velocity structure of the kapuskasing uplift northern ontario from seismic refraction studies a crustal scale seismic refraction experiment was conducted over the kapuskasing structural zone northern ontario in 1984 the zone cuts obliquely across the east west structural grain of the superior province in the canadian shield and has been proposed as a cross section of archean crust exposed by thrust faulting along the ivanhoe lake cataclastic zone during early proterozoic time five seismic refraction lines of 360 450 km were shot over the area there were 18 profile shots and two fan shots with a recorder spacing of 2 5 km we have modeled the travel times and amplitudes of the data from the profile lines and analyzed reflections from the crust mantle boundary on the fan shots we have imaged a low velocity zone under the abitibi greenstone belt ranging from 4 5 to 9 12 km depth that is underlain by a highly reflective zone there is a considerable deepening of the moho from 40 43 km to 50 53 km under and to the west of the southern end of the kapuskasing structural zone a high velocity anomaly of 6 6 6 7 km s has been imaged in the upper crust down to 20 km depth beneath the kapuskasing structure with a suggested dip of 15 2 to the west this corresponds well to the proposed location of a granulite zone thrust up from the middle or lower crust in the early proterozoic

cocorp seismic profiling of the appalachian orogen beneath the coastal plain of georgia a southeastward extension onto the coastal plain of an earlier cocorp traverse which confirmed large scale thin skinned thrusting of crystalline rocks of the southern appalachians has provided some of the most spectacular reflections yet seen in crustal seismic data most of the reflectors can be interpreted as either fault surfaces or as metamorphosed strata of late precambrian early paleozoic age they are consistent with the hypothesis that a major detachment extends eastward beneath this part of the orogen although other interpretations with a more complex pattern of detachments or sutures are also possible large scale overthrusting provides a mechanism for incorporating sedimentary rocks into the lower crust and may help to explain many of the layered features on crustal seismic data reflections from deep beneath the coastal plain indicate that the structural configuration of the rocks is complex and that the remains of a collision zone are being observed several east dipping horizons which bear strong similarities to thrust faults in valley and ridge sedimentary rocks are seen in the basement at shallow and mid crustal levels beneath the coastal plain the augusta fault for example displays a reflection which extends at a low angle some 80 km or more southeast of its surface position in conjunction with surface geologic information these new data demonstrate that late paleozoic compressive deformation was pervasive and resulted in lateral movements in the upper crust extending from the valley and ridge to the crystalline rocks beneath the coastal plain a distance of 400 km or more a large antiform cresting at about 2 3 sec or about 6 km below the surface and other structures beneath the coastal plain of georgia deserve further consideration for petroleum exploration although metamorphism may have eliminated petroleum from these rocks refracted arrivals and fault geometries indicate two triassic rift basins beneath coastal plain sedimentary rocks one of which has apparently not been recognized previously

crustal structure and tectonics of the northern part of the southern granulite terrane india deep seismic reflection studies investigating the exposed archean lower continental crust of the southern granulite terrane india yield important constraints on the nature and evolution of the deep crust including the formation and exhumation of granulites seismic reflection images along the kuppam bhavani profile reveal a band of reflections that dip southward from 10 5 to 15 0 s two way time twt across a distance of 50 km the bottom of these reflections beneath the dharwar craton is interpreted as the moho further south another reflection band dipping northward is observed these bands of reflectivity constitute a divergent reflection fabric that converges at the moho boundary observed at the mettur shear zone reflection fabrics that intersect at a steep angle are interpreted as a collisional signature due to the convergence of crustal blocks which we infer resulted in crustal thickening and the formation of granulites anomalous gravity and magnetic signatures are also observed across the mettur shear zone the gravity model derived from the bouguer gravity data corroborates seismic results the tectonic regime and seismic reflection profiles are combined in a 3 d representation that illustrates our evidence for paleo subduction at a collision zone the structural dissimilarities and geophysical anomalies suggest that the mettur shear zone is a suture between the dharwar craton in the north and another crustal block in the south this study contributes significantly to our understanding of the operation of archean plate tectonics here inferred to involve collision and subduction furthermore it provides an important link between the gondwanaland and global granulite evolution occurring throughout the late archean

deep crustal structure and flexure of the arabian plate beneath the zagros collisional mountain belt as inferred from gravity observations the zagros mountain belt region a neogene continental collisional zone between arabia and iran that is characterized by a suture a folded belt and a foreland basin is unusual among active mountain belts in that its 6 12 km thick sedimentary cover is shortening predominantly by folding while the basement is apparently thickening along numerous high angle reverse faults we have used over 9000 gravity measurements in the region in conjunction with limited seismological observations and geological cross sections of the uppermost 10 km of crust to infer the deeper crustal structure beneath the region crustal models constrained by the bouguer anomalies and other seismological and geological data are characterized by a moho that dips about 1 to the northeast beneath the folded belt and increases in dip to about 5 near the main zagros thrust mzt the moho depth increases from 40 km beneath the leading edge of the foreland basin the mesopotamian foredeep and persian gulf to as much as 65 km beneath the mzt alternative models that incorporate a subducted oceanic crust that is attached to the underthrusting arabian crust deviate little in their moho configurations from the above simpler models negative isostatic residual anomalies are interpreted to indicate local overcompensation beneath the foreland basin and near the folded belt and beneath the mzt we show that underthrust sedimentary rocks of the converging margins along the suture zone may account for the negative isostatic residual anomalies near the mzt however to explain the rest of the isostatic anomalies requires other forces to be acting on this collisional plate boundary for example elastic flexure models required a combination of topography and subsurface loads or downward force the origin of which is not clear to approximate the bouguer or isostatic residual anomalies associated with the foreland basin and the folded belt the topography load of the zagros mountain belt is insufficient to cause the required deflection of the underthrusting arabian plate a combination of isostatic elastic flexure and horizontal compression forces acting on the edge of the arabian craton and the transitional lithosphere of central iran appears to best model the crust of the zagros region we propose a model in which the lower crust of the converging arabian plate located beneath the zagros is being shortened and thickened plastically between the seismogenic rigid upper crust and a rigid uppermost mantle lid the mantle lid probably decoupled from the lowermost crust un der thrusts the iranian crustal blocks thus confined from below the horizontally compressed plastic lower crust hydraulically depresses the moho and raises the faulted and folded brittle upper crust in isostatic equilibrium

pericontinental crustal growth of the southwestern abitibi subprovince canada u pb hf and nd isotope evidence the abitibi subprovince is widely regarded as a classic example of neoarchean continental crust formed in an ensimatic setting however sialic crust as old as 2 93 ga occurs in the adjacent wawa subprovince and the two subprovinces are thought to have formed a contiguous block since the initiation of abitibi magmatic activity at 2 75 ga a detailed geochemical u pb geochronological and nd hf isotope study of plutonic and volcanic rocks from the southwestern abitibi provides evidence for the involvement of older crust during magma genesis near the abitibi wawa boundary kapuskasing structural zone inherited zircons dated at ca 2 85 ga occur both in 2747 ma tonalite and 2700 ma granodiorite of the rice lake batholith part of the larger kenogamissi plutonic complex igneous zircons from this batholith display large intrasample variations in 176 hf 177 hf which we attribute to mixing of magmas derived from mantle juvenile crust and older crustal sources nd isotope data for felsic volcanic and plutonic rocks in this region indicate a dominantly juvenile source however two older felsic volcanic units 2739 and 2729 ma show nd isotope evidence of significant crustal contamination post tectonic plutonic units that were emplaced at 2676 and 2662 ma also contain inherited zircons but none are older than 2 76 ga in contrast tonalitic units dated at 2744 and 2715 ma from the round lake plutonic complex located 150 km east of the kapuskasing structural zone lack zircon inheritance and display less intrasample hf isotope variability in zircons our data suggest that the influence of older sialic crust during abitibi volcanic and plutonic activity is restricted both in space and time similar evidence for an older crustal influence occurs elsewhere in the southwestern abitibi near the kapuskasing structural zone the data collectively suggest that an approximately 75 km wide belt of abitibi crust adjacent to this structure was underlain by older wawa crust from 2 75 ga onward this crustal geometry is consistent with development of the abitibi sub province at the edge of a wawa protocraton perhaps as the result of rifting of this older continental block

geometry of the kapuskasing structure from a lithoprobe pilot reflection survey a short 10 km pilot seismic reflection profile recorded in the kapuskasing structural zone near foleyet ontario reveals reflections with travel times of at least 5 0 s about 16 km depth an event dipping west from about 1 7 to 3 4 s probably corresponds to the ivanhoe lake cataclastic zone the true geologic dip on this boundary is calculated to be about 35 38 west northwest and is consistent with interpretations of this zone as a west dipping crustal scale thrust fault east dipping reflections are observed with longer travel times than the fault zone arrival and are likely from within the greenstone terrane of the abitibi subprovince

modest movements spectacular fabrics in an intracontinental deep crustal strike slip fault striding athabasca mylonite zone nw canadian shield geometry and strain partitioning within lower crustal intraplate strike slip shear zones can be extremely complex compared with analogous structural levels of interplate strike slip shear zones sited at plate margins striding athabasca mylonite zone canadian shield is a spectacular ca 500 km long granulite facies continental intraplate shear zone the shear zone is composed of middle archean granulite facies annealed mylonites ca 3 13 ga and late archean ca 2 62 2 60 ga granulite facies ribbon mylonite belts which thread a sinuous course along a chain of crustal scale lozenges cored by relatively stiff rocks of mafic to intermediate composition to the northeast the mylonites form a n s trending 5 10 km thick dextral strike slip belt to the southwest this bifurcates into a pair of conjugate strike slip shear zones overlain by a contemporaneous dip slip shear zone striding athabasca mylonite zone was kinematically inefficient as a strike slip fault and cannot have accommodated large wallrock displacements nevertheless spectacular granulite facies ribbon mylonites were formed throughout the shear zone reflecting the very high temperatures ca 850 1000 c high recrystallization rate strain rate ratios and the transpressive nature of the deformation wk 1 possibly accommodated by significant volume loss by magma migration

restoring proterozoic deformation within the superior craton abstract geometrical patterns of paleoproterozoic dyke swarms in the superior craton north america and paleomagnetic studies of those dykes both indicate relative motion across the kapuskasing structural zone ksz that divides the craton into eastern and western sectors previous work has optimized the amount of vertical axis rotation necessary to bring the dyke trends and paleomagnetic remanence declinations into alignment yet such calculations are not kinematically viable in a plate tectonic framework here we subdivide the superior craton into two internally rigid subplates and calculate euler parameters that optimally group the paleomagnetic remanence data from six dyke swarms with ages between 2470 and 2070 ma our dataset includes 59 sites from the matachewan dykes for which directional results are reported for the first time our preferred restoration of the eastern superior subprovince relative to the western subprovince is around an euler pole at 51 n 85 w with a rotation angle of 14 ccw although we do not include data from the ksz in our rigid subplate calculations we can align its dyke strikes by applying a 23 ccw distributed shear that preserves line length of all dykes pinned to the western margin our model predicts approximately 90 km of dextral transpressional displacement at ca 1900 ma about half of which is accommodated by distributed strain within the ksz and the other half by oblique lateral thrusting with ne vergence across the ivanhoe lake shear zone we produce a combined apparent polar wander path for the early paleoproterozoic superior craton that incorporates data from both western and eastern subplates and that can be rotated to either of the subplates reference frames for the purposes of archean paleoproterozoic supercraton reconstructions

lithoprobe reflection studies of archean and proterozoic crust in canada abstract lithoprobe canada s national collaborative earth science research project established to develop a comprehensive understanding of the evolution of the north american continent is a multidisciplinary program spearheaded by seismic reflection studies five recently recorded seismic lines discussed in this paper are located in precambrian regions the mesoproterozoic grenville province the paleoproterozoic trans hudson orogen tho the paleoproterozoic archean basement of alberta and the archean superior province data acquired across the grenville orogen in eastern quebec show strong reflectivity throughout the crust upper crustal reflections can be correlated with exposed structural elements including extensional shear zones and packages of deformed high pressure rocks eclogites in a marine survey across the grenville orogen off southeastern labrador seismic images show variably dipping reflections and a structural high associated with a major gravity anomaly data acquired across central alberta show crustal scale thrust stacking and imbrication of the archean hearne craton to the east across the trans hudson orogen images of similar collisional features are observed geochronologic constraints indicate contemporaneity of tectonic activity between the two regions at 1 8 ga suggesting that collisional tectonic activity was coeval over a broad crustal region ca 1000 km across strike in the superior province seismic data across a collision zone involving the northern abitibi greenstone belt and the arc related opatica plutonic belt show spectacular crustal reflectivity and dipping reflections that extend 8 s 30 km into the mantle the latter feature is interpreted as representing a relict 2 69 ga old suture associated with subduction providing the first direct evidence that plate tectonics was active in the late archean these five examples supported by other lithoprobe results refute a number of generalizations about crustal reflectivity that have been made in the past and illustrate how reflection studies combined with other geoscience studies can lead to a better understanding of precambrian tectonics reflectivity persists throughout the crust there is no general separation into a poorly reflective upper crust and a reflective lower crust crustal reflectivity in archean and proterozoic regions is as pervasive as that in areas of more recent tectonism the precambrian reflection moho is generally well defined but shows a range of characteristics relative ages of reflectors can be discerned and tectonic significance can be attached to characteristic features of the crustal reflectivity

calcite graphite thermometry of the franklin marble new jersey highlands abstract we present new stable isotope data for the mesoproterozoic franklin marble from outcrops along an 80 km traverse parallel to and across strike of the structural grain of the western new jersey highlands calcite and dolomite from marble have an average 13c of documentclass aastex usepackage amsbsy usepackage amsfonts usepackage amssymb usepackage bm usepackage mathrsfs usepackage pifont usepackage stmaryrd usepackage textcomp usepackage portland xspace usepackage amsmath amsxtra usepackage ot2 ot1 fontenc newcommand cyr renewcommand rmdefault wncyr renewcommand sfdefault wncyss renewcommand encodingdefault ot2 normalfont selectfont declaretextfontcommand textcyr cyr pagestyle empty declaremathsizes 10 9 7 6 begin document landscape 0 35 mbox textperthousand pm 0 73 mbox textperthousand end document pdb documentclass aastex usepackage amsbsy usepackage amsfonts usepackage amssymb usepackage bm usepackage mathrsfs usepacka

cocorp and the continental crust this is a speculative paper on the continental crust a major frontier of modern earth science seismic reflection profiling data from the cocorp project coupled with other kinds of geophysical and geological observations suggest some fresh perspectives on the crust for example there is evidence for great differences within the basement at a single site and from one cocorp site to another a simple layered model is surely not an adequate representation of the crust in most areas there is however the puzzling and rather common occurrence of limited zones of parallel though not always flat layered features at various depths in certain parts of the crust are the corresponding rocks metasedimentary or igneous or both there are transparent zones from which little or no coherent reflected seismic energy is detected are the corresponding rocks intrusions or highly deformed metasediments can degree of deformation suggest whether rocks were deformed in the hanging wall or footwall of a thrust there is evidence for large scale thrusting and related features that emphasizes the great importance of the wilson cycle to continental tectonics and that raises the possibility that water and rocks of sedimentary origin are trapped deep in the crust by the thrusting process and remain there for long periods with a variety of possible rheological and petrological consequences in some places the modern moho and adjacent rocks may correspond to parts of former oceanic or continental margin sections that have been emplaced at depth as a result of thrusting the widely held concept of the moho as a consistent boundary that is everywhere similar and that always separates the same kinds of rocks may be a major barrier to further progress in understanding the continental crust

differences in paleomagnetic interpretations due to the choice of statistical demagnetization and correction techniques kapuskasing structural zone northern ontario canada abstract the kapuskasing structural zone ksz reveals a section through the archean lower crustal granoblastic gneisses our new paleomagnetic data largely agree with previous work but we show that interpretations vary according to the choices of statistical demagnetization and field correction techniques first where the orientation distribution of characteristic remanence directions on the sphere is not symmetrically circular the commonly used statistical model is invalid fisher r a proc r soc a217 1953 295 any tendency to form an elliptical distribution indicates that the sample is drawn from a bingham type population bingham c 1964 distributions on the sphere and on the projective plane phd thesis yale university fisher and bingham statistics produce different confidence estimates from the same data and the traditionally defined mean vector may differ from the maximum eigenvector of an orthorhombic bingham distribution it seems prudent to apply both models wherever a non fisher population is suspected and that may be appropriate in any tectonized rocks non fisher populations require larger sample sizes so that focussing on individual sites may not be the most effective policy in tectonized rocks more dispersed sampling across tectonic structures may be more productive second from the same specimens mean vectors isolated by thermal and alternating field af demagnetization differ which treatment gives more meaningful results is difficult to decipher especially in metamorphic rocks where the history of the magnetic minerals is not easily related to the ages of tectonic and petrological events in this study thermal demagnetization gave lower inclinations for paleomagnetic vectors and thus more distant paleopoles third of more parochial significance tilt corrections may be unnecessary in the ksz because magnetic fabrics and thrust ramp are constant in orientation to the depth at which they level off at approximately 15 km depth with archean geothermal gradients primary remanences were blocked after the foliation was tilted to rise on the thrust ramp therefore the rocks were probably magnetized in their present orientation tilting largely or entirely predates magnetization

heat flow and structure of the lithosphere in the eastern canadian shield twenty two new determinations of heat flow and radiogenic heat production in the superior and grenville provinces of the canadian shield are presented the new data and previously published measurements strongly constrain the thermal structure of the eastern canadian shield in the abitibi greenstone belt heat flow gradually increases from 29 mw m 2 near the grenville front to 44 mw m 2 east of the kapuskasing uplift this heat flow variation is interpreted in terms of crustal thickening and increased thickness of a tonalitic layer with average heat production of about 1 1 w m 3 this interpretation based on estimated heat production of major rock types in the region is consistent with crustal models derived from recent seismic reflection and refraction studies it also leads to an estimate of about 12 mw m 2 for the mantle heat flow beneath the area the average heat flow in the grenville province 41 10 mw m 2 is the same as that of the superior province this similarity and the lack of significant variation of heat flow across the grenville front indicate that the crust on both sides of the front has similar heat production and thus composition in the western part of the grenville province heat flow reaches high values in the vicinity of the boundary between the allochtonous polycyclic and monocyclic belts where enriched granitic plutons are found in the crystalline terranes in the central part of the grenville province heat flow and heat production are related to each other the parameters of the linear heat flow heat production relationship qr 30 2 in mw m 2 and d 7 1 1 7 km are close to those of the much younger appalachian province implying that the higher appalachian heat flow is due solely to higher heat production in the upper crust the data provide no evidence for variation of mantle heat flow between the superior grenville and appalachian provinces whose tectonic ages range between 2700 and 400 ma the small value of the mantle heat flow about 12 mw m 2 implies that the depth to the 450 c isotherm which controls the effective elastic thickness of the lithosphere is very sensitive to crustal heat production

deep crustal oxygen isotope variations the wawa kapuskasing crustal transect ontario we have studied the oxygen isotopic composition of rocks from a 100 km transect through the central superior province of ontario representing progressively the shallower terrains of the kapuskasing structural zone ksz the wawa gneiss terrane wgt and the michipicoten greenstone belt mgb these rocks range in age from 2 76 to 2 60 ga and correspond to a section through approximately 20 km of crustal thickness equivalent lithologic types have similar range of 18o values at each crustal level tonalitic to granodioritic rocks 6 4 to 9 5 dioritic and anorthositic rocks 5 5 to 7 6 mafic gneisses group 1 majority 5 7 to 7 1 group 2 8 1 to 9 5 18o values exhibit a remarkable correlation with sio2 values similar to that observed in unaltered plutonic rocks of equivalent composition paragneisses have significantly higher 18o values 9 3 to 12 2 low grade metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks of the mgb are 18o enriched compared to their high grade equivalents in the ksz and wgt 7 4 to 13 3 for mafic to felsic metavolcanic rocks 11 4 to 14 7 for clastic metasediments coexisting minerals exhibit 18o fractionation consistent with equilibrium but corresponding to uniform isotopic temperatures about 553 to 584 c across the entire transect lower than the inferred metamorphic temperatures in the highest grade ksz terrane the lack of distinctive isotopic differences between equivalent rock types in the ksz wgt and mgb suggests that there is no significant gradient in 18o with depth in the crust the majority of mafic gneisses group 1 appear to have been emplaced either as subaerial extrusives intrusive sills or less likely as submarine extrusives that were hydrothermally altered at high temperatures the less abundant group 2 mafic rocks have the 18o values typical of greenstones that were altered at low temperature by seawater and isotopically resemble low grade rocks in the michipicoten and abitibi belts in general no major changes in whole rock isotopic composition appear to have occurred during granulite facies metamorphism implying limited flux of water or co2 the continuous linear gradient in 18o versus sio2 in the high grade rocks cannot be due to differentiation of a mafic source magma a model involving an association between mantle derived mafic magma and 18o enriched crustal materials is more consistent with the oxygen isotopic and the ree data

crystalline lithology across the kapuskasing uplift determined using in situ poisson s ratio from seismic tomography seismic refraction tomography has been used to image lateral velocity variations both vp and vs within the shallow crystalline basement using travel times from a high resolution reflection profile across the kapuskasing uplift structure in northern ontario comparison of these in situ velocities and the outcrop geology indicates a correlation of velocity with the major lithologic units anorthosite vp 6150 6350 m s and vs 2700 3000 m s mafic gneiss vp 6000 6250 m s and vs 2775 3000 m s tonalite vp 5850 6000 m s and vs 2950 3025 m s vp measurements on core samples from the main lithologic units confirm that tonalite can be be clearly distinguished from mafic gneiss and anorthosite based on vp the observed vp values are attributed to mineralogy based on modal analyses of core samples from the same region poisson s ratio calculated from in situ vp and vs helps to discriminate between velocity variations caused by porosity effects from those due to lithology values of poisson s ratio obtained for the three lithologic units within the upper 100 m of the basement are anorthosite 0 35 0 39 mafic gneiss 0 34 0 38 and tonalite 0 32 0 34 these relatively high values of poisson s ratio indicate that the shallow basement is porous and water saturated poisson s ratio is a particularly effective discriminator in this instance because of its extremely low value in quartz 0 08 relative to other silicate minerals 0 21 0 32 and the greater quartz content of tonalite 27 36 relative to anorthosite and mafic gneiss 0 23 reflection coefficients calculated for the contrasting lithologies range up to 0 065 for tonalite mafic gneiss contacts and up to 0 044 for tonalite anorthosite contacts confirming that an interlayered sequence of tonalitic anorthositic and mafic rocks mapped at the surface may be the cause of the shallow reflections observed in the coincident seismic reflection data

archean crust as revealed in the kapuskasing uplift superior province canada in the central superior province of the canadian shield a 120 km wide transition from the low grade michipicoten greenstone belt to the high grade kapuskasing structural zone represents an oblique section through some 20 km of archean crust uplifted along a northwest dipping thrust fault the restored vertical section through the upper and middle crust consists of three megalayers with undulating boundaries 1 0 to 25 km a high grade heterogeneous gneissic assemblage in part older than the upper supracrustal succession

the reflectivity of magmatic underplating using the layered mafic intrusion analog abstract the reflection characteristics of layered mafic intrusions provide an analog for characterizing the reflectivity of magmatic underplates one dimensional seismic models of a variety of mafic intrusions with different parent magmas demonstrate that cumulate layering may typically be strongly reflective with reflection coefficients as high as 0 18 a seismic profile across the bjerkreim intrusion in southern norway shows that even a moderately reflective cumulate sequence with reflection coefficients on the order of 0 05 produces detectable reflections two dimensional models demonstrate that the subhorizontal cumulate layering in typical mid to upper crustal intrusions is conducive to seismic imaging but more complicated geometries such as concentric layering created during synmagmatic deformation complicate the seismic image reflection coefficients predicted for granulite facies mineral assemblages are similar to those predicted for the igneous assemblages reflection coefficients predicted for cumulates intruded or re equilibrated at eclogite facies conditions may be either decreased or enhanced with respect to the igneous assemblages depending on the abundance of plagioclase in the cumulate layers and the pressure results suggest that magmatic underplating should not be invoked as an explanation for non reflective crust except in cases where eclogitization has occurred

paleomagnetic evidence for post 2 55 ga tectonic tilting and 1 1 ga reactivation in the southern kapuskasing zone ontario canada we report paleomagnetic results from two traverses in the southern part of the kapuskasing structural zone ksz of north central ontario which is hypothesized to be an oblique cross section through upper and middle archean crust exposed by uplift and tilting anorthosites and granulite grade gneisses were sampled to the east in the shawmere traverse while amphibolite grade tonalitic gneisses were sampled to the west in the racine traverse three distinct remanent magnetization rm components were isolated by alternating field and thermal demagnetization the a rm has mean directions d 50 i 62 k 138 95 5 n 5 sites 23 samples for the shawmere traverse and d 23 i 53 k 49 95 7 n 8 sites 46 samples for the racine traverse because of the high 500 c laboratory unblocking temperatures of the a rm in the shawmere granulite grade rocks we believe this magnetization was acquired in early slow uplift without tilting from about 24 km to about 16 km depths and has survived the later main ksz uplift and tilting event the racine a rm has laboratory unblocking temperatures down to 400 c and was blocked prior to uplift from a shallower crustal level about 8 km with tilt corrections of 30 and 15 respectively about the 35 striking axis of the ksz the shawmere and racine a paleomagnetic poles fall on the laurentian apparent polar wander path around 2 55 ga dating the time of initial uplift crustal tilting in the ksz occurred after 2 55 ga and was greater in the east than in the west the b rm found mainly in shawmere anorthosites has d 115 i 68 k 17 95 17 n 4 sites 14 samples with a paleopole at 144 w 49 n near 1 1 ga keweenawan reverse poles and the normal pole of the nearby 1 0 ga nemegosenda carbonatite the b rm is probably a thermochemical overprint related to reactivation of the ksz at the time of keweenawan rifting and volcanism in the lake superior region a novel c rm with d 64 i 2 k 18 95 13 n 6 sites 10 samples is either an unresolved hybrid of the a and b rms or an earliest keweenawan 1 3 ga overprint

high grade metamorphism in the chapleau foleyet area ontario archean rocks superior province kapuskasing structural zone in migmatitic mafic gneiss paragneiss dioritic and tonalitic rocks a lower grade garnet clinopyroxene plagioclase gt cpx pl zone and patchy higher grade orthopyroxene zones are distinguished based on mineral melt equilibria minimum conditions for the gt cpx pl zone are 750 degrees c 6 kbar a h 2 o 0 5 0 7 and for the orthopyroxene zone 770 degrees c 6 kbar a h 2 o 800 degrees c pressure values are 5 4 8 4 kbar and define a nne trending area of relatively high p in the kapuskasing zone supporting the interpretation of a tilted crustal section modified journal abstract

seismic delineation of upthrust archaean crust in kapuskasing northern ontario the kapuskasing structure fig 1 is a 500 km long high grade metamorphic zone which cuts obliquely across the predominantly east west structural grain of the superior province of the canadian shield results from surface geological mapping and gravity profile analysis suggest that the structure is a partial cross section of archaean crust exposed by thrust faulting along the ivanhoe lake cataclastic zone during the early proterozoic1 2 similar exposures of the crust have been observed elsewhere3 4 but no seismic investigation has been conducted over a contiguous exposed cross section of archaean crust here we report results from a seismic refraction profile across the kapuskasing structural zone carried out to investigate the deep structure of this greenstone gneiss belt modelling of travel times and amplitudes yields a high velocity anomaly of 6 6 6 7 km s 1 extending from 20 km depth to close to the surface under the kapuskasing zone with a suggested dip of 15 2 to the west this anomaly is in agreement with a structure comprising upthrusting middle to lower crust

thermal transport properties of major archean rock types to high temperature and implications for cratonic geotherms abstract the thermal structure of archean terranes depends in part on the thermal transport properties of their distinctive rock types we determined thermal diffusivity d of a suite of 14 greenstone mafic granulite and tonalite trondhjemite granodiorite ttg rocks at temperatures up to 1000 c at atmospheric pressure using laser flash analysis which lacks systematic errors associated with conventional contact techniques at room temperature d ranges from 3 8 mm 2 s 1 for banded iron formation to 0 8 mm 2 s 1 for a quartz poor trondjhemite for all samples thermal diffusivity decreases with increasing temperature such that d for the suite converges around 0 7 0 1 mm 2 s 1 at 700 c combining these results with measured density and heat capacity calculated from modal mineralogy provides thermal conductivity as a function of temperature for each rock suite whereas near surface thermal conductivity varies from 2 7 to 4 2 w m 1 k 1 depending on rock type thermal conductivity of the lower crust is 2 w m 1 k 1 and only weakly dependent on lithology which is more thermally resistive than the uppermost mantle 3 5 w m 1 k 1 use of temperature dependent thermal transport properties in numerical models reveals that surface geotherms can be relatively insensitive to crustal heat production because high heat producing ttg rocks typically have high thermal diffusivity and conductivity at low temperatures and consequently are more efficient conductors of the heat they produce this finding implies that calculations of crustal heat production from surface borehole measurements may entail significant uncertainties

a gravity profile across southern saganash lake fault implications for the origin of the kapuskasing structural zone a high resolution gravity profile with station elevations and locations determined by a differential global positioning system shows that the saganash lake fault that defines the northwestern boundary of the southern kapuskasing structural zone ksz is southeast dipping and of reverse type previous interpretations of a normal fault caused by crustal collapse following east verging thrusting along the ivanhoe lake fault that forms the southeastern boundary of the ksz are no longer tenable instead the reverse nature of the saganash lake fault is more in harmony with a model of the kapuskasing zone whereby its fault bounded uplifted blocks are positive flower structures formed by dextral shear along a zone of left stepping en echelon faults

exposed cross sections through the continental crust implications for crustal structure petrology and evolution abstract the continental crust is exposed in cross section at numerous sites on the earth s surface these exposures which appear to have formed by obduction along great faults during continental collision may be recognized by exposures of deep crustal rocks exhibiting asymmetric patterns of metamorphic grade and age across the faults and by distinctive bouguer anomaly patterns reflecting dipping basement structure and an anomalously deep mantle from an examination of five complexes which meet these criteria it is concluded that the most prominent layering in the crust is not compositional but metamorphic the lower crust consists of granulite facies rocks of mafic to intermediate composition while the intermediate and shallow levels consist predominantly of amphibolite facies gneisses and greenschist facies supracrustal rocks respectively post metamorphic granitic intrusions are common at intermediate to shallow levels position of discontinuities in refraction velocity where present commonly correspond to changes in composition or metamorphic grade with depth the continental crust is characterized by lateral and vertical heterogeneities of varying scale which are the apparent cause of the complex seismic reflections recorded by cocorp field observations coupled with geochemical data indicate a complex evolution of the lower crust which can include anatexis multiple deformation polymetamorphism and reworking of older crustal material the complexity of the crust is thus the result of continuous evolution by recycling and metamorphism through time in a variety of tectonic environments

evolution of the stress fields in the carpatho pannonian area during the neogene abstract observations of microtectonic faults in and around the pannonian basin suggest that the tertiary evolution of the area was controlled by large scale strike slip fault activity statistical analysis of the fault pattern for different localities makes it possible to separate several conjugate sets of strike slip faults and related dilatational and compressive structures these stress fields have a distinct rotation pattern with time inversion of fault data suggests a characteristic rotation of the principal stress axes with time some rigid body rotations are indicated by paleomagnetic data there are basically three contrasting mechanisms to explain this observation 1 1 appropriate rotation of the regional e g european stress field 2 2 rotation of larger tectonic units e g microcontinents under a stable regional stress field and 3 3 coherent rotation of smaller detached continental blocks under a stable regional stress field our model for the neogene tectonic evolution of the pannonian area combines these mechanisms moderate microcontinent rotation may have occurred during the paleogene early miocene in the early middle miocene the microcontinents were dissected by a system of strike slip and normal faults created by a n s compressive e w extensive stress field gravity spreading of the pannonian units and block rotation within bounding strike slip faults are suggested to explain rotated magnetic directions and fault patterns in the late neogene clockwise rotation of the general stress field by at least 40 is thought to be responsible for the reactivations of older strike slip faults and for the creation of new sets this change in the orientation of the stress field is related to the eastward and then southward shift of the carpathian subduction activity

the greenschist facies of an archean assemblage near wawa ontario a stock of trondhjemite intrudes an archean succession metamorphosed to the greenschist facies at gutcher lake 30 km north of wawa in ontario the stock is 4 km2 in plan and is partly enveloped by

seismic reflection profiles across deep continental crust exposed in the kapuskasing uplift structure seismic imaging of precambrian cratons holds the promise of deep structural mapping and interpretation of fundamental crustal construction processes deep structures may be identified by tracing reflections to the surface1 particularly in exposed crustal cross sections2 elevated along deeply penetrating faults but many such cross sections have structural orientations too steep for successful reflection imaging like the ivrea zone3 or occur in plate boundary settings not representative of continental interiors by contrast the archaean greenstone terrain exposed in the kapus kasing uplift of canada4 5 has gently dipping structures and an intracratonic setting within the superior province thus providing an opportunity to examine the third dimension of continental crust down to 25 30 km palaeodepth6 here we present new seismic reflection data which although generally supportive of structural models based on surface geology4 gravity modeling5 and seismic refraction studies7 8 also indicate that the kapuskasing structure is a relatively thin thrust sheet containing seismically reflective sequences of high grade rock which may be analogues of seismi cally reflective in situ lower crust

deep crustal structure and tectonic history of the northern kapuskasing uplift of ontario an integrated petrological geophysical study the northeast trending kapuskasing uplift transects the east west belts of the central superior province over a distance of some 500 km granulite to upper amphibolite facies rocks of the uplift form three distinct geological geophysical entities from south to north the chapleau groundhog river and fraserdale moosonee blocks uplift of the granulites along a moderately northwest dipping crustal scale thrust fault is attributed to an early proterozoic compressional event major northeast striking faults that bound the kapuskasing zone on the west were examined by modelling of geophysical anomalies to determine dip and by geobarometry of garnet orthopyroxene plagioclase quartz assemblages to determine vertical displacement granulites in the kapuskasing zone have 7 to 9 kbar signatures whereas those in the quetico belt to the west indicate metamorphic pressure of 4 6 kbar individual calibrations of the barometer yield consistent pressure differences of 2 3 kbar suggesting 7 10 km of west side down movement on the faults modelling of gravity and aeromagnetic gradients indicates westerly dips of 60 65 with west side down offset of up to 14 km these major normal faults probably formed as collapse structures in response to crustal thickening which occurred during the preceding compressional uplift stage differences in the configuration of individual blocks of the kapuskasing zone can be related to variable fault slip and intersection angles between normal and reverse faults thus the groundhog river and southern fraserdale moosonee blocks are perched thrust tips analogous to the sangre de cristo range of the laramide uplift province whereas the southern chapleau block is a tilted slab with similar configuration to the laramide wind river range pop up geometry deduced for the northern fraserdale moosonee block resembles the structure of the laramide uinta mountains a normal fault crosses the surface trace of the basal thrust fault between the groundhog river and fraserdale moosonee blocks and causes a 65 km gap without granulites this article contains supplementary material