A record of transpression-related brittle-ductile deformation and associated alteration within granitoid plutons of the Wabigoon subprovince, Superior Province

Abstract

The Wabigoon subprovince is a 900 km long by 150 km wide Archean-aged granite greenstone belt. Large, synvolcanic batholiths with smaller late to post-tectonic stocks cut the numerous greenstone belts of the subprovince. One of the post-tectonic stocks is the Taylor Lake Stock, located within the western Wabigoon subprovince with a late Archean crystallization age that has been interpreted to infer the cessation of regional tectonics in the area. However, granitoids are highly competent and dry rocks that are difficult to deform, leading them to appear undeformed/unmetamorphosed in the field even though they may have undergone ductile deformation, brittle deformation and associated hydrothermal/metasomatic alteration. In this study, field mapping and sampling, petrographic analysis, mineralogical compositional analysis, stable isotope geochemistry and cathodoluminescence imaging of twelve granitoid plutons (including the Taylor Lake Stock) across the subprovince are used to constrain the relationship between the brittle deformation, ductile deformation and alteration of the plutons to provide insight into the tectonic history of the Wabigoon subprovince. [...]