Temagami Greenstone Belt shear throughout the Link Lake Deformation Zone. These dark compressed pyroclastics have been interpreted to be pumice. Some of the subsequence pyroclastic deposits contain fragments of pyrite and quartz, suggesting that discharged sulfide hydrothermal activity took place throughout the volcanic source area. Resedimented felsic, epiclastic and turbiditic sediments compose the Turtle Lake Formation. The base of this formation consists of a heterolithic, volcaniclastic, matrix-supported conglomerate unit that overlies felsic lava flows and pillowed, calc-alkaline basalts of the Link Lake Formation. Many rounded to subangular felsic and mafic volcanic fragments are known to occur in the unit, as well as rare
Craton craton. Earth's surface was probably broken up into many small plates with volcanic islands and arcs in great abundance. Small protocontinents (cratons) formed as crustal rock was melted and remelted by hot spots and recycled in subduction zones. There were no large continents in the early Archean, and small protocontinents were probably the norm in the Mesoarchean because they were prevented from coalescing into larger units by the high rate of geologic activity. These felsic protocontinents (cratons) probably formed at hot spots from a variety of sources: mafic magma melting more felsic rocks, partial melting of mafic rock, and from