Late Cambrian and Ordovician Alkalic Magmatism Along the Dawson Fault, Yukon: Evidence for Multiple Reactivations of a Rift-Transfer Fault in the Northern Canadian Cordillera

Lower Paleozoic continental margin rocks of the North American Cordillera, from Yukon to Nevada, include coeval platformal carbonate and basinal clastic strata that are offset along rift-transfer faults, including the Liard, St. Mary-Moyie, and Snake River structures. The Dawson fault is a prominent east-west-striking structure in central Yukon that is interpreted herein to have been active as a rift-transfer fault by late Cambrian time. This hypothesis is supported by new zircon U-Pb dates that range from 501.98 ± 0.17 Ma to 497.57 ± 0.70 Ma from alkaline mafic volcanic rocks concentrated along the Dawson fault. The development of a sub-Jiangshanian unconformity immediately post-dates this alkaline magmatism and indicates that final continental breakup and establishment of the northern Cordilleran margin occurred by the late Miaolinginan. Alkaline magmatism caused by local decompression partial melting of the mantle may have been triggered by the release of in-plane tensile stresses during lithospheric rupture and edge-driven mantle convection. Upper Ordovician alkaline mafic volcanic and plutonic rocks that occur along a northwest-southeast striking segment of the Dawson fault erupted ∼50 Myr after breakup and represent an example of post-rift magmatism along a rift-transfer fault. New bedrock mapping, and geochronological, paleontological, and petrological results from Upper Ordovician rocks indicate that there was localized basin development and punctuated volcanism along the Dawson fault from 453 to 447 Ma. Late Ordovician extension and post-breakup magmatism in central Yukon is compatible with dextral strike-slip reactivation of the Dawson rift-transfer fault associated with counterclockwise rotation of Laurentia.