Research Paper
GEOSPHERE Syn-collisional exhumation of hot middle crust in the Adirondack Mountains (New York, USA): Implications for extensional orogenesis
GEOSPHERE, v. 15, no. 4 in the southern Grenville province
1,2 2 3 4 3 5 https://doi.org/10.1130/GES02029.1 S.P. Regan , G.J. Walsh , M.L. Williams , J.R. Chiarenzelli , M. Toft , and R. McAleer 1Department of Geoscience, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775, USA 11 figures; 3 tables 2U.S. Geological Survey, Florence Bascom Geoscience Center, Montpelier, Vermont 05601, USA 3Department of Earth and Sustainability, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA 4Department of Geology, St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York 13617, USA CORRESPONDENCE: [email protected] 5U.S. Geological Survey, Florence Bascom Geoscience Center, Reston, Virginia 20192, USA
CITATION: Regan, S.P., Walsh, G.J., Williams, M.L., Chiarenzelli, J.R., Toft, M., and McAleer, R., 2019, ■■ ABSTRACT exhumation of high-grade terranes adjacent to upper-crustal rocks (Klepeis and Syn-collisional exhumation of hot middle crust in the King, 2009; Klepeis et al., 2016). Further, extensional structures may act as major Adirondack Mountains (New York, USA): Implications Extensional deformation in the lower to middle continental crust is increasingly conduits for magmas and both surficial and mantle-derived fluids (Rutte et al., for extensional orogenesis in the southern Grenville province: Geosphere, v. 15, no. 4, p. 1240–1261, https:// recognized and shown to have significant impact on crustal architecture, magma 2017). Therefore, understanding extensional tectonism in convergent tectonic doi.org/10.1130/GES02029.1. emplacement, fluid flow, and ore deposits. Application of the concept of extensional settings is critical to the goal of understanding orogenic systems as a whole. strain to ancient orogenic systems, like the Grenville province of eastern North The Grenville province of eastern North America represents the roots of an Science Editor: Shanaka de Silva America, has helped decipher the structural evolution of these regions. The Marcy orogenic belt that formed and evolved during the amalgamation of Rodinia, massif is a ~3000 km2 Mesoproterozoic anorthosite batholith in the Adirondack and provides a window into the middle- to lower-crustal architecture of modern Received 2 July 2018 Mountains (New York, USA) of the southern Grenville province. Bedrock geology orogens (Fig. 1A; Rivers, 2008). The importance of extensional deformation in Revision received 22 January 2019 Accepted 20 March 2019 mapping at 1:24,000 scale paired with characterization of bedrock exposed by re- the Grenville province has been increasingly recognized, especially as a mech- cent landslides provides a glimpse into the structural architecture of the massif and anism for producing metamorphic discontinuities (Rivers, 2008, 2011). However, Published online 8 May 2019 its margin. New data demonstrate granulite- to amphibolite-facies deformational many of the interpreted extensional structures and tectonic implications have fabrics parallel the margin of the batholith, and that the Marcy massif is draped by been made within Québec and Ontario, Canada (Busch et al., 1997; Rivers, a southeast-directed detachment zone. Within the massif, strain is localized into 2011; Soucy La Roche et al., 2015; Dufréchou, 2017), and there remains a lack mutually offsetting conjugate shear zones with antithetic kinematic indicators. of detailed structural syntheses incorporating regional extensional models for These relationships indicate that strain was coaxial within the Marcy massif, and Mesoproterozoic rocks elsewhere in the Grenville province. The recognition that subsimple shear components of strain were partitioned along its margin. In of extensional structures and processes elsewhere in the Grenville province situ U–Th–total Pb monazite analysis shows that deformation around and over the will help illuminate a more regionally scaled extensional framework and its Marcy massif occurred from 1070 to 1060 Ma during granulite-facies metamorphism, role in ore mineralization, leucogranite emplacement, exhumation of lower- to and monazite from all samples record evidence for fluid-mediated dissolution repre- middle-crustal rocks, and the overall architecture of a classic hot, large, and cipitation from 1050 to 980 Ma. We interpret that rocks cooled isobarically after ac- long-duration orogeny (Rivers, 2008). cretionary orogenesis and emplacement of the anorthosite-mangerite- charnockite- The final assembly of the Rodinian supercontinent during the Grenville granite plutonic suite at ca. 1160–1140 Ma. Gravitational collapse during the Ottawan orogeny from ca. 1090 to 980 Ma (Rivers, 2008) resulted in the northwestward phase of the Grenville orogeny initiated along a southeast-directed detachment thrusting of Mesoproterozoic rocks structurally over the Superior province zone (Marcy massif detachment zone), which accommodated intrusion of the Lyon along the Grenville front (Fig. 1A). Rocks of the Grenville province record Mountain Granite Gneiss, and facilitated substantial fluid flow that catalyzed the multiple phases of tectonism (polycyclic belt of Rivers [2008]), and are the formation of major ore deposits in the Adirondack Highlands. result of multiple accretionary phases preceding the culminating collision with Amazonia during the Ottawan phase of the Grenville orogeny. Collision and resulting northwestward thrusting occurred prior to 1082 Ma in parts of ■■ INTRODUCTION: EXTENSIONAL COLLAPSE OF THE GRENVILLE Québec (Soucy La Roche et al., 2015), and were immediately followed by the PROVINCE onset of crustal extension that was predominately southeast vergent (Rivers and Schwerdtner, 2015), represented by, for example, the Ottawa River Gneiss This paper is published under the terms of the Crustal extension is an important tectonic process in collisional tectonic set- Complex (Rivers and Schwerdtner, 2015; Schwerdtner et al., 2016), the Rob- CC‑BY-NC license. tings. Extension allows heat transfer to higher structural levels and can lead to ertson Lake shear zone (Busch et al., 1997), the Taureau shear zone (Soucy
© 2019 The Authors
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modified from Buddington (1939) W60° Copper Kiln - N Jay-Mount Churchill Whiteface unit Port Kent- gabbro, olivine gabbro, pyroxenite, peridotite W Province estport unit Anorthosite massifs W70° St. Regis-Marcy unit Keene Anorthosite, leucotroctolite, N54° Bennies Valley leuconorite, leucogabbronorite, Brook
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P-T locations in PAB Superior province Fig. 2 C
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GOsz W80° Grenville 10 km N50° 50° Chibougamau W74 ABT Havere Saint-Pierre Fig. 10 Paleozoic Sept-Iles N Carthage-Colton cover shear zone B Val d’Or Baie-Commeau Fig. 1C W60° A St. LawrenceAdirondack River Adirondack Lowlands Highlands Marcy Grenville province massif N46° N44 Lake 46° Quebec Ontario Paleozoic cover Snowy Mt. dome Montreal GOsz Ottawa Age 30 km Paleozoic Hyde School Gneiss/ 1172 Ma cover 100 km Rockport granite Oregon B’ Hermon granite 1182 Ma Age dome Antwerp-Rossie suite 1203 Ma Hawkeye granite 1145 - 1100 Ma Southern Adirondack >1300 Ma anorthosite 1155 Ma Adirondack Mountains tonalite mangerite, Paleozoic Fig. 1B W70° Lyon Mountain 1050 Ma 1160 Ma W78° A’ charnockite, granite cover N42° N42° Granite Gneiss Parallochthonous SE boundary thrust 100 km Grenville front CCszAdk Highlands A A’ NW
Figure 1. (A) Map of the Grenville Province (southeastern Canada and northeastern USA; area in gray) showing the distribution of anorthosite and related mafic rocks and existing pressure-temperature (P-T) data localities (modified from Corriveau et al., 2007). Red squares mark metropolitan areas. Dashed line outlines the province of Quebec. PAB—polycyclical allochthonous belt; ABT—allochthon boundary thrust. (B) Simplified geologic map of the Adirondack Mountains; note the east-west structural grain to the south of the Marcy massif (modified from McLelland et al., 2010). GOsz—Grizzle Ocean shear zone. (C) Generalized map of the Marcy massif displaying foliation traces from Buddington (1939). (D) Schematic cross section (see A for location) from Rivers (2011); colors correspond to different lithotectonic domains defined in Rivers (2011). Adk—Adirondack; CCsz—Carthage Colton shear zone.
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La Roche et al., 2015), and the Tawachiche shear zone (Soucy La Roche et al., Shawinigan orogeny (ca. 1190–1140 Ma; McLelland et al., 2004; Chiarenzelli et 2015; Dufréchou, 2017). Furthermore, classic extensional dome structures al., 2010b) is interpreted to have resulted from closure of a back-arc basin and have been inferred from geophysical data, for example, the Morin dome (Du- ending with the intrusion of the voluminous anorthosite-mangerite- charnockite- fréchou, 2017). Consequently, various crustal levels are juxtaposed through- granite (AMCG) plutonic suite (McLelland et al., 2004; Chiarenzelli et al., 2010b; out the Grenville province. For instance, hot lower to middle orogenic crust Peck et al., 2013; Valentino et al., 2018). The Ottawan phase of the Grenville was uplifted adjacent to higher structural levels that largely escaped Ottawan orogeny is interpreted to have occurred due to collision between Laurentia phase overprinting, and preserves metamorphic assemblages and structural (lower plate) and Amazonia (upper plate) during assembly of the supercontinent fabrics that formed during earlier (Elzeverien or Shawinigan) orogenies (Rivers, Rodinia at ca. 1090–1050 Ma (McLelland et al., 2001a; Rivers, 2008). The only 2008). Decades of work has resulted in the model presented in Rivers (2011), magmatic event preserved in the Adirondacks during this phase of tectonism in which much of the geometry of the region is interpreted to be the result is the intrusion of the late- to post-kinematic Lyon Mountain Granite Gneiss of mid-crustal metamorphic core complexes caused by the foundering of an (LMG; Postel, 1952) and associated low-Ti IOA ores emplaced during extensional orogenic plateau into a mid-crustal channel (Fig. 1D). collapse (Selleck et al., 2005; Chiarenzelli et al., 2017). Distinguishing between The Adirondack Mountains are a domical uplift of Mesoproterozoic rocks the structures and metamorphic conditions of the Shawinigan and Ottawan in New York (USA) (Roden-Tice et al., 2000), and represent the southern ex- events has been difficult in the Adirondack Highlands (Chiarenzelli et al., 2011), tension of the contiguous Grenville province (Fig. 1B; Buddington, 1939). The prohibiting widespread acceptance of a tectonic model for the region. region has been a testing ground for petrologic techniques and inquiry for The most voluminous intrusive suite in the Adirondack Highlands is the over a century (Kemp, 1898; Buddington, 1939; Postel, 1952; Valley and O’Neil, AMCG plutonic suite (ca. 1160–1140 Ma; McLelland et al., 2004). Zircon geochro- 1982; Bohlen et al., 1985; Spear and Markussen, 1997; Bonamici et al., 2015; nology suggests that the lithologies of this suite are coeval, but not necessarily Quinn et al., 2017; among many others). Though some extensional structures comagmatic (McLelland et al., 2004). Gabbroic and anorthositic rocks are in- have been recognized, clearly better documentation of the structural archi- terpreted to be the result of fractional crystallization of a mafic parent derived tecture of the Adirondack Mountains, and specifically structures that accom- from a fresh asthenospheric source, whereas quartz-bearing end members modated extensional deformation, is critical for interpreting collapse of the originated from extensive anatexis of the lower continental crust (McLelland southern Grenville province, and may provide geodynamic evidence for the et al., 2004; Seifert et al., 2010; Regan et al., 2011). AMCG plutonism occurred overall structural evolution of the region during the Grenville orogeny. Geo- during the final stages of the Shawinigan orogeny. The Adirondack Highlands logic mapping at 1:24,000 scale along the southeastern margin of the Marcy host several anorthosite intrusions, the largest of which is the heart-shaped anorthosite massif (Figs. 1C, 2), and characterization of multiple continuous Marcy massif (Fig. 1C). The late- to post-orogenic settings of AMCG complexes exposures generated by recent landslides that occurred during Tropical Storm have lead authors to suggest a delamination origin for Proterozoic anorthosite Irene (late August 2011) in other localities have provided significant insight complexes (McLelland et al., 2010; Valentino et al., 2018). AMCG rocks in the into the Mesoproterozoic structural evolution of the Adirondack Highlands. Adirondack region were overprinted by granulite-facies metamorphism that Herein, we demonstrate that the Marcy massif is structurally overlain by a also imparted a regionally extensive gneissosity in most rocks. domed, southeast-directed shear zone that formed during structural collapse Late Grenville extension is currently interpreted to have occurred along of the southern Grenville province. In situ U–Th–total Pb monazite and sen- two bivergent structures: the northwest-vergent Carthage-Colton shear zone sitive high-resolution ion microprobe–reverse geometry (SHRIMP-RG) U-Pb (Selleck et al., 2005) and the southeast-vergent East Adirondack shear zone zircon geochronology provide a temporal framework for the formation of the (Wong et al., 2011). The Carthage-Colton shear zone divides the Adirondack detachment, recrystallization during leucogranite plutonism, and widespread Highlands from the Adirondack Lowlands, delineating a major thermal discon- metasomatism associated with Fe-oxide apatite (IOA) mineralization that ac- tinuity juxtaposing orogenic lid rocks of the Adirondack Lowlands adjacent to companied orogenic collapse (Table 1). highland rocks containing evidence for thermal disturbance during the Ottawan phase of the Grenville orogeny (Fig. 1B; Streepey et al., 2001; Selleck et al., 2005). The East Adirondack shear zone does not correspond to any recognized ■■ ADIRONDACK MOUNTAINS discontinuity, and has only been recognized near the easternmost margin of the Precambrian massif (Wong et al., 2011). Mesoproterozoic rocks of the Adirondack region formed during a series of The ferroan LMG was emplaced from ca. 1060 to 1040 Ma, and rims the orogenic events within a long-lived active-margin setting (Chiarenzelli et al., Marcy massif and Adirondack Highlands in general (Fig. 1B; Chiarenzelli et 2010a). The region is divided into the Adirondack Lowlands and the Adiron- al., 2017). The LMG ranges from microperthite quartz syenite to granite, and dack Highlands, which are separated by the relatively discrete extensional has the geochemical attributes of a syn-collisional to extensional leucogranite Carthage-Colton shear zone (Fig. 1B; Selleck et al., 2005). There are two main interpreted as the result of crustal anatexis (Chiarenzelli et al., 2017). Com- phases of collisional tectonism recognized within the Adirondack region. The monly medium to fine grained, the LMG is predominately equigranular with
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LMG 5 km Monazite sample (this study) Perpendicular to Mount Mount Dix Witherbee Marcy anorthosite massif In-situ U-Pb zircon (Peck et al., 2018) average stretching Adams Marcy MountainHammondville lineation foliation traces Ski Mtn Peneld Axial traces (corrugations) Mt Lewis PL5278A NE C SW C’ PL5266 OK-30*
PL5100 Paradox Eagle EL1224Blue Mm detachment zone WhitefaceCheney facies PeckRidge et al., (2018) Lake Lake Pond EL1224 C’ 14AD19A* OK-25*
OK-28* Marcy anorthosite massif PL5100 EL2113
PL5266 PL5278A Graphite
Map Key Grizzle N4350’ 5 km N C Ocean shear zone
Sample locality Fig. 4 GP1096 Peck et al. (2018) Gneissosity form lines Magmatic form lines Schroon Pharaoh Form lines from Lake Mountain Buddington (1939) W7342’
Figure 2. Map of the southern Marcy massif with anorthosite-series rocks in red (modified from Peck et al., 2018). Foliation traces extended to the west of field area from Buddington (1939) show that the foliation paralleling the margin extends out into the host rocks. Localities for samples from Peck et al. (2018) also displayed on the map (gray circles) as they have bearing on the interpretation, specifically dated garnet growth and corona formation. Asterisks are part of the sample names. Sample localities from this study are shown as squares, and the location of Figure 4 is shown in southeastern portion of map. Inset: Simplified and schematic cross section drawn perpen- dicular to average stretching lineation, displaying open folds present in the shear zone enveloping the margin of the Marcy massif. LMG—Lyon Mountain Granite Gneiss; Mm—Marcy massif.
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TABLE 1. SAMPLE LOCATIONS, MARCY MASSI MARGIN (NEW YOR , USA) of deformation of rocks into a broadly curving pattern around the core of the Marcy massif. Stretching lineations are dispersed around the mean plane (045° Sample Rock type Latitude Longitude Analysis type ( N) ( W) strike, 25° dip; right-hand rule; n = 111; Fig. 3B), with consistent kinematic indi- cators preserving oblique-normal (i.e., down-to-the-southeast) sense of shear. PL5100 Microperthite granite 43.90046 3.6518 8 Monazite U–Th–total Pb PL5266 hondalitic gneiss 43.885668 3.650228 Monazite U–Th–total Pb These data suggest that tectonites surrounding the Marcy massif formed due PL52 8A Augen granite gneiss 43.885353 3.644620 Monazite U–Th–total Pb to progressive and penetrative subsolidus deformation and transposition EL2113 Augen granite gneiss 43.90591 3.531020 ircon U-Pb around and over the Marcy massif. GP1096 Augen granite gneiss 43.810 3 3.600000 ircon U-Pb The southeastern margin is associated with extensive LMG plutonism (ca. 1060–1040 Ma; Fig. 3C), which hosts abundant Fe-oxide, apatite, IOA- magnetite, biotite, and occasional clinopyroxene and hornblende as primary type REE deposits of current economic interest (Long et al., 2010). Igneous mafic phases. Partial melting of AMCG rocks is interpreted to be the primary foliations (Fig. 3C; Chiarenzelli et al., 2017) measured throughout individual source for extensive (ca. 1050 Ma) LMG plutonism (Chiarenzelli et al., 2017), LMG plutons in the mapped area are interpreted to indicate that emplacement emplaced during tectonic exhumation (Selleck et al., 2005). A suite of IOA-type occurred during upright and open folding of the tectonites surrounding the rare earth element (REE) deposits is almost exclusively hosted by the LMG. Marcy massif, whereby magma intruded along preexisting host rock folia as The LMG has been affected by potassic and sodic fluid alteration events, the concordant sheets, and that individual plutons grew in hinge regions (Fig. 2 latter of which is associated with IOA mineralization (McLelland et al., 2001b; inset; Chiarenzelli et al., 2017) of transtensional folds (Fossen et al., 2013) sim- Valley et al., 2011). Fluid alteration has been interpreted to range in age from ca. ilar to those observed by Schwerdtner et al. (2016) in the Ottawa River Gneiss 1050 to 980 Ma (Valley et al., 2011; Regan et al., 2019), which likely overlapped Complex. The LMG commonly cross cuts and contains xenoliths of rocks with and outlasted leucogranite plutonism. granulite-facies assemblages and a strong gneissic fabric, indicating that it was emplaced at the tail end, or after, regional penetrative tectonism along the southeastern margin of the Marcy massif. ■■ STRUCTURE OF THE MARCY MASSIF
Southeastern Marcy Massif Grizzle Ocean Shear Zone
The Marcy massif is commonly coarse grained to pegmatitic, with individual Mapping to the southeast of the Marcy massif has revealed a 0.5-km-thick, andesine crystals up to 0.5 m long (Buddington, 1939) and minimal evidence southeast-vergent shear zone, here referred to as the Grizzle Ocean shear zone for penetrative tectonism. Toward the edge of the massif, grain sizes decrease (Fig. 4), named after a pond containing a series of well-exposed outcrops in the appreciably. The very outer rim of the Marcy massif consists of a zone of de- Graphite 7.5′ quadrangle (Fig. 1C). It is situated between two charnockitic plutons, formed heterogeneous gabbroic anorthosite, anorthositic gabbro, variably strikes to the northeast, and dips moderately to the southeast (034°, 43°; n = 63; deformed coronitic metagabbro, and ferrodiorite. The marginal zone, referred Fig. 4 inset). Stretching lineations plunge moderately to the east and display to as the Whiteface-facies anorthosite (Kemp, 1898; Miller, 1919; Fig. 2), ranges consistent kinematics of oblique-normal motion (trending 082° and plunging in width from <50 m to >1 km. Along the southern margin of the Marcy massif, 35°; n = 18; Fig. 4 inset). The shear zone truncates older structural fabrics in the the Whiteface-facies anorthosite locally contains abundant post-kinematic footwall associated with the southeastern margin of the Marcy massif in the garnet porphyroblasts (Fig. 3D). The vast majority of this marginal unit con- footwall. The hanging wall is composed of folded amphibolite with small vol- tains a strong (proto)mylonitic fabric (Fig. 3A). External to the heterogenous umes of LMG in an antiformal hinge forming a mushroom-shaped interference marginal rocks (Buddington, 1939) is a mixture of garnetiferous mangeritic to pattern with the shear zone. There is a drastic decrease in the amount of LMG charnockitic gneisses and metasedimentary rocks that were transposed into from hanging wall to footwall (Walton, 1960). The shear zone is composed of a parallelism with the margin of the Marcy massif (Fig. 2). roughly 0.5-km-thick zone of mylonitic (Fig. 5A) to ultramylonitic (Fig. 5B) fabrics The southeastern margin of the Marcy massif (Fig. 2) contains a well-de- that are locally overprinted by brittle cataclasite that is likely Mesozoic in age. veloped gneissic foliation that ranges from mylonitic to protomylonitic, and The Grizzle Ocean shear zone is truncated on its northeast by a Mesozoic is defined by granulite- and amphibolite-facies metamorphic assemblages graben juxtaposing Paleozoic sedimentary rocks with Grenville basement, (Figs. 3E, 3F; Spear and Markussen, 1997). This fabric extends as much as and sweeps into east-west–trending gneisses to the southwest just south of 7 km (~1.5 km true thickness) from the margin of undeformed anorthosite the Pharaoh Mountain charnockitic pluton (Walton, 1960). Within the shear in the southeastern Adirondacks. Poles to the mylonitic fabric form a weak zone, lithologies are interleaved at a decimeter scale, and in general (from girdle pattern on a stereonet and yield a calculated beta axis that plunges 26° structural bottom to top), grade from a zone of silicification and brecciation, to to 146° (n = 479; Fig. 3B). We suggest that this geometry is, in part, the result mylonitized garnetiferous amphibolite with screens of retrogressed khondalitic
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Marcy massif SE margin