Volcanic Reconstruction of the Paleoproterozoic Stroud Breccia: Understanding the transition from a primitive to mature arc and its impact on VMS ore-formation, Snow Lake, Manitoba, Canada

Abstract The Stroud Breccia is a ≤400 m thick package of dominantly felsic volcaniclastic rocks within the Paleoproterozoic Snow Lake arc assemblage. It stratigraphically overlies the ore-interval for the Anderson, Stall and Rod volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits at Snow Lake, Manitoba, Canada and occupies the stratigraphic interval between the underlying primitive arc Anderson sequence and the overlying mature arc Chisel sequence. The Stroud Breccia is interpreted to be a product of subaqueous pyroclastic and effusive, dominantly rhyolitic, volcanism, and concomitant subsidence. It consists of felsic tuff to lapilli-tuff, crystal-rich felsic tuff, felsic lapillistone, felsic tuff breccia, mafic tuff to lapilli-tuff, heterolithic tuff breccia to breccia and rhyolite. The finer felsic volcaniclastic units are characterised by angular or broken quartz crystals, angular lithic rhyolite lapilli, and pumice. Fine ash, broken crystals and pumice suggest they were deposited by eruption-fed density currents associated with a phreatomagmatic eruption. The coarser felsic volcaniclastic units are characterized by blocks of strongly quartz-feldspar porphyritic rhyolite and pumice and are interpreted to have been deposited during the reworking of pyroclastic debris flow deposits on the seafloor during mass wasting events at fault scarps. Planar and cross laminations, graded beds and bomb sag structures suggest the mafic tuff to lapilli-tuff unit was deposited by a combination of subaqueous eruption-fed density currents and eruption driven ballistically emplaced ejecta, likely through subaqueous tephra jetting. Lithofacies analyses, and geochemistry has allowed comparison between the felsic volcanic rocks of the Stroud Breccia and those that host the Anderson, Stall and Rod VMS deposits. Detailed mapping has led to the identification of synvolcanic faults, defining basins and volcanic vents, that indicate that the process of incipient rifting of the Anderson sequence primitive arc continued during emplacement of the Stroud Breccia. These structures also define magma and fluid pathways critical in controlling the formation of the Anderson VMS deposits, meaning they represent deep-seated and long-lived structures that can be used as vectors to mineralization at depth.