The Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism (2018)

Chemam 2015). Banded iron formations (BIFs) consist of bands of iron oxide and chert. Archean sedimentation in the Canadian Shield was dominated by the resedimented (turbidite) facies association of submarine fans—greywacke, mudstone-siltstone, and conglomerate. Archean sedimentary rocks consist largely of greywacke—an immature sandstone containing abundant mafic minerals like hornblende and biotite (Dickens and Snelling 2008). Archean stromatolites are found in sedimentary carbonate rocks, almost always associated with extensive volcanic sequences (Hofmann 2000). Millimeter -scale layers of fine ash at regular intervals attest to periodic explosive volcanic eruptions during deposition of microbial mats in the Back River volcanic complex of the Slave Province (Lambert 2011). Stromatolites are more abundant in Paleoproterozoic and Mesoproterozoic sediments (Hofmann 1998) along with extensive carbonates (Lucas and St- Onge 1998). North American carbonates and quartz arenites are much less well developed in Archean strata (Okajangas 1985). Archean greenstone belts have economically significant gold and other metals deposits (Rey at al. 2013). Most major lode gold deposits have a late Archean “age” (Cameron 1988). The Abitibi greenstone belt of the Superior Province, for example, contains world-class copper-zinc massive sulphide orebodies as well as banded iron formation (Pirajno 1992; Taner and Chemam 2015). There is a large zircon “age” peak in the late Archean geology of North America and all continents (Bradley 2011; Condie 2018; O’Neill et al. 2013; Voice et al. 2011) (Fig. 2). 3. Northern Paleoproterozoic provinces geology There is a remarkable change in tectonic style going from Archean granite-greenstone terrane and high-grade granulite- gneiss metamorphic terrane to the adjacent linear Proterozoic belts (Frazier and Schwimmer 1987). Proterozoic tectonic style was indeed different from the permobile style of the Archean, but it also differed from that of the Phanerozoic in that intracontinental deformation and igneous activity were much more extensive than they have been since (Frazier and Schwimmer 1987). North America’s Paleoproterozoic provinces (Fig. 1) largely consist of two types (Mints 2007): Low metamorphic grade sedimentary-volcanic belts (greenschist to low-temperature amphibolite facies metamorphism) and granulite-gneiss belts (with a predominance of high-temperature amphibolite to ultrahigh-temperature granulite facies). Northern Paleoproterozoic provinces include the low metamorphic grade Trans-Hudson, New Quebec, Penokean, Wopmay and Ketilidian belts, together with the high metamorphic grade Talston-Thelon belt, as well as the Cumberland, Rinkian and Nagssugtoqidian provinces (Fig. 1). The Trans-Hudson Province is the largest and best exposed Paleoproterozoic belt in North America (Zhao et al. 2002). This belt has Archean provinces on both sides. Deep seismic reflection lines (Nelson et al. 1993) indicate that the Trans-Hudson province has a complex structure that dips to the west in the west and to the east in the east. The North American Central Plains (NACP) conductivity anomaly, a very large electrical conductor delineated by electromagnetic induction studies, is colinear with the Trans-Hudson province (Alabi et al. 1975). In the Trans- Hudson Province of northern Saskatchewan, uranium-thorium- hosted granitic pegmatites have an intrusive relationship to Early Paleoproterozoic metasedimentary rocks and interfolded granitoids that unconformably overly Late Archean gneisses. Economic sources of unconformity-related uranium occur in association with Paleoproterozoic basins such as Canada’s Athabasca Basin that contains the highest-grade and largest deposits of this type in the world (Hanly et al. 2006). Early Paleoproterozoic gold-uranium conglomerates are found at Elliot Lake and the Huronian Supergroup of Canada (Pirajno 1992). Supposedly “glacial” diamictite is found in locations such as the Huronian Supergroup (Bekker et al. 2005). Paleoproterozoic basins, such as the Athabasca and Thelon of northern Canada, contain detrital zircons of similar “age” to the Trans-Hudson Province. (Rainbird et al. 2012). Paleoproterozoic sediments of Arctic Canada contain sedimentary structures indicative of incised valleys and sheet- braided rivers (Ielpi and Rainbird 2016). Worldwide, by far the most important type of banded iron formations are located in relatively undeformed Paleoproterozoic sedimentary basins that have unconformable contacts on granite- greenstone terrains (Lascelles 2013). These Superior-type deposits are large in dimensions (more than 100 meters in thickness and over 100 km in lateral extent) (Evans et al. 2013). Superior-type BIFs contain most of the world’s hematite-goethite ore deposits (Douglas 1970). The Marquette Lake deposit is an example of a Superior-type deposit in the Penokean Province (Schmidt 1980). Sediment-hostedcopperdepositsfirstappearinthePaleoproterozoic. Precambrian chemical sediments are said to have changed from mainly sulphide facies before 1.85 Ga to predominantly oxide facies (Slack and Cannon 2009). Metamorphic microdiamonds have been found to contain high concentrations of nitrogen within Paleoproterozoic magmatic rocks at Nunavut, Canada (Cartigny et al. 2004). There is a large zircon “age” peak in the late Paleoproterozoic geology of North America and all continents (Bradley 2011; Condie 2018; O’Neill et al. 2013; Voice et al. 2011) (Fig. 2). Dickens ◀ North American Precambrian geology ▶ 2018 ICC 391 Figure 2. Age frequency distribution of detrital zircon U-Pb radiometric “ages” from North America, with corresponding significant thermal- tectonic Events and proposed correlation with the Biblical record. E = Elsonian Event (figure modified from Voice et al., 2011). The presence of four dominant “age” peaks globally on each individual continent, in all major tectonic settings, and in modern sediments implies the episodic nature of crustal processes (Voice et al. 2011). These four global peaks correspond to North America’s Kenoran, Hudsonian, Grenvillian and Pan- African Event peaks.