Shell Colloquium Series

Fall 2011
October 27, 3:30 pm, Room A235, Sarkeys Energy Center

W. R. Van Schmus
University of Kansas

PROTEROZOIC EVOLUTION OF THE MIDCONTINENT BASEMENT

Over the past 50, and especially the last 25, years, Proterozoic basement domains in the Midcontinent have been defined from (i) petrologic and geochemical data (including stable and radiogenic isotopes) on samples from scattered outcrops and drill-hole penetrations and (ii) regional geophysical data (gravity, aeromagnetic, and reflection seismic). These studies have helped to define (a) the southern limits of Archean cratonic basement, (b) possible age transitions within Paleoproterozoic provinces (Penokean, Yavapai, Mazatzal), (c) eastern and southern limits of Paleoproterozoic basement, (f) Mesoproterozoic crustal provinces dominated by felsic plutonic and volcanic rocks (Eastern and Southern Granite-Rhyolite Provinces), and (f) the 1100 Ma Midcontinent Rift System and associated mafic rocks. Proterozoic juvenile crust in Laurentia generally becomes younger southward and eastward, consistent with post-1800 Ma growth for 700 m.y. by accretion of juvenile arc terranes (and possible older microcontinent fragments). This growth ended with Grenvillian collisions about 1080 Ma. In spite of recent progress, several major questions remain unanswered (or undiscovered). These include: (a) How did the southern margin of pre-1800 Ma Laurentia (southern Wyoming to northern Great Lakes) form? (b) What is the nature of the transition from the Yavapai Province (ca. 1.7-1.8 Ga) to the Mazatzal Province (1.6 to 1.7 Ga) crust? (c) What is the detailed nature of the ca. 1.5 Ga margin of southern and eastern Paleoproterozoic crust, and how did it form (rifting or accretionary hiatus)? (d) How did the ca. 1.47 Ga (Eastern) and 1.37 Ga (Southern) granite-rhyolite provinces form, and what is their internal structure and stratigraphy? These and other questions will be examined in the light of recent data. In any case, many questions will remain largely unresolved unless future investigators can have access to (a) detailed high-resolution geophysical coverage of the upper crust (aeromagnetic, reflection seismology, and gravity), and (b) many more high-quality subsurface (drill-hole) samples for detailed petrologic, geochemical, and geochronologic studies.

ConocoPhillips School of Geology & Geophysics

The University of Oklahoma 100 East Boyd St., Ste 710, Norman, Oklahoma 73019 Phone: (405) 325-3253; Fax: (405) 325-3140 www.geology.ou.edu