Characterization of transpressive deformation in shear zones of the Archean North Caribou greenstone belt (NW Superior Province) and the relationship with regional metamorphism

The 2.7-3.0 Ga North Caribou greenstone belt (NCGB), host to the Musselwhite BIF-hosted gold deposit, possesses abundant shear zones on its northern margins, which appear to have formed under amphibolite facies conditions. Protracted deformation and regional metamorphism are coeval with widespread magmatism and accretion events during crustal amalgamation of the Western Superior Province, and are responsible for folding the ore-hosting BIF and channeling fluids. The importance of shear zones in behaving as conduits for fluids during the tectonic evolution of the NCGB is not well known and their relationship with metamorphism is equivocal, yet higher-grade, syn- to post-tectonic metamorphic minerals seem to correlate with loci of higher strain. Structural analyses support oblique transpressive collision that produced steeply-dipping planar and shallowly-plunging linear fabrics with dominant dextral kinematics, that trend broadly parallel to the doubly arcuate shape of the belt. Electron backscatter diffraction analyses were conducted on strategic samples across one shear zone in order to characterize crustal conditions during transpressive deformation. The Dinnick Lake shear zone cuts through mafic metavolcanics and at its core is an L-tectonite granite composed of recrystallized quartz. Whole rock geochemistry shows little variation in Ca, Na, Mg and K (often used as indicators of hydrothermal alteration) from surrounding less deformed units, suggesting deformation in a dry environment. Microstructural analysis indicates subgrain rotation recrystallization and deformation by prism a- and c-slip in quartz, as well as aligned hornblende that suggest deformation temperatures above 500 °C. Quartz in mafic rocks along the margins of the shear zone also exhibits a basal a-slip component, indicating a slight decrease in strain or temperature. Although the NCGB exhibits some first-order evidence of vertical tectonism (dome and keel geometries), the dominant strain record within shear zones is that of horizontal (oblique transpressive) displacement. This is in agreement with other greenstone belts in the Western Superior Province where vertical tectonism and horizontal tectonism were coeval.