40Ar/39Ar age pattern associated with differential uplift along the Eastern Highlands shear zone, Cape Breton Island, Canadian Appalachians

The Eastern Highlands shear zone in Cape Breton Island is a crustal scale thrust. It is characterized by an amphibolite-facies deformation zone ∼5 km wide formed deep in the crust that is overprinted by a greenschist-facies mylonite zone ∼1 km wide that formed at a more shallow level. Hornblende 40Ar/39Ar plateau ages on the hanging wall decrease towards the centre of the shear zone. In the older zone (over 7.8 km from the centre), the ages are between ∼565 and ∼545 Ma; in the younger zone (within 4.5 km of the centre), they are between ∼425 and ∼415 Ma; and in the transitional zone in between, they decrease abruptly from ∼545 to ∼425 Ma. Pressures of crystallization of plutons in the hanging wall, based on the Al-in-hornblende barometer and corresponding to depth of emplacement, increase towards the centre of the shear zone and indicate a differential uplift of up to ∼28 km associated with movement along the shear zone. The age pattern is interpreted to have resulted from the differential uplift. The pressure data show that rocks exposed in the younger zone were buried deep in the crust and did not cool through the hornblende Ar blocking temperature (∼500°C) until differential uplift occurred. The 40Ar/39Ar ages in the zone (∼425–415 Ma) thus date shear zone movement or the last stage of it. In contrast, rocks in the older zone were more shallowly buried before differential uplift and cooled through the blocking temperature soon after the emplacement of ∼565–555 Ma plutons in the area, long before shear zone movement. The transitional zone corresponds to the Ar partial retention zone before differential uplift. The 40Ar/39Ar age pattern thus reflects a Neoproterozoic to Silurian cooling profile that was exposed as a result of differential uplift related to movement along the shear zone. A similar K–Ar age pattern has been reported for the Alpine fault in New Zealand. It is suggested that such isotopic age patterns can be used to help constrain the ages, kinematics, displacements and depth of penetration of shear zones.