Structural controls on the localization of the mineralized Copper Cliff embayment and the Copper Cliff Offset dyke, Sudbury Igneous Complex, Canada

The Main Mass of the Sudbury Igneous Complex (SIC) is a 1.5–5 km thick, layered sheet of impact melt rocks, intensely studied because of the magmatic Ni-Cu-PGE sulfide deposits associated with the base of the Main Mass and connected dykes, known as the Sublayer and Offset dykes, respectively. The mode of emplacement of the mineralized Offset dykes that connect to the Main Mass through morphologic crater-floor irregularities (embayments) and the style of post-cratering deformation that affected the Offset dykes is not fully understood. This field-based study of the Copper Cliff Embayment (CCE) and Offset (CCO) dyke contributes to unraveling the mode of melt emplacement and the role of pre-impact faults in the deformation of the southern SIC. Field relationships indicate that the CCO dyke formed before the CCE and Sublayer were chemically fully evolved. Respective melts were injected into footwall rocks weakened by pre-impact deformation and cratering as a protracted event, with barren quartz diorite (QD) emplaced prior to mineralized, inclusion-bearing quartz diorite (IQD). Massive sulfide ore bodies appear to have formed late in the evolution of the dyke and physical separation (decoupling) of silicate magma and sulfide melt is required. NW-SE-shortening folded and faulted the strata hosting the CCO dyke and deformation was facilitated through re-activated E-W-striking, pre-impact faults. Restoring the initial geometry of the dyke and embayment, using 3D modelling and field constraints, helped to refine total slip estimates along major faults and confirmed that melts migrated gravitationally downward into the CCO dyke.