This thesis is missing either page 57 or 58. The other copies of this thesis do not have this page either. -Digitization Centre / This study is an investigation of two regions which were once part of the same Proterozoic margin: the Frontenac Axis in the Southeastern Grenville Province of Ontario, and the island of Islay in Scotland. Shieh (1985) performed an oxygen isotopic study on the granitic plutons and surrounding metasediments in the Frontenac terrane. For the granites south of the Rideau Lake Fault, he observed extremely high 18O/16O ratios of +14.0%o (relative to SHOW), whereas north of the fault, the plutons gave ratios of around 10%o. Five of the plutons in Shieh's study have been dated using U-Pb zircon geochronology, with the following results: Battersea -1165 ± 3 Ma, Lyndhurst -1166 ± 3 Ma, Perth Road -1166 ± 3 Ma, Crow Lake -1176 ± 2 Ma, and Westport -1076 ± 2 Ma. The zircon ages are younger than the depleted mantle Nd model ages obtained (1211 to 1480 Ma) and signify that the plutons may be derived from a mantle source with contamination by the older surrounding metasediments which have an average Nd model age of 1790 Ma. Correlation between initial Nd (ENd(t) from +1 to +3) and initial Sr (Esr(t) from +9 to +21) also shows a mixed origin for the plutons. However, oxygen isotopes show that contamination by marble may also have occurred. Two features distinguish the Frontenac terrane southeast of the Rideau Lake Fault (RLF) from the Central Metasedimentary Belt (CMB) to the northwest: 1) the anorogenic (i.e. within plate) chemical signatures of the plutons, which are similar to the Hid-Proterozoic anorogenic granites that occur throughout North America (Anderson, 1983); and 2) the unique zircon ages for the plutons south of the RLF (1166 to 1176 Ha) that occur nowhere else in the CMB. This implies that the two areas define different crustal terranes. However, since Penokean (ca. 1800 Ha) crustal extraction ages are found in both terranes they may represent displaced segments of a single Penokean continental margin. In Scotland, a gneiss terrane on Islay was always inferred to be part of the Archean Lewisian complex. However, isotopic evidence shows that the Islay terrane is early Proterozoic in age (1782 Ha by U-Pb zircon geochronology) and that it is juvenile mantle-derived material, not a reworking of Archean crust during the Proterozoic. As a result, two major implications for the crustal evolution of Northern Britain are: 1) the Grampian terrane, an area directly adjacent to the newly defined Proterozoic Islay block, is probably underlain by Proterozoic basement; and 2) Northern Britain can be included in the Lower Proterozoic reconstruction of the Laurentian Shield. The similar crustal extraction ages observed in the Grenville of Ontario and on Islay give proof that these areas were part of a major 1.8 to 1.9 Ga crustal formation event, stretching from the southwestern U.S. to Finland. / Thesis / Master of Science (MS)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/24403 |
| Date | 01 1900 |
| Creators | Marcantonio, Franco |
| Contributors | Dickin, A. P., McNutt, R. H., Geology |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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