The Paleoproterozoic Thompson nickel belt, a segment of the northwest margin of the Archean Superior craton in Manitoba, is one of the largest nickel-producing regions in the world and the second largest Ni-Cu-PGE (platinum group elements) mining camp in Canada after Sudbury. The nickel sulfide ores are hosted in or associated with ultramafic sills of komatiitic affinity that were emplaced into sulfur-rich metasedimentary rocks of the Ospwagan Group and subsequently strongly deformed and metamorphosed (amphibolite to granulite facies) during the Trans-Hudson orogeny. A U-Pb zircon age of 1880.2 ± 1.4 Ma for a metaperidotite (olivine orthopyroxenite) from the upper part of a boudinaged ultramafic sill at the Pipe 2 deposit is interpreted as the age of crystallization of the intrusion, the first age from an ultramafic sill containing mined nickel sulfide in the Thompson nickel belt. This age confirms a direct petrogenetic relationship between Ni-Cu-PGE mineralization and widespread mafic-ultramafic magmatic activity (Molson igneous events) at ca. 1.88 Ga along the Superior province craton margin (e.g., Thompson nickel belt, Fox River belt, Cape Smith belt, New Quebec orogen). At the south pit of the Thompson mine, a U-Pb zircon age of 1860.7 ± 0.7 Ma for a composite mafic intrusion (garnet amphibolite to layered metagabbro) identifies a new age of mafic magmatic activity in the Thompson nickel belt that is unrelated to nickel sulfide mineralization. The thermal effects of the Trans-Hudson orogeny are recorded by a range of zircon dates and ca. 1760 Ma metamorphic titanite from the South pit intrusion and are consistent with interpretations that regional metamorphism occurred as a single progressive event. The results of this study open up the possibility of using the high-precision U-Pb geochronology of mineralized ultramafic rocks to precisely constrain the duration of mafic-ultramafic magmatism in the Thompson nickel belt and assess potential age differences between ultramafic sills across and along strike of this world-class nickel metallotect.
The Wrangellia flood basalts are part of one of the best exposed accreted oceanic plateaus on Earth. They provide important constraints on the construction of these vast submarine edifices and the source and temporal evolution of magmas for a plume head impinging beneath oceanic lithosphere. Wrangellia flood basalts (∼231–225 Ma) extend ∼450 km across southern Alaska (Wrangell Mountains and Alaska Range) where ∼3.5 km of mostly subaerial flows are bounded by late Paleozoic arc volcanics and Late Triassic limestone. The vast majority of the flood basalts are light rare earth element (LREE) ‐enriched high‐Ti basalt (1.6–2.4 wt % TiO 2 ) with uniform ocean island basalt (OIB) ‐type Pacific mantle isotopic compositions (ɛ Hf (t) = +9.7 to +10.7; ɛ Nd (t) = +6.0 to +8.1; t = 230 Ma). However, the lowest ∼400 m of stratigraphy in the Alaska Range is LREE‐depleted low‐Ti basalt (0.4–1.2 wt % TiO 2 ) with pronounced negative high field strength element (HFSE) anomalies and Hf isotopic compositions (ɛ Hf (t) = +13.7 to +18.4) that are decoupled from Nd (ɛ Nd (t) = +4.6 to +5.4) and displaced well above the OIB mantle array (Δɛ Hf = +4 to +8). The radiogenic Hf of the low‐Ti basalts indicates involvement of a component that evolved with high Lu/Hf over time but not with a correspondingly high Sm/Nd. The radiogenic Hf and HFSE‐depleted signature of the low‐Ti basalts suggest pre‐existing arc lithosphere was involved in the formation of flood basalts that erupted early in construction of part of the Wrangellia plateau in Alaska. Thermal and mechanical erosion of the base of the lithosphere by the impinging plume head may have led to melting of arc lithosphere or interaction of plume‐derived melts and subduction‐modified mantle. The high‐Ti lavas dominate the main phase of construction of the plateau and were derived from a depleted mantle source distinct from the source of MORB and with compositional similarities to that of ocean islands (e.g., Hawaii) and plateaus (e.g., Ontong Java) in the Pacific Ocean.
Abstract For ~82 million years, the Hawaiian‐Emperor chain volcanoes have sampled the Pacific mantle via the Hawaiian mantle plume, providing evidence that its composition varies on a range of temporal and spatial scales. Hawaiian volcanoes from 2 to 0 Ma are divided into southwestern (Loa) and northeastern (Kea) geographic and geochemical trends that are interpreted to reflect the bilateral chemical structure of the underlying plume and its corresponding deep mantle sources. Hawaiian volcanoes that formed between 8 and 3 Ma record a geochemical transition between the Kea‐dominated Northwest Hawaiian Ridge (49 to 8 Ma) and the bilateral trends of the younger Hawaiian Islands. High‐precision Pb isotopic analyses conducted on 55 new shield‐stage samples from two of these key volcanoes, Kaua‘i and Wai‘anae, show that Loa‐like Pb isotopic ratios (e.g., elevated 208 Pb*/ 206 Pb*) gradually increase with decreasing age among the northern Hawaiian volcanoes and dominate for over 2 million years prior to the onset of the bilateral Loa and Kea geochemical trends. Distinct isotopic groups are observed across Kaua‘i and the distribution of Loa and Kea isotopic compositions is rotated relative to that observed on the younger Hawaiian Islands. Protracted Loa compositions and the atypical Loa‐Kea trend on Kaua‘i are accounted for by (1) the arrival of a voluminous, Loa mantle heterogeneity possibly associated with anchoring of the Hawaiian plume to the Pacific Large Low Shear Velocity Province and (2) a different orientation of the Pacific plate relative to the Loa‐Kea compositional boundary prior to 2 Ma.
ABSTRACT The Early Jurassic Polaris Alaskan-type intrusion in the Quesnel accreted arc terrane of the North American Cordillera is a zoned, mafic-ultramafic intrusive body that contains two main styles of magmatic mineralization of petrologic and potential economic significance: (1) chromitite-associated platinum group element (PGE) mineralization hosted by dunite (±wehrlite); and (2) sulfide-associated Cu-PGE-Au mineralization hosted by olivine (±magnetite) clinopyroxenite, hornblendite, and gabbro-diorite. Dunite-hosted PGE mineralization is spatially associated with thin discontinuous layers and schlieren of chromitite and chromitiferous dunite and is characterized by marked enrichments in iridium-subgroup PGE (IPGE) relative to palladium-subgroup PGE (PPGE). Discrete grains of platinum group minerals (PGM) are exceedingly rare, and the bulk of the PGE are inferred to reside in solid solution within chromite±olivine. The absence of Pt-Fe alloys in dunite of the Polaris intrusion is atypical, as Pt-enrichment of dunite-hosted chromitite is widely regarded as a characteristic feature of Alaskan-type intrusions. This discrepancy appears to be consistent with the strong positive dependence of Pt solubility on the oxidation state of sulfide-undersaturated magmas. Through comparison with experimentally determined PGE solubilities, we infer that the earliest (highest temperature) olivine-chromite cumulates of the Polaris intrusion crystallized from a strongly oxidized ultramafic parental magma with an estimated log f(O2) > FMQ+2. Parental magmas with oxygen fugacities more typical of volcanic arc settings [log f(O2) ∼ FMQ to ∼ FMQ+2] are, in turn, considered more favorable for co-precipitation of Pt-Fe alloys with olivine and chromite. More evolved clinopyroxene- and hornblende-rich cumulates of the Polaris intrusion contain low abundances of disseminated magmatic sulfides, consisting of pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite with minor pentlandite, pyrite, and rare bornite (≤12 wt.% total sulfides), which occur interstitially or as polyphase inclusions in silicates and oxides. The sulfide-bearing rocks are characterized by strong primitive mantle-normalized depletions in IPGE and enrichments in Cu-PPGE-Au, patterns that resemble those of other Alaskan-type intrusions and primitive arc lavas. The absolute abundances and sulfur-normalized whole-rock concentrations (Ci/S, serving as proxy for sulfide metal tenor) of chalcophile elements, including Cu/S, in sulfide-bearing rocks are highest in olivine clinopyroxenite. Sulfide saturation in the relatively evolved magmas of the Polaris intrusion, and Alaskan-type intrusions in general, appears to be intimately tied to the appearance of magnetite. Fractional crystallization of magnetite during the formation of olivine clinopyroxenite at Polaris resulted in reduction of the residual magma to log f(O2) ≤ FMQ+2, leading to segregation of an immiscible sulfide melt with high Cu/Fe and Cu/S, and high PGE and Au tenors. Continued fractionation resulted in sulfide melts that were progressively more depleted in precious and base chalcophile metals. The two styles of PGE mineralization in the Polaris Alaskan-type intrusion are interpreted to reflect the evolution of strongly oxidized, hydrous ultramafic parental magma(s) through intrinsic magmatic fractionation processes that potentially promote sulfide saturation in the absence of wallrock assimilation.
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