Wopmay orogen

The Wopmay orogen is a Paleoproterozoic orogenic belt in northern Canada which formed during the collision between the Hottah terrane (north of the Hottah Lake), a continental magmatic arc, and the Archean Slave Craton at about 1.88 Ga (billion years).

[1] The formation was named for Wilfrid Reid "Wop" May, OBE, DFC (April 20, 1896 – June 21, 1952), a Canadian flying ace in the First World War and a leading post-war aviator.

The magmatic arc now forms a 3–4.5 km thick basin overlying the Hottah-Slave transition.

The cryptic Hottah terrane is a magmatic arc which consists of a 1936–1890 Ma-old suite of plutons intruded into 2.0–2.4 Ga metamorphosed sedimentary and volcanic rocks.

The Great Bear magmatic arc remained active 1.88–1.84 Ma while subduction still occurred and still bisects the Hottah terrane north to south.

Geological map of north-western Canada. Wopmay orogen marked with D.