Evolution of the Boothia Uplift, arctic Canada
The Boothia Uplift extends 1000 km northward from the northern Canadian Shield into the Arctic Archipelago. Consisting of a core of Archean(?) to Aphebian gneissic units and a cover of Proterozoic to Devonian strata of the Arctic Platform and Franklinian Miogeocline, it formed during several minor pulses of uplift in the late Proterozoic and early Paleozoic and a major episode of tectonism during the Siluro-Devonian. Although it has long been regarded as a "horst" or vertical block uplift, compilation of new and previous data suggests that the uplift can be interpreted as a major, west-directed, imbricate mass of crystalline basement mantled by faulted and drape-folded cover. Details of the vertical component of movement have been provided by sedimentological and stratrigraphic studies. Uplift increases northward from the craton to a maximum of 5 km. Estimates of horizontal movement, predicated on assumed fault dips, could be as much as 30 km.Major tectonism of the Boothia Uplift was approximately coeval ...