Abstract
The Sutton Mountains salient of the Appalachians in southeastern Quebec and northern Vermont has been interpreted as having been inherited from an Eocambrian-early Cambrian RRR triple junction. The approximately N-S trending normal faults of the Champlain Valley and eastern Adirondacks, and the NE trending normal faults along the St. Lawrence Valley, probably represent east-dipping listric faults which formed parallel to the rift arms that underwent expansion to oceanic dimensions, the Ottawa graben being the failed arm.
Synrift volcanism is represented by the Tibbet Hill Volcanics of bimodal character (basaltic-comenditic), consisting dominantly of basaltic volcanic rocks of transitional character. Intrusive activity is represented by the tholeiitic dikes of the Grenville swarm, and by the carbonatite complexes of the Lake Nipissing area dated ~565 Ma.
The first recognizable episode of post-rift volcanism took place in late Cambrian-early Ordovician times. Its products include intraplate ocean-island-type basaltic rocks which now occur as allochthonous masses, but which were probably formed on the early Paleozoic passive margin of Laurentia, corresponding spatially to the segment inherited from the triple junction. This was followed by a period of magmatism, whose products include small plugs and stocks of alkaline gabbro and diorite, localized along faults parallel to the ancient continental margin, and two stocks of alkaline syenite dated ~450 Ma along the Ottawa graben. The third and latest period of post-rift magmatism took place in the early Cretaceous as part of a widespread intraplate magmatic event in eastern North America and on the Atlantic margin.
Niobium-bearing carbonatite complexes formed during synrift magmatism, and also during early Cretaceous post-rift magmatism. Base-metal (Cu-rich) and barite deposits occur in close association with the products of the late Cambrian-early Ordovician episode of post-rift volcanism.
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Kumarapeli, P.S., Seymour, K.S. (1992). Recurrent Igneous Activity and Movements on Deep Faults Inherited from the Sutton Mountains Triple Junction. In: Mason, R. (eds) Basement Tectonics 7. Proceedings of the International Conferences on Basement Tectonics, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0833-3_28
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0833-3_28
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