Paleo- to Mesoarchean basement recycling and terrane definition in the Northeastern Superior Province, Québec, Canada

Abstract The Northeastern Superior Province (NESP) is a 500 km × 700 km segment of plutonic Archean crust generated by 1.2 Ga of tectonomagmatic activity. The NESP exhibits the classical plutonic series of Archean terranes, low-K tonalite–trondhjemite–granodiorite (TTG) and high-K granodiorite–granite–monzogranite (GGM) with unusually large volumes of Px-TTGs (mostly enderbites and subordinate charnockites). Volcanic rocks constitute T  = +0.45 to −5.03). Mafic to felsic volcanic rocks and mafic to ultramafic plutonic rocks T  = +0.40 to −6.90. These radiogenic signatures (as well as inherited zircon cores) record recycling of Mesoarchean (3.8–2.9 Ga) crust, either through direct melting, or by coupled assimilation-fractional crystallization processes. In comparison, the Riviere Arnaud terrane is underlain by younger ( T values (+2.34 to −0.67), indicating either a juvenile character, or recycling of fairly juvenile Late Mesoarchean-Early Neoarchean crust. Overall, geochemical and isotopic data of the Late Neoarchean (