Geophysical investigation and reconstruction of lithospheric structure and its control on geology, structure, and mineralization in the Cordillera of northern Canada and eastern Alaska

摘要

A reconstruction of the Tintina fault is applied to regional geophysical and topographic data, facilitating the definition of west trending lineaments within the lower crust and/or mantle lithosphere, oblique to the NW trending structure of the Cordilleran terranes. The lineaments, which exhibit a range of geophysical and geological signatures, are interpreted to be related to the Liard transfer zone, continuous to the Denali fault, that divided lower and upper plates during late Proterozoic-Cambrian rifting of the Laurentian margin. Three-dimensional gravity models show a density increase in the lower crust and mantle lithosphere to the north. The transfer zone also divides bimodal mantle xenolith suites to the south from unimodal suites to the north. These conclusions suggest that extended North American basement, related to Laurentian margin rifting that would have brought mantle lithosphere rocks to a shallow depth, continuously underlies a thin carapace of accreted terranes in western Yukon and eastern Alaska. The interpreted continuity of North American basement reaffirms that if oroclinal bending of the Intermontane terranes occurred, then it was prior to its emplacement upon the rifted basement. Examination of the spatial relationships between mineral occurrences and postaccretionary, Cretaceous lithospheric lineaments, from their manifestation in geophysical, geological, and topographic data, suggest that the late Proterozoic lineaments influenced Mesozoic mineralization through influence on the development of the shallow crustal structure, intrusion, and exhumation and erosion.