Degree
Master of Science
Program
Geology
Supervisor
Dr Desmond Moser
Abstract
An important aspect of geology is the understanding of processes that created and modified continents and their resources. Knowledge of the age of formation and metamorphism of crystalline crust is thus important, and has been pursued in a recently discovered crustal-scale boundary on the southern Melville Peninsula (Nunavut, Canada) through field mapping, U-Pb zircon geochronology and electron beam analysis. This >250km-long crustal feature is termed here the Lyon Inlet Boundary Zone (LIBZ). Three samples from a 15 by 20 km map area reveal a complex Archean history with the dominant granitoid unit crystallizing at 2770±38 Ma and metamorphosed at 2670±36 Ma. All samples exhibit a range of Paleoproterozoic metamorphic zircon growth events ranging from 1842±14 Ma to 1802±10 Ma. The youngest event is a minimum age for amphibolite facies metamorphism, and presumably deformation, in the LIBZ, temporally linking it to the terminal stages of Trans-Hudsonian mountain-building in arctic Canada.
Recommended Citation
Ganderton, Nikolas B., "Mapping and Zircon Geochronology of the Lyon Inlet Boundary Zone, Nunavut; a Crustal Scale Break in the Churchill Province" (2013). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 1318.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/1318
Appendix D1 - 10644 annotated.pdf (25948 kB)
Appendix D2 - 10645 annotated.pdf (57377 kB)
Appendix D3 - 10646 annotated.pdf (49972 kB)
Appendix E.pdf (36415 kB)