Geochemical signature and seismic stratigraphic setting of Coppermine basalts drilled beneath the Anderson Plains in northwest Canada

Basalts drilled in the Petro-Canada – Canterra Tweed Lake M-47 well in the Anderson Plains of northwestern Canada have geochemical characteristics, including of major, trace, and rare earth elements, that are similar to those of the most enriched Coppermine lavas but significantly different from those of the younger Proterozoic volcanics, such as the Natkusiak basalts. This result provides a geological tie and timing constraint for structures observed on seismic reflection data in this area. Correlation of stratigraphic data from the well to seismic data shows that the lavas are within a sequence of layered reflections that onlap, and are thus younger than, easterly verging structures, and that were themselves probably uplifted prior to deposition of the Mackenzie Mountains Supergroup. These relationships thus show that at least two stages of Proterozoic compressional deformation, one that predated and one that postdated the basalts, produced structures beneath the Anderson Plains.