Niobium-enriched basalts from the Wabigoon subprovince, Canada: evidence for adakitic metasomatism above an Archean subduction zone

Late Archean niobium-enriched basalts from the Central Sturgeon Lake assemblage and Neepawa group of the western Wabigoon subprovince have mantle-normalized Nb/La between 0.8 and 1.3 and Zr/Y between 4 and 7. They are compositionally similar to basalts attributed to adakite metasomatism of mantle wedge regions in Cenozoic subduction zones [Sajona et al., J. Petrol. 37 (1996) 693¯726]. In detail, their Sc¯REE systematics suggest the Archean basalts were generated above the garnet stability field. An association with adakitelike volcanic rocks, an absence of komatiites and the arc-like attributes of their host sequences suggest a subduction-related origin for the basalts. If current models of adakite and Niobium-enriched basalt genesis are valid, then additional examples of these rocks should be relatively common in other Archean greenstone belts.