| Paper No. 57-0 | ||
| EARLY HISTORY OF THE MIDCONTINENT RIFT AS RECORDED BY THE ALONA BAY LAVAS, ONTARIO | ||
|
WALKER, James A. and GMITRO, Todd T., Northern Illinois Univ, Dept Geology & Environmental Geoscience, De Kalb, IL 60115-2854, jim@geol.niu.edu The Alona Bay lavas (ABL) of the Midcontinent rift system outcrop along the southeastern shore of Lake Superior in Ontario just north of the well-studied Mamainse Point Formation (MPF). The Alona Bay section is about 1200 m thick and contains approximately 107 picritic to basaltic lava flows. Although it has been suggested that the ABL lie stratigraphically below the MPF, detailed chemostratigraphy indicates that the ABL correlate with the basal portions of the MPF which outcrop in Mica Bay. The ABL can be subdivided into four distinct chemical groups which have identical counterparts in the basal MPF. Individual lavas and sequences of lavas in the uppermost and lowermost ABL show direct correlations with the Mica Bay section. The central portions of the two sections, although dominated by high-TiO2 lavas, are different enough to indicate that they were, at times, fed by separate eruptive centers. Within the ABL, intra-group chemical variations confirm earlier suggestions that parental magmas early in the development of the Midcontinent rift experienced fractionation at moderate (lower crustal) pressures. Although the chemical characteristics of one chemostratigraphic group at Alona Bay is governed by extensive crustal contamination, the defining compositional distinctions of the three remaining groups require subcrustal explanations. | ||
|
GSA Annual Meeting, November 5-8, 2001
General Information for this Meeting | ||
| Session No. 57 Igneous Petrology I Hynes Convention Center: 202 8:00 AM-12:00 PM, Tuesday, November 6, 2001 | ||
© Copyright 2001 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions. | ||