphic section, AFT annealing kinetics are calculated from Devonian and Cretaceous samples, and are incorporated into multi-kinetic AFT modeling. These kinetics also constrain AHe date-radiation damage trends, and when combined allow for an estimation on the magnitude of eroded sediment across regional pre-Albian and post-Paleocene unconformities. Finally, conodont (U-Th)/He data from Anticosti Island, Québec in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence are compared with ZHe, AHe and AFT data to test their utility as a thermochronometer for carbonate basin analysis. These data evince a Mesozoic thermal history previously unattributed to the region. Ultimately, this thesis provides a novel assessment on the ways in which thermochronometer date dispersion can be quantified to assess the thermal evolution of sedimentary basins from burial through to inversion.
|
2 |
Evolution and Tectonics of the Lithosphere in Northwestern CanadaEstève, Clément 24 September 2020 (has links)
The lithosphere of northwestern Canada recorded more than 2.5 Gy of complex tectonic
evolution, from the formation of the ancient cores of the continental lithosphere such as
the Slave craton to the Phanerozoic Cordilleran orogeny with substantial variations in crust
and upper mantle structures that led to the concentration of natural resources (i.e., diamonds
in cratons). Present-day northwestern Canada juxtaposes a thin and hot Cordilleran
lithosphere to the thick and cold cratonic lithosphere, which has important implications for
regional geodynamics. Recently, seismic station coverage has drastically increased across
northwestern Canada, allowing the development of seismic tomography models and other
passive-source seismic methods at high resolution in order to investigate the tectonic evolution
and dynamics of the lithosphere in this region. The P- and S-wave upper mantle
structures of northwestern Canada reveal that the distribution of kimberlite fields in the
Slave craton correlates with the margin of fast and slow seismic mantle anomalies, which
could delineate weak zones in the lithosphere. Based on our tomographic models we identify
two high-velocity seismic anomalies straddling the arcuate Cordillera Deformation Front
that have controlled its regional deformation, including a newly identified Mackenzie craton
characterized by high seismic velocities extending from the lower crust to the upper mantle
to the north of the Mackenzie Mountains. Furthermore, our P-wave tomography model
shows sharp velocity contrasts beneath the surface trace of the Tintina Fault. Estimates
of seismic anisotropy show a progressive rotation of fast-axis directions when approaching
the fault zone. Together, they provide seismic evidence for the trans-lithospheric nature of
the Tintina Fault. We further propose that the Tintina Fault has chiseled off small pieces
of the Laurentian craton between the Late Cretaceous and the Eocene, which would imply
that large lithospheric-scale shear zones are able to cut through small pieces of refractory
cratonic mantle and transport them over several hundred kilometers.
|
Page generated in 0.0789 seconds