Reconstructing deep-time histories from integrated thermochronology: An example from southern Baffin Island, Canada

We present a multi-chronometric approach for reconstructing deep-time thermal histories using southern Baffin Island as a case study. This continuous thermal history begins with the Palaeoproterozoic Trans-Hudson Orogeny and is derived from inverse and forward models that integrate thermochronometers spanning some 500 degrees C: new apatite U-Pb ages and K-feldspar 40Ar/39Ar multi-diffusion domain data, published (U-Th)/He zircon ages and new multi-kinetic fission-track results. Integration of data from a wider temperature range reduces ambiguities in thermal-history modelling and permits us to constrain the timing of geological processes including, extended post-orogenic cooling, enhanced later Proterozoic cooling, and then episodic burial and exhumation in the Palaeozoic-Mesozoic.