An overview of anorthosite-bearing layered intrusions in the Archaean craton of southern West Greenland and the Superior Province of Canada: implications for Archaean tectonics and the origin of megacrystic plagioclase

Figures & data

Table 1. List of known anorthosite-bearing Phanerozoic ophiolites and their interpreted geodynamic setting.

Ophiolite	Age	Interpreted geodynamic setting	References
Camaguey Ophiolite, Cuba	Jurassic	Suprasubduction zone	Henares et al. (2010)
Mazhalyk Ophiolite, Russia	Ordovician	Suprasubduction zone, island arc	Borodina, Egorova, and Izokh (2004)
Zambales Ophiolite, the Philippines	Eocene	Suprasubduction zone	Hawkins (2007)
Talazhinskiy Ophiolite, Russia	Paleozoic?	Suprasubduction zone	Yurichev and Chernyshov (2014)
Chilas Complex, Pakistan	Jurassic - Cretaceous	Suprasubduction zone, island arc	Khan, Jan, Windley, Tarney, and Thirlwall (1989)
Bay of Islands Ophiolite, Nefoundland (Canada)	Ordovician	Suprasubduction zone	Komor and Elthon (1990)
Zhaheba Ophiolite, China	Cambrian-Ordovician	Suprasubduction zone	Jian, Liu, Zhang, Zhang, and Yurup (2003)
Halifax County Complex, North Carolina (USA)	Early Palaeozoic	Suprasubduction zone, island arc	Kite and Stoddard (1984)
Troodos Ophiolite, Cyprus	Cretaceous	Suprasubduction zone, backarc basin	Zirner, Ballhaus, Muenker, & Marien, 2013;
Urmia Ophiolite, Iran	Devonian	Suprasubduction zone, island arc	Fazlnia and Alizade (2013)
Solonker Ophiolite, China and Mongolia	Permian-Triassic	Mid ridge to island arc	Jian, Liu, Kroener, Windley, and Shi (2010)
Kahnuj Ophiolite, Iran	Jurassic-Cretaceous	Mid ocean ridge	Arvin, Babaei, Ghadami, Dargahi, and Ardekani (2005)
Mariana Arc, the Philippines	Cenozoic	Suprasubduction zone, backarc basin	Newman, Stolper, and Stern (2000), Hawkins (2007)
Buck Creek Ophiolite, North Caroline (USA)	Paleozoic	Suprasubduction zone	Peterson, Ryan, Becker, Cochrane, and Collins (2009)
Karayasmak Alaskan-type intrusion, Turkey	Carboniferous	Suprasubduction zone	Eyuboglu, Dilek, Bozkurt, Bektas, and Rojay (2010)
Hongliugou Ophiolite, China	Cambrian-Ordovician	Suprasubduction zone	Yang, Shi, Wu, Su, and Chen (2008)
Lizard Ophiolite, England	Devonian	Suprasubduction zone	Leake and Styles (1984)
Oman Ophiolite, Oman	Cretaceous	Suprasubduction zone	Boudier and Nicolas (2011a, 2011b)
Jinshajjiang Ophiolite, China	Carboniferous?	Unkonwn	Jian, Wang, He, and Wang (1999)
Leka Ophiolite, Norway	Cambrian-Ordovician	Unkonwn	Austrheim and Prestvik (2008)
Othrys Ophiolite, Greece	Mesozoic	Suprasubduction zone?	Mitsis and Economou-Eliopoulos (2001)
East Sulawesi Ophiolite, Indenosia	Cenozoic	Suprasubduction zonbe, mid ocean ridge	Parkinson (1998); Kadarusman, Miyashita, Maruyama, Parkinson, and Ishikawa (2004)
Elder Creek Ophiolite, California (USA)	Mesozoic	Suprasubduction zone, forearc	Shervais (2003)

Figure 1. Simplified geological map of southern West Greenland showing the Meso- Neoarchaean crustal blocks of Ivittuut, Kvanefjord, Bjørnesund, Sermilik, Fiskefjord, and Maniitsoq (modified from Windley & Garde, 2009).

Figure 2. (a) Simplified tectonic map of the Superior Province (modified from Percival et al., 2012). A: Ashuanipi; B: Bienville; DH: Douglas Harbour; E: Eastmain; ERB: English River Belt; G: Goudalie; HBT: Hudson Bay Terrane; ILD: Island Lake Domain; KU: Kapuskasing Uplift; LG: La Grande; LM: Lac Minto; MRVT: Minnesota River Valley Terrane; MT: Marmion Terrane; NCT: North Caribou Terrane; O: Opatica; Op: Opinaca; OSD: Oxford-Stull Domain; PB: Pontiac Belt; Q: Qalluviartuuq; QB: Quetico Belt; T: Tikkerutuk; U: Utsalik; UD: Uchi Domain; WAT: Wawa-Abitibi Terrane; WRT: Winnipeg River Terrane; WWT: Western Wabigoon Terrane.

Figure 3. Field photographs of megacrystic leucogabbro and anorthosites in the Fiskenæsset Anorthosite Complex, western Greenland, showing the various stages of anorthosite development. Permanent marker has a length of 15 cm. (b) modified from Polat et al. (2009); (c) modified from Huang et al. (2012).

Figure 4. Field photographs of leucogabbros, anorthosites, and differentiated sills in the Sinarssuk area of the Fiskenæsset Anorthosite Complex, West Greenland. (a) modified from Polat et al. (2011); (b) and (d) modified from Polat et al. (2009); (c) and (f) modified from Huang et al. (2012).

Figure 5. Field photographs of anorthosites in the Ivisaartoq greenstone belt (a and b), and the Bad Vermilion Lake (c and d) and Doré Lake (e and f) anorthosite complexes. (e) modified from Polat et al. (2017).

Figure 6. N-MORB-normalized trace element patterns for the Ivisaartoq (a) Fiskenasset (b), Bad Vermilion Lake (c), and Doré Lake (d) anorthosites. Data for (a), (b), (c) and (d) from Polat et al. (2008, 2009), Zhou et al. (2016), and Polat et al. (2017), respectively. Normalization values are from Sun and McDonough (1989).

Table 2. Major (wt.%) and trace element (ppm) compositions and significant element ratios of megacrystic plagioclase in leucogabbros at Sinarssuk, Fiskenæsset Complex.

	508142	508144	508146	508148	508154	508156	508161	Averge (n = 7)
SiO2	47.72	46.90	46.71	47.68	48.72	48.22	47.09	47.58
TiO2	0.01	0.01	0.01	0.01	0.02	0.02	0.02	0.01
Al2O3	32.76	32.99	33.51	33.22	31.90	32.35	32.86	32.80
Fe2O3	0.48	0.90	0.52	0.53	0.83	0.80	1.10	0.74
MnO	0.02	0.01	0.02	0.02	0.01	0.01	0.02	0.02
MgO	0.18	0.30	0.22	0.31	0.30	0.22	0.33	0.27
CaO	15.34	16.14	16.77	14.94	15.31	15.79	16.22	15.79
K2O	1.81	0.97	0.48	1.48	0.33	0.28	0.40	0.82
Na2O	1.65	1.75	1.77	1.80	2.55	2.28	1.96	1.97
P2O5	0.01	0.03	0.01	0.01	0.03	0.02	0.01	0.02
LOI	2.64	1.77	1.13	1.66	0.99	0.97	0.74	1.41
Mg-number (%)	43	40	46	53	42	36	37	42
An-content (%)	82	86	86	82	78	80	85	83
Co	2	2	2	2	3	2	3	2
Rb	63	38	18	54	10	10	12	29
Sr	165	145	112	172	143	177	122	148
Cs	0.44	0.52	0.14	0.79	0.12	0.13	0.09	0.32
Ba	232	115	51	307	45	41	65	122
V		8.1		5.1	7.1	5.0	7.1	6.5
Ta	0.018	0.007	0.015	0.018	0.034	0.035	0.012	0.02
Nb	0.201	0.092	0.100	0.162	0.342	0.310	0.102	0.19
Zr	8.15	7.13	1.64	9.35	2.07	9.23	3.02	5.80
Hf	0.189		0.038	0.208	0.063	0.235	0.053	0.13
Th	0.881	0.059	0.055	0.048	0.221	0.134	0.093	0.21
U	0.446	0.018	0.023	0.097	0.113	0.085	0.071	0.12
Y	0.23	0.16	0.22	0.31	0.67	0.77	0.43	0.40
La	1.712	0.827	0.604	0.240	1.428	1.223	0.625	0.95
Ce	2.722	1.118	0.903	0.417	2.382	2.198	0.911	1.52
Pr	0.238	0.086	0.084	0.046	0.257	0.236	0.091	0.15
Nd	0.706	0.252	0.297	0.187	0.922	0.812	0.339	0.50
Sm	0.097	0.038	0.053	0.052	0.172	0.163	0.071	0.09
Eu	0.140	0.116	0.145	0.098	0.164	0.208	0.149	0.15
Gd	0.087	0.047	0.059	0.073	0.173	0.164	0.084	0.10
Tb	0.009	0.005	0.007	0.010	0.023	0.024	0.014	0.01
Dy	0.044	0.027	0.042	0.056	0.128	0.141	0.081	0.07
Ho	0.008	0.006	0.008	0.012	0.024	0.027	0.016	0.01
Er	0.022	0.017	0.023	0.033	0.066	0.077	0.048	0.04
Tm	0.003	0.002	0.003	0.005	0.009	0.010	0.007	0.01
Yb	0.015	0.016	0.019	0.028	0.055	0.065	0.039	0.03
Lu	0.003	0.003	0.003	0.005	0.008	0.009	0.006	0.01
Cu	6.0			19.9	4.9	8.5	8.0	9.45
Ga	87	64	50	108	47	49	51	65
Pb	15.7	7.0	8.0	12.1	8.1	8.6	8.9	9.8
Li	19.9	14.0	14.4	19.3	13.5	11.5	12.9	15.1
La/Smcn	11.41	13.91	7.31	3.00	5.35	4.83	5.66	7.35
La/Ybcn	83.7	36.2	22.8	6.2	18.6	13.6	11.5	27.5
Gd/Ybcn	4.92	2.39	2.59	2.17	2.60	2.10	1.79	2.65
Eu/Eu*	4.66	8.30	7.88	4.91	2.91	3.88	5.88	5.49
Ce/Ce*	1.05	1.03	0.98	0.97	0.96	1.00	0.94	0.99
Pb/Pb*	327	591	845	3741	186	222	900	462
Al2O3/TiO2	3988	3994	4144	4046	1438	1883	2019	3073
Nb/Nb*	0.06	0.15	0.20	0.55	0.22	0.28	0.15	0.23
Zr/Zr*	2.18	5.05	0.91	6.65	0.36	1.77	1.36	2.61
Ti/Ti*	0.13	0.20	0.17	0.17	0.26	0.20	0.29	0.20
North	63° 21′ 24.2″	63° 21′ 24.2″	63° 21′ 22.6″	63° 21′ 21.4″	63° 20′ 56.7″	63° 20′ 56.7″	63° 21′ 06.2″
West	49° 16′ 42.3″	49° 16′ 42.3″	49° 16′ 42.5″	49° 16′ 41.8″	49° 16′ 17.2″	49° 16′ 17.2″	49° 16′ 28.7″

Figure 7. Simplified geodynamic model for the origin of Archaean anorthosite-bearing layered intrusions (modified from Polat et al., 2008). (c) shows an example of mineralogically stratified sill, representing a small version of Archaean magma chambers.

Figure 8. Field photographs of plagioclase megacrysts in the Fiskenæsset Complex. Dark to grey cores are relict igneous plagioclase, whereas clear to white rims and patches represent the recrystallized metamorphic plagioclase. (b) modified from Huang et al. (2014); (d) modified from Polat et al. (2009).

Figure 9. Photomicrographs across two megacrystic plagioclase grains, illustrating the preservation of igneous plagioclase in the Fiskenæsset Complex despite deformation and metamorphism.

Notes: Optical continuity (e.g. albite twinning) in igneous plagioclase grains suggests that they formed as 6–8 cm long single crystal in a magma chamber. Albite twins in large igneous crystals are overprinted by smaller metamorphic crystals.

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