EarthRef.org Reference Database (ERR)
Development and Maintenance by the EarthRef.org Database Team

Detailed Reference Information
Johnston & Canil 2007
Johnston, S.T. and Canil, D. (2007). Crustal architecture of SW Yukon, northern Cordillera: Implications for crustal growth in a convergent margin orogen. Tectonics 26: doi: 10.1029/2006TC001950. issn: 0278-7407.

A structural analysis of southwest Yukon based on mapping and the compilation of structural data is used to determine if convergent margin orogenesis has contributed to westward growth of North America. The crust of SW Yukon is tilted regionally to the ESE, exposing a >20 km section of crust. A down-plunge profile is used to determine the geometry and evolution of the crust. Four lithotectonic packages are recognized. These are, from east to west, (1) the Triassic-Jurassic Whitehorse Trough assemblage of arc and arc-derived volcanic and sedimentary rocks, (2) the Devonian-Mississippian continental Aishihik metamorphic assemblage, (3) the Jurassic-Cretaceous metapelitic Kluane metamorphic assemblage, and (4) the Jurassic-Cretaceous Dezadeash Group of arc-marginal graywackes. The Early Jurassic Aishihik and Tertiary Coast plutonic suites are major synkinematic tabular intrusive complexes that facilitated crustal growth by subcretion of the Aishihik metamorphic assemblage beneath the Whitehorse Trough and the Kluane metamorphic assemblage and Dezadeash Group beneath Aishihik metamorphic assemblage and overlying strata, respectively. Early Jurassic crustal growth gave rise to a crust that became older and more radiogenic at depth; Tertiary growth gave rise to a crust that became younger and less radiogeneic at depth. Crustal growth by subcretion necessarily involved the removal of the lower crust and mantle of the upper plate. The lithotectonic assemblages and the tabular intrusive complexes along which they were assembled are identifiable in the seismic reflection data along Slave Northern Cordillera Lithosphere Evolution Project (SNORCLE) line 3 and are broadly imaged by a regional electromagnetic (EM) survey. The ACCRETE program to the south has documented a comparable and directly correlative crustal geometry across the Great Tonalite Sill. Our findings are inconsistent with crustal growth models of tectonic flakes being emplaced onto an autochthonous lower crust and mantle. Instead our findings support models (Lithoprobe Vancouver Island, and ACCRETE) of crustal growth at convergent margins as resulting from synmagmatic subcretion.

BACKGROUND DATA FILES

Abstract

Keywords
Tectonophysics, Continental margins, convergent, Tectonophysics, Subduction zone processes (1031, 3060, 3613, 8413), Tectonophysics, Tectonics and magmatism, Structural Geology, Pluton emplacement, Exploration Geophysics, Continental structures (8109, 8110)
Journal
Tectonics
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
2000 Florida Avenue N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009-1277
USA
1-202-462-6900
1-202-328-0566
service@agu.org
Click to clear formClick to return to previous pageClick to submit