Geological setting and petrochemistry of early Middle Devonian volcanic and gabbroic rocks in the Guysborough area, Nova Scotia

• Published in: Atlantic Geology
• Main Authors: Cormier, C. F.M., Barr, S. M., Dunning, G. R.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Atlantic Geoscience Society 1995
• Subjects: Breton Island
• Online Access: https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/ag/article/view/2109

Mapping, petrological studies, and U-Pb dating of volcanic and plutonic units have provided a new understanding of the stratigraphy and paleotectonic setting of rocks in the Guysborough area. From base to top, the stratigraphic sequence is interpreted to consist of: (1) volcanic flows and pyroclastic rocks, with minor interlayered sedimentary rocks (Sunnyville Formation), (2) varied conglomerate (Glenkeen Formation), (3) quartz wacke with minor interlayered quartz arenite and conglomerate, and (4) massive to shaly or laminated siltstone. These volcanic and sedimentary units arc intruded by small gabbroic plutons, sills, and dykes. All the units are early Middle Devonian, based on a U-Pb (zircon) age of 389 ± 2 Ma for rhyolitic tuff from the Sunnyville Formation, and a preliminary U-Pb (baddelcyite) age of ca. 38S Ma for one of the gabbroic plutons in the siltstone unit. Based on whole-rock chemistry, the mafic volcanic and gabbroic rocks are similar, and formed in a continental within-plate setting. However, the rocks in the eastern part of the map area are more alkalic than those in the west, which are dominantly tholeiitic. The mafic magmas are interpreted to have formed by partial melting of the subcontinental upper mantle and to have evolved by crystal fractionation processes; the more alkalic magmas in the east may represent lesser amounts of partial melting in that area. This interpretation is consistent with the presence of felsic volcanic rocks only in the western part of the area. They may represent crustal melts formed as a result of mafic magma underplating of the crust. The regional tectonic significance of these igneous rocks is not yet resolved, but they are clearly older than Late Devonian to Carboniferous igneous units elsewhere in northern mainland Nova Scotia and in Cape Breton Island with which they were previously assumed to be correlative. RÉSUMÉ Des travaux de cartographic, des études pétrologiques et la datation au U-Pb d'unités volcaniques et ...