Academic literature on the topic 'Keweenawan Rift'

The interpretation of 1047 km of seismic reflection data collected in western Lake Superior is presented along with reflection traveltime contour maps and gravity models to understand the overall geometry of the Midcontinent Rift System beneath the lake. The Douglas, Isle Royale, and Keweenaw fault zones, clearly imaged on the seismic profiles, are interpreted to be large offset detachment faults associated with initial rifting. These faults have been reactivated as reverse faults with 3–5 km of throw. The Douglas Fault Zone is not directly connected with the Isle Royale Fault Zone. The seismic data has imaged two large basins filled with more than 22 km of middle Keweenawan pre-Portage Lake and Portage Lake volcanic rocks and up to 8 km of upper Keweenawan Oronto and Bayfield sedimentary rocks. These basins persisted throughout Keweenawan time and are separated by a ridge of Archean rocks and a narrow trough bounded by the Keweenaw Fault Zone to the south. Another fault zone, herein named the Ojibwa fault zone, previously interpreted as the northeastern extension of the Douglas Fault Zone, has been reinterpreted as a reverse fault that closely follows the ridge of Archean rocks. Previous researchers have stated that neighboring segments of the rift display alternating polarity of basins associated with large detachment faults. Accommodation zones have been previously interpreted to exist between rift segments; however, the seismic data do not image a clearly identifiable accommodation zone separating the two basins in western Lake Superior. Thus, the seismic profile may lie directly above the pivot of a scissors-type accommodation fault zone, there is no vertical offset associated with the zone, or the zone does not exist. Seismic data interpretations indicate that application of a simple alternating polarity basin – accommodation zone model is an oversimplification of the complex geological structures associated with the Midcontinent Rift System.

GLIMPCE aeromagnetic data in eastern Lake Superior are characterized by a series of strong easterly- and northeasterly-oriented gradients that relate to mapped post-Keweenawan faults occurring along the eastern shore. The reversed nature of three of the faults is established through field observations and potential field modelling. Middle Keweenawan volcanic rocks at Mamainse Point are in fault contact on their south side with upper Keweenawan sandstone of Bayfield–Jacobsville type. Gravity modelling suggests that the fault is a low angle thrust dipping to the north. Field observations and high-resolution aeromagnetic data show that it extends inland along the southern margin of the Batchawana Greenstone Belt for at least 17 km. To the west, the Mamainse Point fault may extend across eastern Lake Superior to the Keweenaw Peninsula, linking several offsets in the seismic data that are consistent with the same attitude and sense of displacement. Along the south side of Batchawana Bay at Havilland, sandstones of Bayfield–Jacobsville type are isoclinally folded against a package of upthrust older rocks that include drag-folded middle Keweenawan volcanics. At Grindstone Point, north of Cape Gargantua, a reverse fault separating isoclinally-folded upper Keweenawan sandstones from Archean basement may, on aeromagnetic evidence, be an eastward extension of the Michipicoten Island fault.These faults mark a significant change in the style of late compressional tectonism observed within the Midcontinent Rift. All cut Keweenawan rocks across strike. The inference is that broad north–south or northwest–southeast compression, consistent in timing and orientation with the Grenville Orogeny, led to a reversal of movement along the major graben faults in western Lake Superior and was taken up in the eastern region by reverse faults oriented normal to the extensional axis of the rift.

Cross sections of the Midcontinent Rift in Lake Superior, derived from GLIMPCE seismic reflection images, provide unprecedented structural details of the rift and a new constraint for modelling associated gravity anomalies. In turn, gravity modelling, constrained also by new high-resolution aeromagnetic data, has permitted critical examination of the seismic models. The latter generate gravity anomalies having limited agreement with observed anomalies when appropriate rock densities are assigned. Good agreement may be achieved, generally, by making comparatively local changes to the models, while retaining their larger-scale attributes. Gravity modelling thus enhances and supports GLIMPCE seismic models.Modifications to seismic models include revisions of initial densities within the geometrical framework of the models, leading to a redefinition of lithologies. For example, in some segments of the rift, mafic volcanics are substituted for Keweenawan sedimentary and sedimentary–volcanic sequences and for Lower Proterozoic sediments, and a felsic igneous body is modelled within a mafic volcanic unit. Positions of some unit boundaries and faults, or segments thereof, have also been modified.Gravity modelling traces the paths of the Keweenaw, Isle Royale, Thiel, Douglas, and Michipicoten Island faults deep into the crust, generally supporting the configurations outlined by seismic images and, thereby, arguments for rift development controlled by growth faults. Modelling also indicates a requirement for large, buried masses of mafic (plutonic?) igneous rocks of presumed Keweenawan age along the northern margin of the rift. This imparts an asymmetry to the rift, with northern and southern margins dominated by plutonic and volcanic igneous rocks, respectively.

The Keweenawan (1100 Ma) Mamainse Point volcanics, located along the eastern shore of Lake Superior in Ontario, formed in the Midcontinent Rift of North America. They are a 5250 m thick sequence of over 350 predominantly basaltic lava flows. The Mamainse Point section is the most continuous Keweenawan volcanic sequence and spans nearly the entire igneous history of the rift. The lower part of the section consists of high-MgO picrites and basalts, but the upper part of the section is composed of olivine tholeiites intercalated with numerous conglomerate layers. Major- and trace-element data reveal that the section consists of numerous stratigraphically constrained, geochemically distinct groups of lava flows. The comprehensive geochemical data on the entire sequence indicate that the section has no repetition due to faulting, as has been suggested by other workers on the basis of paleomagnetic studies. Evidently, the three paleomagnetic reversals previously found in the Mamainse Point section are real, and therefore there were multiple paleomagnetic reversals during Keweenawan time.

Archean rocks form the eastern margin of the 1.1 Ga old Central North American rift along the eastern shore of Lake Superior and have been tilted westwards in response to rifting. Paleomagnetic and structural data from 2.6 Ga old Matachewan dykes suggest a westward crustal tilt of about 60°, which agrees well with dips recorded in nearby Keweenawan volcanics that rest directly on basement rocks. The Matachewan dyke swarm occurs throughout the east shore region of Lake Superior, whereas Keweenawan supracrustal sequences, which give a more precise estimate of tilt, are restricted to a few isolated shoreline patches. Estimates of crustal tilt can be obtained from the dykes on a regional basis, thus generating a more complete picture of basement deformation adjacent to a major intracratonic rift.

Picrites and tholeiites from the Mamainse Point Formation, a 5.3 km thick section of Keweenawan (1100 Ma) volcanic and sedimentary fill on the eastern flank of the central portion of the Midcontinent rift system, contain a nearly continuous record of rift magmatic activity. Picrites occur primarily in the lowermost two units of the formation. In this study, they are compared to rarely exposed, slightly older Keweenawan basalts from the North Shore Volcanic Group and the Powder Mill Group to constrain mantle source compositions during early phases of rift magmatic activity. The most primitive picrites analyzed have low Re content (0.069–0.18 ppb), high Os content (0.8–2.1 ppb), and low 187Re/188Os (0.28–1.18). A Re–Os isochron with an age of 1128 ± 54 Ma and an initial 187Os/188Os of 0.1267 ± 0.0013 (γOs = +5.7) was obtained from a 24-point isochron on all but two analyzed samples. The Re–Os data, regressed separately for the older basalts, and the groups 1 and 2 samples from the Mamainse Point Formation, have barely resolvable initial 187Os/188Os that decrease up-stratigraphy from initial γOs(1100) of +12.2 to +6.2 and +4.2, respectively, and couple with changes in initial Nd isotopic composition. These data can be explained by mixing of melts of an enriched mantle plume and unradiogenic continental lithospheric mantle. A radiogenic initial Os isotopic composition (γOs of +8 or higher) for the Keweenawan plume marks the first known appearance of demonstrably radiogenic plume-derived magmas on Earth. Plume-derived magmas with radiogenic Os signatures are more common later. The radiogenic Os signatures of Keweenawan plume magmas may mark the appearance of melts derived from mantle containing recycled slab components from late Archean subduction.