Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T04:56:59.272Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Three-dimensional visualization of top-down superimposed thrust sheets in the SW Grenville Province, Ontario

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2019

Jacob W.D. Strong Open the ORCID record for Jacob W.D. Strong [Opens in a new window]  and
Alan P. Dickin
Jacob W.D. Strong*
Affiliation:
School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia
Alan P. Dickin
Affiliation:
School of Geography & Earth Sciences, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M2, Canada
*
Author for correspondence: Jacob W.D. Strong, Email: jwdstrong.709@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

To properly understand the tectonic history of the Grenville Province it is necessary to have a reliable, scientifically based understanding of the present-day three-dimensional (3D) structure of the orogen. Based on detailed Nd isotope mapping of surface boundaries and Lithoprobe seismic sections, this study provides the first detailed visualization of the 3D structure of the Grenville gneiss belt in Ontario using the SketchUp software package. The 3D visualization supports a model in which thrust geometry was imposed from the top downwards, controlled by the NW boundary of the Central Metasedimentary Belt that originated as a failed back-arc rift zone. The Central Metasedimentary Belt boundary controlled the trajectory of the Allochthon Boundary Thrust, its underlying tectonic duplex and, ultimately, the Grenville Front. This process of superimposed thrusting explains the large-scale change in the trajectory of the Grenville Front north of Georgian Bay that has been called the ‘Big Bend’. To assist in visualizing the 3D model, a fly-through animation is provided in the supplementary material.

Keywords

Top-down superimpositionGrenville FrontAllochthon Boundary ThrustCentral Metasedimentary Belt boundary
Type
Original Article
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 157 , Issue 2 , February 2020 , pp. 149 - 159
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agustsson, KS, Johnston, SM, Peck, WH and Kylander-Clark, A (2013) Geochemistry and geochronology of the 1.3 Ga metatonalites from the Central Metasedimentary Belt boundary thrust zone in southern Ontario, Grenville Province, Canada. Geosphere 9, 853–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyer, SE and Elliott, D (1982) Thrust systems. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 66, 1196–230.Google Scholar
Chen, YD, Krogh, TE and Lumbers, SB (1995) Neoarchean trondhjemitic and tonalitic orthogneisses identified within the northern Grenville Province in Ontario by precise U-Pb dating and petrologic studies. Precambrian Research 72, 263–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corrigan, D, Culshaw, NG and Mortensen, JK (1994) Pre-Grenvillian evolution and Grenvillian overprinting of the Parautochthonous Belt in the Key Harbour area, Ontario: U-Pb constraints. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 31, 583–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Culshaw, NG, Corrigan, D, Ketchum, JWF, Wallace, P and Wodicka, N (2004) Precambrian geology, Naiscoot area. Preliminary map P.3549, scale 1:50 000. Ontario Geological Survey.Google Scholar
Culshaw, NG, Foster, J, Marsh, J, Slagstad, T and Gerbi, C (2016) Kiosk domain, Central Gneiss Belt, Grenville Province, Ontario: a Labradorian palimpsest preserved in the ductile deep crust. Precambrian Research 280, 249–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Culshaw, NG, Jamieson, RA, Ketchum, JWF, Wodicka, N, Corrigan, D and Reynolds, PH (1997) Transect across the northwestern Grenville orogen, Georgian Bay, Ontario: polystage convergence and extension in the lower orogenic crust. Tectonics 16, 966–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Culshaw, NG, Ketchum, JWF, Wodicka, N and Wallace, P (1994) Deep crustal ductile extension following thrusting in the southwestern Grenville Province, Ontario. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 31, 160–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, A (1984) Tectonic boundaries within the Grenville Province of the Canadian Shield. Journal of Geodynamics 1, 433–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, A (1985) Tectonic Framework of the Grenville Province in Ontario and Western Quebec, Canada. In The Deep Proterozoic Crust in the North Atlantic Provinces (eds Tobi, AC and Touret, JLR), pp. 133–49. NATO ASI Series (Series C: Mathematical and Physical Sciences), Vol. 158. Dordrecht: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, A (1986) A new look at the Grenville Front in Ontario (Guide book to field trip 15). Ottawa: Geological Association of Canada, 31 p.Google Scholar
Davidson, A (1995) A review of the Grenville orogen in its North American type area. Journal of Australian Geology and Geophysics 16, 3–24.Google Scholar
Davidson, A and van Breemen, O (1988) Baddeleyite-zircon relationships in coronitic metagabbro, Grenville Province, Ontario: implications for geochronology. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 100, 291–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeCelles, PG, Robinson, DM, Quade, J, Ojha, TP, Garzione, CN, Copeland, P and Upreti, BN (2001) Stratigraphy, structure, and tectonic evolution of the Himalayan fold-thrust belt in western Nepal, Tectonics 20, 487–509.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DePaolo, DJ (1981) Neodymium isotopes in the Colorado Front Range and crust–mantle evolution in the Proterozoic. Nature 291, 193–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickin, A, Hynes, E, Strong, J and Wisborg, M (2016) Testing a back-arc ‘aulacogen’ model for the Central Metasedimentary Belt of the Grenville Province. Geological Magazine 153, 681–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickin, A and North, R (2015) Nd isotope mapping of the Allochthon Boundary Thrust on the shores of Georgian Bay, Ontario: significance for Grenvillian crustal structure and evolution. Geological Magazine 152, 993–1008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickin, A and Strong, J (2019) Nd isotope mapping of the Grenvillian Allochthon Boundary Thrust in Algonquin Park, Ontario. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 56 (2), 101–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickin, A, Strong, J, Arcuri, G, Van Kessel, A and Krivankova-Smal, L (2017) A revised model for the crustal structure of the SW Grenville Province, Ontario, Canada. Geological Magazine 154, 903–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickin, AP (1998) Pb isotope mapping of differentially uplifted Archean basement: a case study from the Grenville Province, Ontario. Precambrian Research 91, 445–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickin, AP (2000) Crustal formation in the Grenville Province: Nd-isotope evidence. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 37, 165–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickin, AP (2018) Radiogenic Isotope Geology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickin, AP, Cooper, D, Guo, A, Hutton, C, Martin, C, Sharma, KNM and Zelek, M (2012) Nd isotope mapping of the Lac Dumoine thrust sheet: implications for large-scale crustal structure in the SW Grenville Province. Terra Nova 24, 363–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickin, AP, Herrell, M, Moore, E, Cooper, D and Pearson, S (2014) Nd isotope mapping of Allochthonous Grenvillian Klippen: evidence for widespread ‘ramp-flat’ thrust geometry in the SW Grenville province. Precambrian Research 246, 268–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickin, AP and McNutt, RH (1989) Nd model age mapping of the southeast margin of the Archean foreland in the Grenville Province of Ontario. Geology 17, 299–302.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickin, AP and McNutt, RH (1990) Nd model-age mapping of Grenville lithotectonic domains: Mid-Proterozoic crustal evolution in Ontario. In Mid-Proterozoic Laurentia-Baltica (eds Gower, CF, Rivers, T and Ryan, B), pp. 79–94. St John’s: Geological Association of Canada, Special Paper 38.Google Scholar
Dickin, AP and McNutt, RH (2003) An application of Nd isotope mapping in structural geology: delineating an allochthonous Grenvillian terrane at North Bay, Ontario. Geological Magazine 140, 539–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickin, AP and McNutt, RH (2007) The Central Metasedimentary Belt (Grenville Province) as a failed back-arc rift zone: Nd isotope evidence. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 259, 97–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickin, AP, McNutt, RH and Clifford, PM (1990) A neodymium isotope study of plutons near the Grenville Front in Ontario, Canada. Chemical Geology 83, 315–324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dudàs, FÖ, Davidson, A and Bethune, KM (1994) Age of the Sudbury diabase dykes and their metamorphism in the Grenville Province, Ontario. In Radiogenic Age and Isotopic Studies: Report 8, Geological Survey of Canada, Current Research 1994-F, 97–106.Google Scholar
Green, AG, Milkereit, B, Davidson, A, Spenser, C, Hutchinson, DR and Cannon, WF (1988) Crustal structure of the Grenville front and adjacent terranes. Geology 16, 788–792.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heaman, LM and LeCheminant, AN (1993) Paragenesis and U-Pb systematics of baddeleyite (ZrO). Chemical Geology 110, 95–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huyghe, P, Galy, A, Mugnier, JL and France-Lanord, C (2001) Propagation of the thrust system and erosion in the Lesser Himalaya: Geochemical and sedimentological evidence. Geology 29, 1007–10.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Indares, A and Dunning, G (1997) Coronic metagabbro and eclogite from the Grenville Province of western Quebec: interpretation of U-Pb geochronology and metamorphism. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 34, 891–901.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jamieson, RA, Culshaw, NG, Wodicka, N, Corrigan, D and Ketchum, JWF (1992) Timing and tectonic setting of Grenvillian metamorphism – constraints from a transect along Georgian Bay, Ontario. Journal of Metamorphic Geology 10, 321–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kellet, RL, Barnes, AE and Rive, E (1994) The deep structure of the Grenville Front: a new perspective from western Quebec. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 31, 282–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ketchum, JWF and Davidson, A (2000) Crustal architecture and tectonic assembly of the Central Gneiss Belt, southwestern Grenville Province, Canada: a new interpretation. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 37, 217–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ketchum, JWF, Heaman, LM, Krogh, TE, Culshaw, NG and Jamieson, RA (1998) Timing and thermal influence of late orogenic extension in the lower crust: a U-Pb geochronological study from the southwest Grenville orogen, Canada. Precambrian Research 89, 25–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krogh, TE (1991) U-Pb zircon geochronology in the western Grenville Province. Paper presented at Lithoprobe Abitibi Grenville Transect, Workshop III, 25–27 April, University of Toronto.Google Scholar
Krogh, TE (1994) Precise U-Pb ages for Grenvillian and pre-Grenvillian thrusting of Proterozoic and Archean metamorphic assemblages in the Grenville Front tectonic zone, Canada. Tectonics 13, 963–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindia, FM, Thomas, MD and Davidson, A (1983) Geological significance of Bouguer gravity anomalies in the region of Parry Sound Domain, Grenville Province, Ontario. Current Research, Part B, Geological Survey of Canada Paper 83-1B, 261–6.Google Scholar
Marsh, JH and Culshaw, NG (2014) Timing and conditions of high-pressure metamorphism in the western Grenville Province: Constraints from accessory mineral composition and phase equilibrium modeling. Lithos 200, 402–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marsh, JH, Culshaw, NG and Gerbi, CC (2013) Timing and conditions of poly-phase metamorphism within the Twelve Mile Bay shear zone: implications for the evolution of mid-crustal decollement zones and western Grenville tectonics. International Geology Review 55, 525–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marsh, JH, Gerbi, CC, Culshaw, NG, Johnson, SE, Wooden, JL and Clark, C (2012) Using zircon U-Pb ages and trace element chemistry to constrain the timing of metamorphic events, pegmatite dike emplacement, and shearing in the southern Parry Sound domain, Grenville Province, Canada. Precambrian Research 192, 142–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McEachern, SJ and van Breemen, O (1993) Age of deformation within the Central Metasedimentary Belt boundary thrust zone, southwest Grenville Orogen: constraints on the collision of the Mid-Proterozoic Elzevir terrane. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 30, 1155–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitra, G and Boyer, SE (1986) Energy balance and deformation mechanisms of duplexes. Journal of Structural Geology 8, 291–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nadeau, L and Hanmer, S (1992) Deep-crustal break-back stacking and slow exhumation of the continental footwall beneath a thrusted marginal basin, Grenville orogen, Canada. Tectonophysics, 210, 215–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rive, M (1981) 1:250 000 compilation of geological maps 31 M and 31 L. In Cartes des Gites Mineraux de Quebec, Region d’Abitibi (eds Avramtchev, L and Lebel-Drolet, S). Quebec: Ministere de l’Energie et des Ressources du Quebec, DVP-744.Google Scholar
Rivers, T (1997) Lithotectonic elements of the Grenville Province: review and tectonic implications. Precambrian Research 86, 117–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rivers, T (2008) Assembly and preservation of upper, middle and lower orogenic crust in the Grenville Province – implications for the evolution of large, hot, long-duration orogens. Precambrian Research 167, 237–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rivers, T (2012) Upper-crustal orogenic lid and mid-crustal core complexes: signature of a collapsed orogenic plateau in the hinterland of the Grenville Province. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 49, 1–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rivers, T and Chown, EH (1986) The Grenville orogen in eastern Quebec and western Labrador – definition, identification and tectonometamorphic relationships of autochthonous, parautochthonous, and allochthonous terranes. In: The Grenville Province (eds Moore, JM, Davidson, A and Baer, AJ), pp. 31–50. St John’s: Geological Association of Canada, Special Paper 31.Google Scholar
Rivers, T, Culshaw, N, Hynes, A, Indares, A, Jamieson, R and Martignole, J (2012) The Grenville Orogen – a post-Lithoprobe perspective. In: Tectonic Styles in Canada: The Lithoprobe Perspective (eds Percival, JA, Cook, FA and Clowes, RM), pp. 97–236. St John’s: Geological Association of Canada, Special Paper 49.Google Scholar
Rivers, T, Ketchum, J, Indares, A and Hynes, A (2002) The high pressure belt in the Grenville Province: architecture, timing, and exhumation. Canadian Journal of Earth Science 39, 867–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rivers, T, Martignole, J, Gower, CF and Davidson, A (1989) New tectonic divisions of the Grenville Province, Southeast Canadian Shield. Tectonics 8, 63–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rivers, T and Schwerdtner, W (2015) Post-peak evolution of the Muskoka Domain, Western Grenville Province: ductile detachment zone in a crustal-scale metamorphic core complex. Geoscience Canada 42, 403–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rivers, T, van Gool, JAM and Connelly, JN (1993) Contrasting tectonic styles in the northern Grenville province: Implications for the dynamics of orogenic fronts. Geology 21, 1127–30.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwerdtner, WM (1987) Interplay between folding and ductile shearing in the Proterozoic crust of the Muskoka – Parry Sound region, central Ontario. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 24, 1507–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slagstad, T, Culsha, NG, Daly, JS and Jamieson, RA (2009) Western Grenville Province hold key to midcontinental Granite Rhyolite Province enigma. Terra Nova 21, 181–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strong, JWD (2015) SketchUp as a construction tool for large-scale subsurface structures: three-dimensional visualization of the Parry Sound Domain, Grenville Province, Ontario. Cartographica 50, 179–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, DJ, Easton, RM, Culshaw, NG, Milkereit, B, Forsythe, DA, Carr, S, Green, AG and Davidson, A (1994) Seismic images of the Grenville Orogen in Ontario. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 31, 293–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wynne-Edwards, HR (1972) The Grenville Province. In: Variations in Tectonic Styles in Canada (eds Price, RA and Douglas, RJW), pp. 263–334. St John’s: Geological Association of Canada, Special Paper 11.Google Scholar

Strong and Dickin supplementary material

Strong and Dickin supplementary material 1

Download Strong and Dickin supplementary material(Video)
Video 99.6 MB
Supplementary material: File

Strong and Dickin supplementary material

Strong and Dickin supplementary material 2

Download Strong and Dickin supplementary material(File)
File 95.2 KB