Images of a lower-crustal oceanic slab: Direct evidence for tectonic accretion in the Archean western Superior province

Abstract

The Archean western Superior province in Canada is the type area for proposed Archean plate tectonics. Seismic images from this region provide direct evidence for assembly of the craton by terrane accretion and for a large slab of remnant oceanic crust preserved at the base of the crust. This slab, with inferred garnet amphibolite composition, adds a critical piece of evidence to previous suggestions that Archean subduction was at a shallow angle and that some Neoarchean tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite suites, distinct from most modern-day suprasubduction magmas, are melts primarily derived directly from subducted slabs.