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Late proterozoic-early Paleozoic crust in the Hermitage flexure, Newfoundland Appalachians: U/Pb ages and tectonic significance

Journal Article · · Geology; (USA)
 [1];  [2]
  1. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (Canada)
  2. Newfoundland Department of Mines, St. John's (Canada)
Fault-bounded amphibolite facies gneisses at Grey River, southern Newfoundland, yield a U/Pb zircon age of 686 +33/-15 Ma for the magmatic protolith, whereas metamorphic titanite from the same sample has an age of 579 {plus minus} 10 Ma. Lower grade felsic tuffs north of the gneisses yield an age of 544 {plus minus} 5 Ma and, unlike the gneisses, contain inherited Middle Proterozoic zircons. In the Roti Bay-Clinq Cerf Bay area, lithologically similar gneisses are intruded postmetamorphically by a granitoid complex, from which two plutons yield U-Pb zircon ages of 499 +3/-2 and 563 {plus minus} 4 Ma. These southern Hermitage flexure rocks are vestiges of a unique zone of late Precambrian-earliest Paleozoic crust, and they occupy a position intermediate between the lower Paleozoic Dunnage zone of the central mobile belt and the Precambrian Avalon zone. They may represent surface exposures of the seismically defined deep crustal block that underlies the eastern central mobile belt. These rocks can be correlated in age and tectonic position with rocks at the northwest margin of the Avalon zone elsewhere in the Canadian Appalachians and in Britain.
OSTI ID:
7242932
Journal Information:
Geology; (USA), Journal Name: Geology; (USA) Vol. 17:6; ISSN GLGYB; ISSN 0091-7613
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English