The Geon 14 arc-related mafic rocks from the central Grenville Province

The late Paleoproterozoic to Mesoproterozoic (ca. 1.7-1.2 Ga) evolution of the active southeastern margin of Laurentia terminated with the Grenvillian continental collision and the development of a large, hot, long-duration orogen at ca. 1.09-0.98 Ga. As a result, much of the hinterland of the Grenville Province consists of Paleoproterozoic and Mesoproterozoic rocks, mostly preserved as an imbricate stack of high-grade gneisses, that represent a potential repository of active-margin processes. This study presents geochronologic, geochemical, and isotopic analyses of two granulite-facies suites of ca. 1.45-1.40 Ga mafic tholeiites from the Canyon domain (Manicouagan area, central Grenville Province). One suite consists of 1439 +76/-68 Ma high-FeTi mafic sills with epsilon Nd values of -0.4 (TDM 2.57-2.72 Ga), indicate derivation from variably depleted to enriched MORB-type mantle sources, probably in an extensional back-arc setting, before intrusion in a ca. 1.5 Ga supracrustal metasedimentary sequence. The other, previously dated, 1410 + or - 16 Ma Mafic to intermediate unit exhibits epsilon Nd values of 0.0 to +0.9 (TDM 2.02-2.25 Ga), and variably enriched MORB to arc geochemical signatures, for which formation in a transitional back-arc to arc setting is suggested. Integrated with published information, the new data support a model of a long-lived continental-margin arc and intermittent back-arc development on southeast Laurentia during the mid-Mesoproterozoic (ca. 1.5-1.4 Ga), in which repeated short periods of extension and crustal thinning in the back-arc or intra-arc regions were followed by compression and crustal thickening.