Chronostratigraphy of the Hottah terrane and Great Bear magmatic zone of Wopmay Orogen, Canada, and exploration of a terrane translation model

The Paleoproterozoic Hottah terrane is the westernmost exposed bedrock of the Canadian Shield and a critical component for understanding the evolution of the Wopmay Orogen. Thirteen new high-precision U–Pb zircon crystallization ages are presented and support field observations of a volcano-plutonic continuum from Hottah terrane through to the end of the Great Bear magmatism, from >1950 to 1850 Ma. The new crystallization ages, new geochemical data, and newly published detrital zircon U–Pb data are used to challenge hitherto accepted models for the evolution of the Hottah terrane as an exotic arc and microcontinent that arrived over a west-dipping subduction zone and collided with the Slave craton at ca. 1.88 Ga. Although the Hottah terrane does have a tectonic history that is distinct from that of the neighbouring Slave craton, it shares a temporal history with a number of domains to the south and east — domains that were tied to the Slave craton by ca. 1.97 Ga. It is interpreted herein that Hottah terra...