REGIONAL DIFFERENCES IN PB ISOTOPIC COMPOSITIONS OF FELDSPARS IN PLUTONIC ROCKS OF THE NORTHERN APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS, USA AND CANADA - A GEOCHEMICAL METHOD OF TERRANE CORRELATION

Feldspar Pb isotopic compositions from Paleozoic tonalitic to leucogranitic Caledonian plutons from the northern Appalachian Mountains of the U.S.A. and Canada range from nonradiogenic to radiogenic relative to the evolution curve of Stacey and Kramers (1975). Pb isotopic values in the feldspars are generally independent of modal and major and trace element contents of the plutons. Plutons with the least radiogenic Pb isotopic signatures (Northern group) have intruded allochthonous rocks closest to the North American craton, and plutons with the most radiogenic Pb (Southern group) have intruded Avalonian basement. Feldspars from plutons in the Central group have intermediate Pb isotopic compositions between the Northern and Southern groups and do not define an isotopically unique group. The predominant source of the felsic magmas was the continental lithosphere as indicated by the general Pb isotopic similarity of the plutonic feldspars with either Grenville or Chain Lakes basement in the case of the Northern group and with Avalonian basement rocks in the case of the Southern group. The source region for plutons in the Central group may have contained a mixture of Grenvillian and Avalonian components. Plutons in the northern Appalachians are as a group more evolved in their Pb isotopic compositions relative to Caledonian plutons in the British Isles.