An alkalic volcanic suite of the Labrador Trough, Labrador

The Nimish Subgroup igneous suite is a linear belt of volcanic and plutonic rocks in the Dyke Lake area of the southern Labrador Trough. The volcanics are interbedded with the sediments of the Wishart and Sokoman Formations of the Aphebian aged, Knob Lake Group. The sokoman Formation forms a time stratigraphic horizon that separates the lower Petitsikapau Lake Formation from the upper Astray Lake formation of the Nimish Subgroup. The occurrence of these volcanics within the Knob Lake Group is unique relative to Labrador Trough stratigraphy, as elsewhere the Knob Lake Group is a dominantly sedimentary succession and volcanics are restricted to the younger Doublet Group. Stratigraphic relationships between the Nimish Subgroup and the Sokoman formation indicate contemporaneous volcanic, clastic and chemical sedimentary activity. The internal stratigraphy of the Sokoman Formation exhibits a three-fold subdivision that is broadly correlatable with similar subdivisions in the Schefferville "main ore zone", 30 miles to the northwest. A detailed facies and paleogeographic model relating the volcanic activity to iron formation deposition in the Dyke Lake is presented. The rocks of the Dyke Lake area have been affected by lower greenschist facies metamorphism during the Hudsonian orogenic event, circa 1735 my. Geochemical evidence indicates that the igneous rocks of the Nimish Subgroup have been metasomatized with large degrees of mobility in Na₂O, K₂O, CaO, MgO, SiO₂, FeO and Fe₂O₃ suspected. The "immobile trace elements", Ti, Zr, Nb, Y and Ga imply that the Nimish lavas are a mildly alkaline suite that has an alkali basalt-trachyandesite-comendite differentiation scheme. The rare earth element, REE, geochemistry of the Nimish Subgroup is supportive of the alkaline nature of the volcanics and has been used to model the fractional crystallization petrogenesis involved in the two volcanic cycles. The geological, geochemical and geophysical evidence indicates that the Nimish Subgroup lavas are possibly a rift facies, alkaline suite related to the tensional tectonic regime that preceeded the extrusion of voluminous tholeiitic lavas of the Doublet Group.