| Abstract: | The effective elastic thickness of the lithosphere in the Williston Basin region has been determined for several time intervals by fitting an elastic flexure equation to the shape of the basin over time. The elastic thickness increases from about 40 km just after the basin began subsiding (450 m.y. B.P.) to about 80 km at the present.These results agree well with the increasing elastic thickness with age predicted for a cooling, 250 km-thick plate (taking elastic thickness to be depth to the 450°C isotherm) if we assume a thermal age of the lithosphere of about 500 m.y. Radiometric dates of basement in the area, however, generally yield ages of 1.7 b.y. (Churchill Province) and 2.5 b.y. (Superior Province).Because basement ages are generally much greater than the inferred lithospheric thermal age in the Williston Basin region, we suggest that lithosphere in this area was thermally rejuvenated, about 500 m.y.B.P., by the same process(es) responsible for the thermal subsidence of the basin. Temperatures were not high enough in the upper crust to reset most radiometric clocks. Additional support for a thermal event 500 m.y.B.P. comes from fission-track ages and a single Rb-Sr age of basement rocks of about 500 m.y.Lithospheric rejuvenation has been modelled using a one-dimensional finite-difference thermal model. The base of a 250 km-thick plate is heated from 1333°C to 1850°C (approximately the solidus of basalt at that depth) for approximately 100 m.y. With conduction only, the depth to the 450°C isotherm slowly decreases, then slowly increases after heating ceases. Rapid thinning and slow thickening of the lithosphere can be achieved only if convective thinning is simulated in the model. The model with convection yields results consistent with the observed increase in lithospheric thickness as well as the observed subsidence of the basin over time. |
