Craton reactivation on the Labrador Sea margins: 40Ar/39Ar age and Sr–Nd–Hf–Pb isotope constraints from alkaline and carbonatite intrusives

The once-contiguous North Atlantic craton (NAC) is crosscut by the Labrador Sea that opened during the Early Cenozoic after extensive Mesozoic continental rifting and removal of cratonic mantle. This large-scale structural change within the cratonic lithosphere was followed at about 150 Ma by the cessation of ultrapotassic and potassic-to-carbonatitic magma production, which had prevailed throughout much of the NAC history. At Aillik Bay, a sequence of olivine lamproites (1374.2±4.2 Ma, 2σ), aillikites/carbonatites (590–555 Ma), and nephelinites (141.6±1.0 Ma, 2σ) erupted through the southern NAC edge on the present-day Labrador Sea margin. Links between these alkaline magma types with diverse petrogeneses as a consequence of large-scale processes in the lithospheric mantle over a period of 1200 Myr are demonstrated utilizing their Sr–Nd–Hf–Pb isotope compositions.