Project Description

David J. Scott (GSC) and the Central Baffin working group
Canada-Nunavut Geoscience Office,
PO Box 2319, Iqaluit, NU
X0A 0H0

Field work on the joint Canada-Nunavut Geoscience Office/ Geological Survey of Canada multidisciplinary geoscience project was completed in 2002. Preliminary results from the bedrock and surficial mapping, geophysical (MT, teleseismic, gamma-ray spectrometric), geochronological, and 3-D modeling components are now available. Readers are directed to companion presentations for further detail on many of these components. Six graduate and numerous undergraduate theses that address a variety of themes, including regional metamorphism, structure, volcanic geochemistry, sediment-hosted mineralization and isotopic evolution of Paleoproterozoic clastic sediments are ongoing.

The project area contains orthogneisses and metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks (Mary River group) that comprise the southern edge of the Archean Rae craton. These are overlain by the south-facing continental margin rocks of the Paleoproterozoic Piling group. The area is situated on the northern margin of the eastern segment of the ca. 1.8 Ga Trans-Hudson Orogen, a Himalayan-scale collisional mountain belt exposed from Greenland in the east, across Baffin Island and beneath Hudson Bay, to Manitoba and Saskatchewan in the west. The central part of the study area is underlain by siliciclastic, carbonate and mafic volcanic rocks of the Piling Group, rocks that have elevated potential or MVT, SEDEX, magmatic Ni-Cu-PGE, and Broken Hill-type Pb-Zn-Ag deposits. Various felsic plutonic rocks of the 1.86-1.85 Ga Cumberland batholith are exposed in the southern part of the area. Bedrock mapping efforts concentrated in the northeastern part of the area, completing systematic 1:100,000-scale coverage of NTS 37D and the west half of 27C, focused on refining the stratigraphic relationships within the Piling group in order to provide an improved context for mineral exploration. U-Pb geochronological investigations are underway to characterize the ages of formation, deformation and metamorphism of rocks across the area, as well as the provenance of detrital material that comprise both the Archean and Paleoproterozoic successions.

Surficial materials mapping concentrated on completing a transect of the eastern part of the area (NTS 27B, 27C) in order to interpret the glacial geology, distribution and nature of materials, determine ice flow directions and dynamics, the chronology of glaciation and deglaciation, and investigate sea level changes. A till geochemistry sampling program is underway, focussing on regional backgrounds, changes over the Piling Group, and correlation of till and lake geochemistry.

Natural Resources Canada, Central Baffin Integrated Geoscience Project.