Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland Bulletin (Dec 2006)
Precambrian crustal evolution and Cretaceous–Palaeogene faulting in West Greenland: New hornblende and muscovite 40Ar/39Ar cooling ages in the central Rinkian fold belt, West Greenland
Abstract
The Palaeoproterozoic Rinkian fold belt in West Greenland consists of reworked Archaean basement,mainly orthogneiss, and the unconformably overlying Palaeoproterozoic Karrat Group. Both parts were intensely deformed and metamorphosed at around 1.87 Ga, at which time the crustal anatecticPrøven igneous complex was emplaced into the northern part of the belt. Seven new hornblende and muscovite 40Ar/39Ar cooling ages are presented from the central–northern parts of the Rinkian foldbelt. Four 40Ar/39Ar hornblende ages ranging from 1795 ± 3 to 1782 ± 3 Ma were obtained from amphibolite and hornblendite enclaves in the Archaean orthogneiss, and two from relict dyke fragments in the latter that may be of Palaeoproterozoic age. Three 40Ar/39Ar muscovite ages of 1681 ± 6Ma, 1686 ± 3 Ma and 1676 ± 3 Ma were obtained from samples of Karrat Group metagreywacke,andalusite schist and metasiltstone. The new 40Ar/39Ar ages, from hornblende and muscovite respectively,are very uniform and probably unrelated to local metamorphic grade and structural history,and are interpreted as regional late orogenic cooling ages. The new hornblende ages are significantly older than those previously obtained from the central and northern parts of the adjacent Nagssugtoqidianorogen to the south, and point to different uplift histories, which may suggest that the orogeny was not synchronous in the two regions.
