Late Ediacaran to Early Cambrian Breakup Sequences and Establishment of the Eastern Laurentian Passive Margin, Newfoundland, Canada

Abstract

Sediment provenance studies were conducted to constrain the establishment of the eastern Laurentian or Humber passive margin in Newfoundland, Canada, and examine models for the opening of the Iapetus Ocean and Humber Seaway. Ediacaran to Cambrian Series 2 strata of the lower Labrador and Curling groups contain garnet, muscovite, and feldspar, and yield 1000–1500 Ma detrital zircon grains that reflect local derivation from Grenville Province basement rocks during regional extensional deformation. Cambrian Series 2 to early Miaolingian units of the upper Labrador and Curling groups are quartz-rich and characterized by 556–586 Ma and 1000–2700 Ma detrital zircon grains that instead reflect continental-scale drainage and transition to passive margin deposition along eastern Laurentia. The geological relationships along the Humber margin are compared with modern analogues in the Newfoundland-west Iberia rift system to propose a magma-poor rift model that includes two breakup sequences which formed in response to isostatic adjustment after the rupture of crust and mantle, respectively. Crustal breakup resulted in an Ediacaran to Cambrian Series 2 breakup sequence that was connected to hyperextension, mantle exhumation, and bimodal magmatism. Mantle breakup likely occurred >20 Myr after first mantle exhumation and resulted in a breakup sequence that is best characterized by Cambrian Series 2 to early Miaolingian strata. The mantle breakup sequence consists of regressive-transgressive cycles that record the transition from breakup to thermal subsidence and was probably driven by the separation of the Dashwoods microcontinent from eastern Laurentia and outboard opening of west Iapetus. The Humber Seaway opened between the Humber margin and Dashwoods and was at least partially underlain by exhumed continental mantle. Our scenarios support hypotheses for equivalent magma-poor rift elements elsewhere in the Caledonian-Appalachian orogen, and we predict that crustal and mantle breakup sequences are exposed in the Scotland-Ireland and Quebec-New England segments of the eastern Laurentian margin.