Introduction to Special Issue of Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences: the Lake Nipigon Region Geoscience Initiative (1).(Report)

Abstract: The Lake Nipigon Region Geoscience Initiative (LNRGI) was a 3-year collaborative geoscience data acquisition and compilation project that focussed on Lake Nipigon in Ontario and involved partnerships between mineral industry, university, and provincial and federal government geoscientists. A major objective of the initiative was to collect new geoscience information to better understand the geological history of the Nipigon region to inform land-use planning, identify areas of high mineral potential, and attract mineral exploration. The Special Issue on the LNRGI highlights the scientific successes of the Initiative in the fields of geology, petrology, geochemistry, geochronology, stratigraphy and basin analysis, mineral deposits, and surficial geology and geochemistry.

Resume : L'Initiative geoscientifique de la region du lac Nipigon represente un projet conjoint d'acquisition et de compilation de donnees geoscientifiques visant la region du lac Nipigon en Ontario; cette initiative, d'une duree de trois ans, implique des partenariats entre les geoscientifiques de l'industrie minerale, des universites et des gouvernements federal et provincial. L'un des objectifs principaux de l'initiative etait de recueillir des informations geoscientifiques afin de mieux comprendre l'histoire geologique de la region du lac Nipigon. Les retombees de cette cueillette permettront de bien planifier l'utilisation des terres, d'identifier les secteurs a potentiel mineral eleve et d'attirer l'exploration minerale. L'edition speciale portant sur l'Initiative geoscientifique de la region du lac Nipigon souligne les reussites scientifiques de l'initiative dans les domaines de la geologie, la petrologie, la geochimie, la geochronologie, la stratigraphie et l'analyse des bassins, des gites mineraux ainsi que la geologie et la geochimie de surface.

[Traduit par la Redaction]

Introduction

The Nipigon Embayment, a region of dominantly Proterozoic rocks centered on Lake Nipigon, Ontario, extends for ~150 km north of Lake Superior (Fig. 1) (Sutcliffe 1991). The relationship of the Nipigon Embayment to the Midcontinent Rift underlying Lake Superior has long been a topic of scientific and economic interest, and there has been speculation that the Embayment may have formed as a failed arm of the Midcontinent Rift (see Sutcliffe 1991). The presence of sub-economic mineralization in the Duluth, Coldwell, and Crystal Lake intrusions has led to speculation that significant mineral deposits may lay hidden in the shallow subsurface of the Embayment (Smyk and Franklin 2007).

Given the limitations of the existing geoscience framework in the Nipigon Embayment, the Lake Nipigon Regional Geoscience Initiative (LNRGI) was conceived in 2002 to provide economic stimulus to the area through a focused program of geological mapping and geophysical surveying. Prime objectives were to acquire a better understanding of the geology, stratigraphy, metallogeny, and regional tectonic setting of the Proterozoic rocks in the Nipigon region. The nine papers in this special issue address all of these objectives.

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