Assembly, configuration, and break-up history of Rodinia: A synthesis

Framework modes of terrigenous sandstones reflect derivation from various types of provenance terranes that depend upon plate-tectonic setting. Triangular QFL and QmFLt compositional diagrams for plotting point counts of sandstones can be subdivided into fields that are characteristic of sandstone suites derived from the different kinds of provenance terranes controlled by plate tectonics. Three main classes of provenance are termed “continental blocks,” “magmatic arcs,” and “recycled orogens.” Sandstone suites from each include three variants, of which the subfields lie within the larger subdivisions. Average modes for sandstone suites can be classified provisionally according to tectonic setting using the subdivided QFL and QmFLt plots. To test the validity of the classification, average modes for 233 Phanerozoic sandstone suites from North America were plotted on the triangular compositional diagrams and accompanying paleotectonic maps. Paired maps and ternary diagrams were prepared for eight different time slices, for each of which the tectonic setting of each major region within the continent remained relatively unchanged. Time slices are unequal in length but are controlled by the timing of major orogenic and rifting events that affected North America during the Phanerozoic. Comparison of the sandstone compositions with inferred tectonic setting through the Phanerozoic indicates that the proposed classification scheme is generally valid and yields satisfactory results when applied on a broad scale. Its application, together with other approaches, in regions of the world where over-all trends of geologic history are less well known could lead to important conclusions about the timing and nature of major tectonic events.

Provenance of North American Phanerozoic sandstones in relation to tectonic setting

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Global continental and ocean basin reconstructions since 200 Ma

Evolution of the depleted mantle: Hf isotope evidence from juvenile rocks through time

At ocean margins where two plates converge, the oceanic plate sinks or is subducted beneath an upper one topped by a layer of terrestrial crust. This crust is constructed of continental or island arc material. The subduction process either builds juvenile masses of terrestrial crust through arc volcanism or new areas of crust through the piling up of accretionary masses (prisms) of sedimentary deposits and fragments of thicker crustal bodies scraped off the subducting lower plate. At convergent margins, terrestrial material can also bypass the accretionary prism as a result of sediment subduction, and terrestrial matter can be removed from the upper plate by processes of subduction erosion. Sediment subduction occurs where sediment remains attached to the subducting oceanic plate and underthrusts the seaward position of the upper plate's resistive buttress (backstop) of consolidated sediment and rock. Sediment subduction occurs at two types of convergent margins: type 1 margins where accretionary prisms form and type 2 margins where little net accretion takes place. At type 2 margins (∼19,000 km in global length), effectively all incoming sediment is subducted beneath the massif of basement or framework rocks forming the landward trench slope. At accreting or type 1 margins, sediment subduction begins at the seaward position of an active buttress of consolidated accretionary material that accumulated in front of a starting or core buttress of framework rocks. Where small-to-medium-sized prisms have formed (∼16,300 km), approximately 20% of the incoming sediment is skimmed off a detachment surface or decollement and frontally accreted to the active buttress. The remaining 80% subducts beneath the buttress and may either underplate older parts of the frontal body or bypass the prism entirely and underthrust the leading edge of the margin's rock framework. At margins bordered by large prisms (∼8,200 km), roughly 70% of the incoming trench floor section is subducted beneath the frontal accretionary body and its active buttress. In rounded figures the contemporary rate of solid-volume sediment subduction at convergent ocean margins (∼43,500 km) is calculated to be 1.5 km³/yr. Correcting type 1 margins for high rates of terrigenous seafloor sedimentation during the past 30 m.y. or so sets the long-term rate of sediment subduction at 1.0 km³/yr. The bulk of the subducted material is derived directly or indirectly from continental denudation. Interstitial water currently expulsed from accreted and deeply subducted sediment and recycled to the ocean basins is estimated at 0.9 km³/yr. The thinning and truncation caused by subduction erosion of the margin's framework rock and overlying sedimentary deposits have been demonstrated at many convergent margins but only off northern Japan, central Peru, and northern Chile has sufficient information been collected to determine average or long-term rates, which range from 25 to 50 km³/m.y. per kilometer of margin. A conservative long-term rate applicable to many sectors of convergent margins is 30 km³/km/m.y. If applied to the length of type 2 margins, subduction erosion removes and transports approximately 0.6 km³/yr of upper plate material to greater depths. At various places, subduction erosion also affects sectors of type 1 margins bordered by small- to medium-sized accretionary prisms (for example, Japan and Peru), thus increasing the global rate by possibly 0.5 km³/yr to a total of 1.1 km³/yr. Little information is available to assess subduction erosion at margins bordered by large accretionary prisms. Mass balance calculations allow assessments to be made of the amount of subducted sediment that bypasses the prism and underthrusts the margin's rock framework. This subcrustally subducted sediment is estimated at 0.7 km³/yr. Combined with the range of terrestrial matter removed from the margin's rock framework by subduction erosion, the global volume of subcrustally subducted material is estimated to range from 1.3 to 1.8 km³/yr. Subcrustally subducted material is either returned to the terrestrial crust by arc-related igneous processes or crustal underplating or is lost from the crust by mantle absorption. Geochemical and isotopic data support the notion that upper mantle melting returns only a small percent of the subducted material to the terrestrial crust as arc igneous rocks. Limited areal exposures of terrestrial rocks metamorphosed at deep (>20–30 km) subcrustal pressures and temperatures imply that only a small fraction of subducted material is reattached via deep crustal underplating. Possibly, therefore much of the subducted terrestrial material is recycled to the mantle at a rate near 1.6 km³/yr, which is effectively equivalent to the commonly estimated rate at which the mantle adds juvenile igneous material to the Earth's layer of terrestrial rock.

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Observations at convergent margins concerning sediment subduction, subduction erosion, and the growth of continental crust

Over 70% of the North American Cordillera is made up of ‘suspect terranes’. Many of these geological provinces are certainly allochthonous to the North American continent and seem to have been swept from far reaches of the Pacific Ocean before collision and accretion into the Cordilleran margin mostly in Mesozoic to early Cenozoic time.

Cordilleran suspect terranes

The Omineca Crystalline Belt and Coast Plutonic Complex are the two major regional tectonic welts in the Canadian Cordillera in which were concentrated intense deformation, regional metamorphism, granitic magmatism, uplift, and erosion. The welts, which formerly were thought to result from subduction of Pacific Ocean lithosphere beneath the western edge of North America, can now be viewed partly as the result of tectonic overlap and/or compressional thickening of crustal rocks during collisions between North America and two large, composite, allochthonous terranes that were accreted to its ancient western margin. The inner composite terrane, Terrane I, includes four smaller terranes that apparently were together by the end of Triassic time. The outer composite terrane, Terrane II, comprises two terranes, amalgamated by Late Jurassic time. The Omineca Crystalline Belt formed mainly from mid-Jurassic time onward, during and following the collision of Terrane I with North America. This belt straddles the zone of overlap of autochthonous and allochthonous terranes, and its characteristic metamorphism and structure are superimposed on both. The Coast Plutonic Complex formed mainly in Cretaceous to early Tertiary time during and following the attachment of Terrane II to the new, Jurassic, continental margin. It lies along the boundary of Terrane I and Terrane II and involves elements of both terranes. The collisions took place within the overall setting of the North American plate moving relatively westward into various Pacific plates from Jurassic time onward and in conjunction with subduction of Pacific Ocean lithosphere.

Tectonic accretion and the origin of the two major metamorphic and plutonic welts in the Canadian Cordillera

Anatomy of North America: thematic geologic portrayals of the continent

/pdf/phanerozoic-tectonic-evolution-of-the-circum-north-pacific-3xuckn9fju.pdf

Phanerozoic tectonic evolution of the Circum-North Pacific

The present geodynamic pattern of the Canadian Cordillera, the main features of which were probably established in Miocene time, involves a combination of right-hand strike-slip movements on transf...

J. W. H. Monger

Papers

Cordilleran suspect terranes

Tectonic accretion and the origin of the two major metamorphic and plutonic welts in the Canadian Cordillera

Anatomy of North America: thematic geologic portrayals of the continent

Phanerozoic tectonic evolution of the Circum-North Pacific

Geodynamic evolution of the Canadian Cordillera - progress and problems'