Stratigraphy, petrology, and geochemistry of the North Touak-Cape Dyer volcanic belt, and implications for the tectonic setting of the Paleoproterozoic Hoare Bay group, eastern Baffin Island

• Other Authors: Ansdell, Kevin
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Komatiite; Paleoproterozoic; Baffin Island; Hoare Bay group; iron-formation; Cumberland Peninsula; Totnes Road formation; Clephane Bay formation; geochemistry; petrology; stratigraphy; tectonic setting; petrogenesis; Karasjok-type komatiite; enriched; fragmental
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10388/ETD-2012-09-787

During the Geological Survey of Canada’s Cumberland Peninsula Integrated Geoscience project a ~150km long NE-SW trending volcanic belt, now termed the North Touak-Cape Dyer volcanic belt, was mapped. The volcanic rocks that comprise the belt are dominantly green weathering komatiitic rocks with some black weathering tholeiitic occurrences. Given the similar stratigraphic position, textures, mineralogy, and geochemical characteristics of the volcanic rocks throughout the belt they have been termed the Totnes Road formation, after the locality from which they were first described. The komatiitic rocks possess numerous unusual characteristics for ultramafic volcanic rocks including: fragmental textures, lack of spinifex texture, young eruption age (Paleoproterozoic), eruption through ancient continental crust, and enrichment in the HFSEs including the REEs. This places them in the uncommon and poorly understood sub-type of komatiites termed Karasjok-type komatiites. Given the ultramafic nature of the rocks and their within-plate geochemical signatures, a mantle plume is the most likely source of these rocks, with the komatiites being sourced from the hot plume axis and the tholeiites from the cooler plume head. Incorporation and melting of mantle enriched by the addition of subduction zone recycled, garnet-bearing eclogitic material, beneath thick lithosphere could cause the rocks geochemical enrichment. Stratigraphically overlying the Totnes Road formation is a variety of chemical sedimentary rocks including chert, sulphide and silicate facies iron formation, and sulphide-rich boulders. Given their consistent stratigraphic position and parallel REE patterns, these rocks have been interpreted as a co-genetic suite and are grouped under the Clephane Bay formation, after a locality that exposes a spectacular section of the chemical rocks. The variety of lithologies is believed to be due to mixing of hydrothermal and detrital inputs during deposition within an anoxic basin. Regional correlations in the area are tentative due to the lack of available geochronological and geochemical data. Mafic-ultramafic volcanic occurrences to both the north and the south of the Cumberland Peninsula show remarkably similar geochemical characteristics to the Totnes Road formation. Thus it is possible that one plume was the source for numerous volcanic occurrences within in the region but more detailed study is required to prove or disprove this possibility.