Geology and U-Pb geochronology of rocks of the Eokuk Uplift: a pre-2.8 Ga basement inlier in the northwestern Slave Province, Nunavut, Canada
Rocks of the Eokuk Uplift have been mapped in detail along the coast of Coronation Gulf and 10 key units have been dated by U-Pb analysis of zircon, monazite, and titanite. The combined data indicate that this inlier of the Slave Province has a >3.2 Ga crustal component, evidence of a granulite-grade orogenic event predating 2.8 Ga and a lack of evidence for any significant orogenic activity corresponding to the 2.7-2.6 Ga events common in the rest of the Slave Province. The oldest rocks in the study area are a succession of granitoid and supracrustal gneisses that have been metamorphosed to amphibolite to granulite facies. From field relationships, the oldest rock is a granodiorite to tonalite orthogneiss, with a zircon crystallization age of 3254+13-6 Ma. A granite gneiss, which may be a small felsic intrusion or an anatectic melt of the tonalite gneiss, yields a zircon age of 3216+14-13 Ma. A K-feldspar megacrystic monzogranite gneiss contains old, discordant, possibly inherited zircons with 207Pb/206P...