Slide 2: Geological Time Scale

Importance of Archean era:

Understanding the origin and evolution of our planet has been an
interest of researchers for many decades. My research focus on
archean rocks. Scares and scattered rock records are present for the
Archean period between 4.0 to 2.5 Ga comprising 35% of total
geological time. These are the targeted areas to study Earth’s earliest
crust. Investigating the geochemical correlation between these rocks
and their ages will allow us to understand the early earth’s crustal
composition.
Slide 3:
This map shows the distribution of Archean rocks in the world. We
can see, that archean rocks are scattered and less extensive. My focus
is on the Saglek Block of Labrador coast of Canada. Let’s look into
detail about the Labrador coast.
Slide 4: Labrador Coasts
The Northern Labrador coast is well known for early Archean rocks.
Though this area is potential for crustal studies of early Earth, extreme
climatic conditions and geological complexity make it hard to work.
High-grade metamorphism in this area obscured the earlier
relationships, making the investigation more difficult. Nain province
of Labrador coast is divided into two Archean blocks, Northern
Saglek and southern Hopedale, separated by the mid-Proterozoic Nain
plutonic suite.
Slide 5:
The Saglek Block is located in the central part of the Archean Nain
Province; it is well exposed along the coast N-ward from the Nain
Plutonic Suite. Saglek block contain strongly deformed quartzo-
feldspathic gneisses of igneous origin which are named as a Uivak
Gneiss, juxtaposed and interleaved with supracrustal rocks. Uivak
gneiss is divided into Uivak I and Uivak II based on their texture and
geochemistry. Uivak I is widespread in this area while Uivak II is
confined to a belt. Uivak I is extensively studied with a good
estimation of age and geochemistry while Uivak II is fewer studies
and there are not many good estimated ages for it along with poorly
known petrogenesis. This talk will be more about the Uivak II which
is shown by Red circles on the map.

Slide 6:
This figure summerize the U-Pb zircon dating of Archean granitoids
in saglek block. It can be seen that Uivak I is studied extensivly by
various authors while Uivak II is poorly known, Sałacińska et al. 2019
revised the name for Uivak II as Maidonts gneiss and estimated age of
ca 3.3 Ga. Previous studies doesnt give any good estimation for Uivak
II while it was stated in some publications that it dated back to 3.6 Ga.
Our study aims to estimate a reliable age for Uivak II.

Slide 7:
Lets see where is actually Mentzel island.

Slide 8:

Mentzel island on geological map shows presence of Uivak II and

Layered metagabbro. We have 4 samples from island, 2 of which are
Augen gneiss and other 2 are intrusive in nature.

Slide 9:

These are the outcrops for different samples.

Slide 10:

This photo shows the field relationship between 3 rock types.

Hammer is for scale.
Slide 11:
Geochemical analysis of these samples suggest that Augen gneiss fall
in Granodiorite field while Intrusive rocks are Granite. When plotted
on 3 feldspar triangle, Augen gneiss from south falls in Granodiorite
field while all other 3 samples fall in Granite field.

Slide 12:
We use U-Pb zircon dating for estimating age of rocks. First we
separate the zircons from the sample and then mount it on the epoxy
tape. The image on right shows the arrangment of zircon on mount.
Mount is then polished to expose the interior of the grain.
Mount is then imaged using reflected light, CL, and BSE to
understand the texture of grains. Both the grains here show oscillatory
zoning which is characteristic of magmatic zircon. We use SIMS to
analyse the U-Pb ratio of zircon to estimate the age. Spot size is
around 20 micrometer.

Slide 17:
To summerize my results, both Augen gneiss on Mentzel island are
3.3 Ga old. Estimated age of younger granites are ca 2.7 and ca 2.5
Ga, which might be the result of high T metamorphism in this area
which is already proven.

As we compare our results with other studies, it is shown that area

mapped as M2 which means Uivak II in the map shows estimated age
of ca 3.3 as shown by other authors. Therefore our study supports the
study of Sałacińska et al. 2019 and estimated the age for Uivak II
gneiss as 3.3 Ga. As these granitoids show equivalent age they should
have formed from same magma. But SURPRISE!!!!

slide 18:

When we compare geochemical signature of different studies it can be

seen that Augen gneiss from Mentzel island shows different
geochemical trend then Maidmonts gneiss which suggest that these
granitoids are formed from different magma source. Mechanism for
this can be Magma fractionation, Assimilation or Hybradization or
metasomatism. This question is still open in front of me and I am
working to solve this.

Slide 19:
Thank you for your attention. Please if someone have questions.