Geology and age of mafic magmatism on Jeannette Island (De Long archipelago)—Implications for paleotectonic reconstructions for the Arctic

Abstract

The paper presents the first data on the geology of a series of mafic dikes emplaced in the volcanogenic sedimentary sequence composing the structure of Jeannette Island. We show that the island hosts two generations of dikes consisting of fine-grained dolerites. Both magmatic stages were followed by fold deformations. The youngest and weakly deformed dikes are none the less chloritized and serpentinized. However, we were able to obtain the first ever precise geochronological ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar data for them. According to this analysis, the emplacement age of the intrusive complex of Jeannette Island is close to the Ediacaran (553.6 ± 10.3 Ma). The ages of several superimposed tectonothermal events were determined: Middle Ordovician (463.3 ± 11.7 Ma), Late Silurian (425.3 ± 8.7 Ma), Late Devonian (360.7 ± 8.3 Ma) and Early Carboniferous (341.3 ± 6.8 Ma).