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6th International Archean Symposium
6th International Archean Symposium

Internal structures and flow patterns of the Mt Edgar dome, East Pilbara Terrane using anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS)

Oral

Talk Description

Large, ovoid structural domes - cored by voluminous granitic batholiths and surrounded by supracrustal rocks - are a hallmark of Early Archean crust. The East Pilbara Terrane displays this “dome-and-keel” architecture, although the internal structures remain poorly defined because of difficulties in identifying fabric orientations (foliation and lineation) and fabric geometries (L-tectonites to S-tectonites) in the field. We present anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) data from the Mt Edgar dome and the northern Corunna Downs dome. AMS measures the bulk orientation and distribution of magnetic minerals within a 1-inch core specimen. The resultant magnetic fabric is an ellipsoidal description that provides both foliation and lineation, fabric geometry (L vs. S tectonite), and degree of fabric development (magnitude of anisotropy). Data were collected on over 1,000 oriented specimens collected from 150 stations spread throughout the Mt Edgar dome. The AMS data reveal that the Mt Edgar dome has a coherent internal structure across the entire dome. Magnetic lineations show a radiating pattern that emanate from a zone of vertical lineation within the ~3.2 Ga Emu Pool Supersuite. Magnetic foliations are preferentially oriented in a subvertical northwest-southeast striking orientation. The southwest margin of the dome preserves large scale fold structures within the ~3.4 Ga Tambina Supersuite orthogneisses. AMS ellipsoids exhibit oblate (flattening) shapes on the southwest half of the dome and prolate (constrictional) shapes in the central part of the dome that has steeply plunging radiating lineations. The AMS data are interpreted in the context of microstructural observations and geochronological data. Granitic rocks exhibit primarily high-temperature microstructures with significant evidence for the presence of partial melt during deformation in some areas. The presence of a coherent structure across granitic units of vastly different ages suggest that the present granitic dome structure continued to deform until at least 3.2 Ga. Recent Sm-Nd isochron ages of garnets at the margin of the Mt Edgar dome are consistent with continued deformation at elevated temperature during the emplacement of the ~3.2 Ga Cleland Supersuite, the youngest of the Paleoarchean granitic supersuites in the East Pilbara. These internal structures provide significant constraints on the crustal processes that led to the development of coherent structural domes in some of Earth’s earliest preserved continental crust. In particular, these data document the presence of highly mobile crust in the late Paleoarchean. Dome structures represent the focusing of multi-age granitic crust into structural domes. The highly uniform NW-SE striking sub-vertical foliation suggests that doming did not proceed in a radially symmetrical way, which may imply that crustal flow occurred in response to NE-SW shortening. At the same time, the radiating lineations suggest significant vertical flow from a central region within the core of the dome.

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