Le batholite de De Pas, Nouveau-Québec : infrastructure composite d'arc magmatique protérozoïque

The De Pas Batholith, in New Quebec, is a mass of granitoids elongated in a N-S direction, covering 7000 km2 in the southeastern part of the Archean Rae province. It is located between the Paleoproterozoic New Quebec Orogen in the West and the Torngat Orogen in the East. The batholith is composed, in its south half, of two parallel plutonic units: a charnockitic intrusion in the West, enclosed in granulitic gneisses, and a granitic unit in the East intruding an Archean orthogneiss complex migmatized at amphibolite facies grade. Field evidence indicates that the charnockitic unit is younger than the granitic unit. Both plutonic units are differentiated. The granitic unit ranges in composition from pyroxenite and diorite to the dominant porphyritic granodiorite. The charnockitic unit varies from norite to the dominant porphyritic opdalite. Late intrusive granites are present. The granitic unit and charnockitic unit show calc-alkalic evolutionary trends, granodioritic for the the granitic unit and monzonitic for the charnockitic unit. Similar major elements patterns suggest a common source area. Compatible trace element and heavy rare earth abundances are similar in both units. However, incompatible elements (Rb, Th, and U) and light rare earth are less abundant in the charnockitic unit. This poverty in certain large-ion lithophile elements and high field strength elements is a primary characteristic of the charnockitic magma. The overall geochemical characteristics of the De Pas Batholith are similar to those of a plutonic arc in a subduction setting. Only the late granites show evidence of a collisional setting. The differences in trace elements of the granitic unit and the charnockitic unit might be explained by contrasting styles of contamination of the magmas by continental materials in different intrusive conditions and geological settings. The granitic magma was intruded into Archean (?) crust of amphibolite facies, with which the granitic unit was in physical equilibrium. The charnockitic magma crystallised in the deeper granulitic crust, poor in highly lithophile elements. The De Pas Batholith occurs in the hinterland of the New Quebec Orogen, and represents an early subductional magmatic arc formed in two stages separated by a period of crustal thickening in the arc zone.