The Thermal Structure and Strength of Cratons and their Margins

The large cratons of today are made of younger terranes that wrap around older cores. Deformation due to accretion did not proceed in homogeneous fashion and was concentrated in the younger belts. This is illustrated clearly in the Archean Superior Province, Canada. In this area, one observes little imbrication of accreted crust and craton core, in contrast to the laterally extensive thrusting that has affected the younger terranes to the South. The boundary between the craton core and accreted belts is a nearly vertical interface delineated by steeply dipping electrical and seismic anomalies extending to the base of the lithosphere. These steeply dipping structures have been interpreted as relicts of the subduction that drove accretion. By contrast, the sub-crustal subduction remnant that is imaged beneath younger terranes to the south shows up as a moderately dipping (≈30°) structure. These observations suggest a stiff craton surrounded by weaker belts. This strength contrast may have affected later events, such as the Keweenawan rifing, which propagated northward through the accreted terranes but stopped short of impinging the craton core. In the Superior Province, crustal heat production is much higher in the accreted terranes than in the craton core, implying higher temperatures and lower mechanical strength. Such a remarkable dichotomy also exists in South Africa, where the Limpopo and Namaqua belts are characterized by higher heat flux and crustal heat production than the adjacent Archean Kaapvaal and Zimbabwe cratons. The generality of this cannot be assessed on the basis of heat flow and heat production data which are scarce in most other cratons. These cratons, however, are characterized by post-orogenic high temperature metamorphism which is best explained by high crustal heat production. This is true, for example, for the Jimperding metamorphic belt at the edge of the Yilgarn craton, Western Australia. Thus, cratons appear to be surrounded, and protected, by belts with more radiogenic crust, which are weaker and focus deformation. This indicates a tight connection between the mechanical properties of a continent and the composition of its crust.