No abstract

No abstract

The Leech River Complex, part of the Pacifi c Rim Terrane, is a Cretaceous metasedimentary and metaigneous assemblage on southern Vancouver Island. The Leech River Complex is fault-bounded between the Eocene Metchosin Igneous Complex to the south (part of the Crescent Terrane) and the Paleozoic to Jurassic Wrangel Terrane to the north and provides critical information on the evolution of the central part of the western North American forearc in Cretaceous through Eocene time. Single detrital zircons from the metasedimentary component, known as the Leech River Schist, give U-Pb interpreted ages that range from Precambrian to ca. 103 Ma, indicating a varied source region and a probable Early Cretaceous depositional age. U-Pb geochronology and fi eld investigations indicate at least two magmatic-metamorphic events in the Leech River Complex: one during the Late Cretaceous, and the other during the early Middle Eocene. The peraluminous Jordan River metagranodiorite, a fi ne-grained biotitic stock and related dikes intruded the Leech River Complex at ca. 88 Ma, during the older magmatic event. Metamorphic pressure-temperature conditions of 525-550 °C and 2-3 kbar are recorded in the contact aureole. The later event occurred during emplacement of the Walker Creek intrusions, a suite of peraluminous tonalite, trondjhemite, and granodiorite dikes that intruded the Complex at ca. 51 Ma and produced a similar metamorphic aureole. Both intrusive suites have

Numerical models are used to examine the effects of porphyroblast growth on the rheology of compositionally layered rocks (metapelites and metapsammites) and by extension the middle crust during prograde metamorphism. As porphyroblast abundance increases during prograde metamorphism, metapelitic layers will strengthen relative to porphyroblast-free metapelitic units, and potentially relative to quartzofeldspathic metapsammitic units. As metapelitic layers become stronger, the integrated strength of compositionally layered successions increases, potentially causing large volumes of midcrustal rock to strengthen, altering the strain-rate distribution in the middle crust and affecting the geodynamic evolution of an orogenic belt. The growth of effectively rigid porphyroblasts creates strength heterogeneities in the layer undergoing porphyroblast growth, which leads to complex strain-rate distributions within the layer. At the orogen scale, the strengthening of large crustal volumes (on the order of thousands of cubic kilometres) changes the strain-rate distribution, which may change exhumation rates of high-grade metamorphic rocks, the geothermal structure and the topography of the orogen. The presence of a strong zone in the middle crust causes strain-rate partitioning around the zone, suppressed uplift rates within and above the zone and leads to the development of a basin on the surface.

No abstract