Basement complexes in the Wasatch fault, Utah, provide new limits on crustal accretion

Abstract

New and reinterpreted isotopic data for crystalline rocks exposed in the Wasatch Range require a reevaluation of Precambrian crustal boundaries in Utah. Crystalline rocks of the Santaquin Complex underwent metamorphism prior to ca. 1670 Ma, consistent with Sr and Nd isotope data. Mafic to intermediate rocks have major element, trace element, and isotope ratios indicative of derivation in an arc accreted to the Archean craton in Proterozoic time, requiring the crustal suture to be north of the Santaquin Complex. Farther north, the Farmington Canyon Complex has been considered Archean based on published Nd model ages and discordant U/Pb zircon ages. However, Nd model ages and zircons could be inherited from sedimentary protoliths. U/Pb and electron microprobe ages of monazite have a mode at 1650 to 1700 Ma, concordant with the Santaquin Complex, and lack inheritance. We propose that the Farmington Canyon Complex was first cratonized from Archean-derived sediments in the Proterozoic, requiring a crustal suture to be north of it as well. Accretion ages of arc terranes in southeastern Wyoming are ∼60–100 m.y. older than in Utah. Thus, a serious reevaluation of basement architecture in Utah is needed and a previously unrecognized temporal complexity of accretion is indicated.