The significance of Archean sanukitoids in the cratonization process: The example of the Barlow pluton, between the Abitibi and Opatica subprovinces, Superior Craton, Quebec

• Association between sanukitoids and high Sr/Y TTGs highlighting major structures. • Transcrustal structures allows syntectonic magmas to reach the upper crust. • Sanukitoids sealed major structures contributing to cratonization. Much debate surrounds Archean crustal growth and its evolution, as well as processes leading to the stabilization of the crust (cratonization). The Barlow pluton is a late-tectonic granitoid that intrudes into the boundary between the Abitibi greenstone belt and the Opatica plutonic belt (Québec, Canada), two subprovinces that make up the southeastern part of the Superior Craton. The Barlow pluton and the Maaskitkuu tonalite, one of its host rocks, are useful to improve the understanding of tectonic and magmatic processes along the margins of subprovinces in Archean cratons. Here, whole-rock analyses, dating (U-Pb on zircon) and barometry on amphibole are used to define the petrogenesis of these two plutons. The older Maaskitkuu tonalite (ca. 2705 Ma) belongs to a Tonalite-Trondhjemite-Granodiorite (TTG) intrusive suite and has a high Sr/Y ratio. The Barlow pluton (ca. 2696 Ma) belongs to the sanukitoid group. The Maaskitkuu tonalite emplaced 10 km deeper than the Barlow pluton, pointing to the exhumation of 10 km of rocks in about 11 Ma, corresponding to an exhumation rate of 1.37 mm/yr. When combined with previous structural and seismic studies, the observations support an imbrication of terranes farther to the north and the south to explain the arrangement of both subprovinces, marked by a transcrustal structure. This structure allows melts from the lower crust and the metasomatized mantle to ascend toward the upper crust promoting the cratonization.