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Keywords:

Science & Technology, Physical Sciences, Geochemistry & Geophysics, Mineralogy, 0402 Geochemistry, 0403 Geology, 0499 Other Earth Sciences, Energy, 3703 Geochemistry, 3705 Geology, 4019 Resources engineering and extractive metallurgy

Abstract:

The Wild Bight Group (WBG) is a sequence of early and middle Ordovician volcanic, subvolcanic and epiclastic rocks, part of the Dunnage Tectonostratigraphic Zone of the Newfoundland Appalachians. A detailed geochemical and Nd-isotopic study of the volcanic and subvolcanic rocks has been carried out to determine the geochemical characteristics of the rocks, interpret their palcotectonic environments and constrain their petrogenetic history. The lower and central stratigraphic levels of the WBG contain mafic volcanic rocks with island-arc geochemical signatures, including LREE-enriched are tholeiites with εNd(t)=-0.1 to +2.2 (type A-I), LREE-depleted arc tholeiites with εNd(t)=+5.6 to +7.1 (type A-II) and an unusual suite of strongly incompatible-element depleted tholeiites in which εNd(t) ranges from-0.9 to +4.6 and is negatively correlated with147Sm/144Nd (type A-III). High-silica, low-K rhyolites occur locally in the central part of the stratigraphy, associated with mafic rocks of arc affinity, and have εNd(t)=+4.7 to +5.4. The upper stratigraphic levels of the WBG dominantly contain rocks with non-arc geochemical signatures, including alkalic basalts with εNd(t)=+4.6 to +5.5 (type N-I), strongly LREE- and incompatible element-enriched tholeiites that are transitional between alkalic and non-alkalic rocks with εNd(t)=+4.4 to +7.0 (type N-II) and rocks with flat to slightly LREE-enriched patterns and εNd(t)=+5.1 to +7.4 (type N-III). Rocks with non-arc and arc signatures are locally interbedded near the stratigraphic type of the WBG. Nd-isotopic data in the type A-I and A-II rocks are generally compatible with mixing/partial melting models involving depleted mantle, variably contaminated by a subducted crustally-derived sediment. The petrogenesis of type A-III rocks must involve source mixing and multi-stage partial melting, but the details are not clear. The geochemistry and Nd isotope data for types N-I, N-II and N-III rocks are compatible with petrogenetic models involving variable partial melting of a source similar to that postulated for modern oceanic island basalts. Comparison of the WBG with modern analogues suggests a 3-stage developmental model: stage 1) island-arc volcanism (eruption of type mafic volcancs); stage 2) arc-rifting (continued eruption of type A-I, A-I, eruption of types A-II and A-III mafic volcanics and high-silica, low-K rhyolites); and stage 3) back-arc basin volcanism (continued minor eruption of type A-I basalts, eruption of types N-I, N-II, N-III basalts). Stages 1 and 2 volcanism involved partial melting of subduction contaminated mantle, while stage 3 volcanism utilized depleted-mantle sources not affected by the subducting slab. This model provides a basis for interpreting coeval sequences in central Newfoundland and a comparative framework for some early Paleozoic oceanic volcanic sequences elsewhere in the Appalachian orogen. © 1990 Springer-Verlag.