Geology of the Northwest Territories province from dikes and mafic lava flows, overlain by deep ocean turbidite deposits. These rocks are believed to be the remains of oceanic crust that ended up preserved, surrounded on all sides by felsic volcanic rocks and granitoid plutons. In the area of Snofleld Lake in the northern part of the Slave Province, the remains of Archean stromatolites are preserved in a dolomite unit between felsic volcanic and greywacke-mudstone turbidites, some of the earliest evidence of life, forming in the shallows around volcanic islands. Around 1.27 billion years ago in the Proterozoic, a series of major magmatic events affected the
Altiplano–Puna volcanic complex layer containing melts reaching down to the Moho that inhibits the ascent of mafic magmas because of its higher buoyancy. Instead, melts generated in this zone eventually reach the surface, generating felsic volcanism. Some mafic magmas escape sideward after stalling in the melt containing zone; these generate more mafic volcanic systems at the edge of the felsic volcanism, such as Cerro Bitiche. The magmas are mixtures of crust derived and mafic mantle-derived melts with a consistent petrological and chemical signature. The melt generation process may involve several different layers in the crust. Another model requires the intrusion of basaltic melts