Petrology and U–Pb geochronology of lower crustal xenoliths and the development of a craton, Slave Province, Canada

Lower crustal xenoliths recovered from Eocene to Cambrian kimberlites in the central and southern Slave craton are dominated by mafic granulites (garnet, clinopyroxene, plagioclase±orthopyroxene), with subordinate metatonalite and peraluminous felsic granulites. Geothermobarometry indicates metamorphic conditions of 650–800 °C at pressures of 0.9–1.1 GPa. The metamorphic conditions are consistent with temperatures expected for the lower crust of high-temperature low-pressure (HT-LP) metamorphic belts characteristic of Neoarchean metamorphism in the Slave craton. U–Pb geochronology of zircon, rutile and titanite demonstrate a complex history in the lower crust. Mesoarchean protoliths occur beneath the central Slave supporting models of an east-dipping boundary between Mesoarchean crust in the western and Neoarchean crust in the eastern Slave. At least, two episodes of igneous and metamorphic zircon growth occurred in the interval 2.64–2.58 Ga that correlate with the age of plutonism and metamorphism in the upper crust, indicating magmatic addition to the lower crust and metamorphic reworking during this period. In addition, discrete periods of younger zircon growth at ca. 2.56–2.55 and 2.51 Ga occurred 20–70 my after the cessation of ca. 2.60–2.58 Ga regional HT-LP metamorphism and granitic magmatism in the upper crust. This pattern of younger metamorphic events in the deep crust is characteristic of the Slave as well as other Archean cratons (e.g., Superior). The high temperature of the lower crust immediately following amalgamation of the craton, coupled with evidence for continued metamorphic zircon growth for >70 my after ‘stabilization’ of the upper crust, is difficult to reconcile with a thick (200 km), cool lithospheric mantle root beneath the craton prior to this event. We suggest that thick tectosphere developed synchronously or after these events, most likely by imbrication of mantle beneath the craton at or after ca. 2.6 Ga. The minimum age for establishing a cratonic like geotherm is given by lower crustal rutile ages of ca. 1.8 Ga in the southern Slave. Transient heating and possible magmatic additions to the lower crust continued through the Proterozoic, with possible additional growth of the tectosphere.