Evolution du Complexe Alcalin de St.-Honoré (Québec) apres sa Mise en Place

Since its formation in earliest Cambrian time, the St-Honoré alkaline complex has fractured into large subhorizontal slabs under the effect of magmatic pulsations and thermal contraction. These slabs were rapidly segmented and cracked by the same stresses. The secondary permeability resulting from these fractures first aided the circulation of the rare earth mineralizing hydrothermal fluids in the center of the complex, and then, after the unroofing of the complex, instigated the development of a karstic drainage system within the carbonatites of the complex. The accumulated sediments in the karstic caverns derive from the periodic inwashing of the insoluble residues built up on the surface of erosion, were indurated after the sealing of the karstic openings with calcareous muds during the Ordovician transgression, and were faulted with their cover when the Saguenay graben formed. The last event, marked by low temperature regional mineralizating circulation (barite and calcite crystals coating geodes at NIOBEC), permitted the establishment of a new subterrean drainage system.