New 42 Ma cratonic North American paleomagnetic pole from the Yukon underscores another Cordilleran paleomagnetism-geology conundrum

Abstract

Eocene posttectonic plutons of the Beaver River alkalic complex in southeastern Yukon intruded Devonian–Mississippian and Triassic sandstones in the Foothills of the Canadian Cordillera. A paleomagnetic collection of 27 sites from three separate plutons produced 326 specimens that were analyzed using alternating field and thermal step demagnetization methods. The A component characteristic remanent magnetization (ChRM) resides in magnetite with normal polarity in the 42.6 ± 0.8 Ma Beaver River pluton, reversed polarity in the 42.1 ± 0.7 Ma Larson Creek East pluton, and both polarities in the 41.3 ± 0.4 Ma Larson Creek West pluton, corresponding with magnetic polarity chrons 20n, 19r, and the boundary between chron 19r and 18n, respectively. The ChRMs of the plutons are indistinguishable (2σ) with a mean for the 42.0 ± 0.5 Ma complex of D = 158.8°, I = –73.1° (N = 21 sites, α95 = 3.0°, k = 116.8). A positive paleomagnetic contact test shows the A component to be primary, and the poorly isolated B component suggests the host rocks for Larson Creek West are Early to Middle Devonian. The paleopole for the Beaver River complex at 79.2°N, 145.8°E (N = 21, dp = 4.8°, dm = 5.4°; Q = 7) is concordant with interpolated 42 Ma reference poles for the North American craton. In contrast, paleopoles from the accreted Intermontane and eastern Coast Belt terranes record clockwise rotations of 24° ± 10° (Eocene) and 13° ± 5° (Oligocene–Pliocene), indicating that the allochthonous Intermontane terranes have been progressively driven ~240 ± 120 km eastwards up and over pericratonic and cratonic North American lower crust by Pacific plate subduction since the mid-Eocene.