Metal Earth Transect Scale Project: Wabigoon, Sturgeon

Project Information

Sturgeon Map:

Scope of Project:

The Sturgeon transect is the easternmost line of the three north-south transects across the western Wabigoon subprovince (Superior province) of the Metal Earth project. It is ~70 km long along Highway 599 and goes through the interpreted Winnipeg River terrane and the Sturgeon Lake greenstone belt from south to north. The goals of the Sturgeon transect are to understand:

(1) The stratigraphy of the Archean metavolcanic rocks of the various volcanic assemblages (southern Sturgeon, central Sturgeon, Handy Lake, and Fourbay Lake),

(2) Structural or stratigraphic relationships between the assemblages,

(3) Nature and timing of deformation,

(4) Origin and timing of granitic magmatism,

(5) Origin and timing of volcanism,

(6) Sedimentary provenances of successor basins,

(7) Amalgamation of the metavolcanic assemblages and their accretion to the Winnipeg River terrane, and

(8) Controls of metal endowment.

Mapping and sampling along this transect started in June 2019, continued in 2020, and will be completed in 2021. The primary dataset will be based on structural and kinematic analyses of deformation, whole rock and isotopic fingerprinting, zircon U-Pb and Lu-Hf analyses, Titanium-in-zircon thermometry, and seismic-gravity-magnetotelluric mapping of the crust and uppermost mantle. All acquired data will be integrated into the regional context including the legacy Lithoprobe data from the region. A preliminary understanding of the 4D geology of the Sturgeon Lake region and the easternmost western Wabigoon terrane is provided below. New findings from the Sturgeon transect project are provided below.

Tamosauskas, Michael. Preliminary Activities Report on the depositional history and contact relationships of the Ament Bay Metasedimentary Assemblage, Sturgeon Lake Greenstone Belt, Northwestern Ontario. Posted: September 23, 2021.