Five discrete accretionary events assembled fragments of continental and oceanic crust into a coherent Superior craton by 2.60 Ga. They exhibit similar sequences of events at ~10 million year intervals: cessation of arc magmatism, early deformation, synorogenic sedimentation, sanukitoid magmatism, bulk shortening, regional metamorphism, late transpression, orogenic gold localization, emplacement of crust-derived granites, and postorogenic cooling. The Northern Superior superterrane recorded 3.7–2.75 Ga events prior to 2.72 Ga collision with the 3.0 Ga North Caribou superterrane. Following 2.98 Ga rifting, the Uchi margin of the North Caribou superterrane evolved in an upper plate setting before 2.72–2.70 Ga collision of the <3.4 Ga Winnipeg River terrane, which trapped synorogenic English River turbidites in the collision zone. The Winnipeg River terrane was reworked in 2.75–2.68 Ga magmatic and tectonic events, including the central Superior orogeny (2.71–2.70 Ga) that marks accretion of the juvenile western Wabigoon terrane. In the south, the Wawa–Abitibi terrane evolved in a mainly oceanic setting until Shebandowanian collision with the composite Superior superterrane at 2.695 Ga. Synorogenic Quetico turbidites were trapped in the collision zone. The final accretionary event involved addition of the Minnesota River Valley terrane (MRVT) from the south, and deposition and metamorphism of synorogenic turbidites of the Pontiac terrane during the ~2.68 Ga Minnesotan orogeny. Seismic reflection and refraction images indicate north-dipping structures, interpreted as a stack of discrete 10–15 km thick terranes. A slab of high-velocity material, possibly representing subcreted oceanic lithosphere, as well as Moho offsets, support a model of progressive accretion through plate-tectonic-like processes.

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Five precise U–Pb zircon (and titanite) ages from different lithologic units of the Shebandowan greenstone belt in the western Wawa Subprovince of the Superior Province put tight constraints on the time of late Archean magmatism and of two major deformation events.A porphyry sill from the older supracrustal sequence has an age of 2733 ± 3 Ma. Another porphyritic rock, a trondhjemite occurring as a clast in a conglomerate of the unconformably overlying Timiskaming-type supracrustal sequence, formed 2704 ± 2 Ma ago and defines a maximum age for the deposition of the Timiskaming-type sequence. An alkalic volcanic rock from this sequence has been directly dated at [Formula: see text], in accord with the above constraint and with another probable maximum age of deposition given by the date of 2696 ± 2 Ma for the Shebandowan Lake Pluton. A first deformation event (D1) was related to a predominantly vertical tectonic regime and occurred during or before intrusion of the Shebandowan Lake Pluton at 2696 ± 2 Ma. The second deformation event (D2) was caused by northwesterly-directed compression and occurred after [Formula: see text] ago, the age of the Timiskaming-type volcanic rocks. A minimum age for the D2 deformation event, which also affected the adjacent Quetico metasedimentary belt and was probably related to the development of major transcurrent fault systems throughout the Superior Province, is provided by an age of [Formula: see text] for the undeformed, late-kinematic Burchell Lake Pluton.