Dating of Archean basement in northeastern Wyoming and southern Montana.

Rb-Sr whole-rock and U-Pb zircon ages of granite and gneiss cores from three deep drill holes extend known occurrences of Archean rocks in the subsurface of NE Wyoming and S Montanta. Rb-Sr and K- Ar mineral ages are discordant and reflect early or middle Proterozoic disturbance. Highly altered rocks occur in a thin zone immediately below the sub-Cambrian unconformity. Samples from a few metres deeper in the basement are much fresher but show the effects of this alteration in filled fractures and thin adjacent alteration haloes. Whole-rock Rb-Sr systems have retaioned a fair degree of integrity in spite of increased susceptibility to modification because of the disturbed mineral systems. Interaction of the rocks with water a few metres below the sub-Cambrian unconformity probably occurred for only a relatively short time. Fractures filled rapidly with secondary minerals such as chlorite, anhydrite, and carbonate to maintain a relatively impermeable crystalline basement in which the silicates and their contained isotopic systems were preserved.- Author