Eclogite from central Yukon: a record of subduction at the western margin of ancient North America

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences
• Main Authors: Erdmer, Philippe, Helmstaedt, Herwart
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1983
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Yukon; Fairbanks; Last Peak; Faro; Alaska
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/e83-126; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/e83-126

Eclogite occurring in central Yukon, at Faro and near Last Peak, as lenses interleaved with muscovite–quartz blastomylonite has the chemical and field characteristics of group C rocks. From sigmoidal inclusion trails in garnet, from geothermometry and geobarometry, and from mineral parageneses, the eclogite is inferred to have a crustal protolith and to have followed a hysteretic, subduction-cycle P–T trajectory. Transformation of basic igneous rock into schist was followed by eclogite metamorphism during which pressure was at least 1000 MPa and temperature was between 600 and 700 °C. Uplifting involved passage through the stability field of glaucophane; the eclogite and its host rocks were then subjected to greenschist fades metamorphism and deformation, with temperature at approximately 400 °C. The rocks were emplaced as thrust sheets against or onto the western North American cratonal margin. The tectonic boundary ranges from nearly vertical, where it is outlined by a zone of steeply dipping mélange, to nearly horizontal beneath klippen of cataclastic rocks that lie on North American miogeoclinal strata. Together with occurrences of eclogite on strike, in Yukon, near Fairbanks (Alaska), and near Pinchi Lake (British Columbia), eclogite at Faro and near Last Peak implies that the Yukon Cataclastic Complex is a deeply eroded collision mélange that borders over 1000 km of the ancient continental margin.