Biostratigraphic and biogeographic constraints on the Carboniferous to Jurassic Cache Creek Terrane in central British Columbia

2001 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 551-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
M J Orchard ◽  
F Cordey ◽  
L Rui ◽  
E W Bamber ◽  
B Mamet ◽  
...  

Conodonts, radiolarians, foraminiferids, and corals provide constraints on the geology and tectonics of the Nechako region. They also support the notion that the Cache Creek Terrane is allochthonous with respect to the North American craton. The 177 conodont collections, assigned to 20 faunas, range in age from Bashkirian (Late Carboniferous) to Norian (Late Triassic); 70 radiolarian collections representing 12 zones range from Gzhelian (Late Carboniferous) to Toarcian (Early Jurassic); 335 collections assigned to 11 fusulinacean assemblages (with associated foram-algal associations) range from Bashkirian to Wordian (Middle Permian); and two coral faunas are of Bashkirian and Wordian age. The fossils document a long but sporadic history of sedimentary events within the Cache Creek Complex that included two major carbonate buildups in the Late Carboniferous (Pope limestone) and Middle Permian (Copley limestone), punctuated by intervening Early Permian deepening; basaltic eruptions during the mid Carboniferous and mid Permian; the onset of oceanic chert sedimentation close to the Carboniferous–Permian boundary and its persistence through the Late Triassic (Sowchea succession); latest Permian and Early Triassic mixed clastics and volcanics (Kloch Lake succession); Middle and Late Triassic reworking of carbonates (Whitefish limestone), including cavity fill in older limestones (Necoslie breccia), and fine-grained clastic sedimentation extending into the Early Jurassic (Tezzeron succession). Tethyan, eastern Pacific, and (or) low-latitude biogeographic attributes of the faunas are noted in the Gzhelian (fusulines), Artinskian (conodonts, fusulines), Wordian (fusulines, corals, conodonts), and Ladinian (conodonts, radiolarians). The Cache Creek Terrane lay far to the west of the North American continent during these times.

2005 ◽  
Vol 42 (6) ◽  
pp. 1163-1185 ◽  
Author(s):  
D TA Symons ◽  
M J Harris ◽  
P JA McCausland ◽  
W H Blackburn ◽  
C JR Hart

Lithoprobe Slave – Northern Cordillera Lithospheric Evolution (SNORCLE) transect support enabled 24 paleomagnetic collections (536 sites, 6547 specimens) to be made in the northern Cordillera. Paleopoles from 16 studies are integrated with other published paleopoles to present a tectonic synthesis for the Intermontane Belt (IMB) and Yukon–Tanana (YT) terranes since 215 Ma. It shows that the YT terrane has been parautochthonous with the North American craton at least since the Early Jurassic. Since 54 Ma the IMB terranes have rotated steadily clockwise at 0.29° ± 0.11°/Ma on top of the YT terrane and craton or by 16° ± 6° clockwise. Between 102 ± 14 and 54 Ma, the IMB terranes rotated another 35° ± 14° clockwise, probably during Paleocene collision with the craton, and were translated 8.3° ± 7.0° (2σ) (915 ± 775 km) northward, probably during the Late Cretaceous on the Kula plate. The 915 km estimate is much less than most paleomagnetic estimates for "Baja BC" but agrees with the geological evidence. These post-Jurassic estimates are used to reconstruct the position of the Late Triassic – Jurassic cratonic apparent polar wander path for the IMB. The resulting IMB path is found to be concordant with the Cache Creek and Quesnellia terrane poles, indicating that these terranes were together and close to the craton in the Early Jurassic. These results place the IMB terranes close to the Pacific coastline of the northern USA and southern Canada but rotated 35° ± 14° counterclockwise, in the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous.


1992 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher A. Mcroberts

Evaluation of previously undescribed collections of Late TriassicGryphaeafrom the North American Cordillera increases the temporal range and geographic distribution of the genus.Gryphaea(Gryphaea)arcuataeformisKiparisova,G.cf.G.(Gryphaea)keilhauiBöhm, and a new species,G.(Gryphaea)nevadensis, occur in lower Carnian to upper Norian strata from Alaska, British Columbia, Oregon, and Nevada. The distribution is mostly primary with respect to the Upper Triassic North American Craton, and requires long-distance larval dispersal along the latitude of far-eastern Panthalassa. Unlike most modern oysters, the distribution of these Triassic gryphaeids may have been restricted to cool and deeper water environments.An early Carnian age ofGryphaea(Gryphaea)arcuataeformisplaces this species as the oldest knownGryphaea. When combined with late Carnian and Norian occurrences from the North and South American Cordillera, these data indicate that a low-latitude origin for the genus cannot be overlooked. Gryphaeids survived the end-Triassic extinction event presumably by living in refugia.


1993 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 776-786
Author(s):  
G. Murthy ◽  
R. Pätzold

The Pridolian Clam Bank Formation around Lourdes Cove on the Port au Port Peninsula, western Newfoundland, underwent deformation during the Acadian orogeny. As a result, some of the beds were overturned, but the stratification planes can be accurately determined everywhere. Paleomagnetic studies of the Clam Bank Formation have yielded three well-defined components of magnetization, all acquired subsequent to the deformation event: component A with D = 337.3°, I = −28.3°, (N = 16 sites, k = 25.3, α95 = 7.5°), with a corresponding paleopole at 23.2°N, 145.0°E (dp, dm = 4.5°, 8.2°); component B with D = 172.9°, I = 5.7° (N = 35 specimens, k = 10.2, α95 = 6.4°), with a corresponding paleopole at 38.2°N, 130.1°E (dp, dm = 3.2°, 6.4°); component C with D = 350.4°, I = 69.8° (N = 33 specimens, k = 8.9, α95 = 8.9°). A pre-Mesozoic origin of the A and B components is indicated by the presence of normal and reversed components in specific sites; by the lack of correspondence between the A and B paleopoles and the Mesozoic and later pole positions from the Appalachians and the North American craton; and by agreement with Paleozoic poles from the region. The A component was probably acquired immediately after deformation during the Acadian orogeny. The B component is probably a chemical remanence that was acquired during Permo-Carboniferous (Kiaman) time. The C component is of recent origin, probably acquired in the present Earth's field. Paleomagnetic data from western Newfoundland are used in a localized setting to construct a paleopole sequence and to estimate paleolatitudes for western Newfoundland during the Paleozoic. Keeping in mind the paucity of data for Siluro-Devonian age from this region, western Newfoundland seems to have been at its southernmost position at the end of the Ordovician and to have occupied equatorial latitudes during the Permo-Carboniferous. The paleolatitude trend suggests that this block, which is part of the North American craton, moved in a southerly direction during the early Paleozoic and in a northerly direction during the middle and late Paleozoic.


Solid Earth ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 1375-1397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Ni Wang ◽  
Wen Liang Xu ◽  
Feng Wang ◽  
Xiao Bo Li

Abstract. To investigate the timing of deposition and provenance of early Mesozoic strata in the northeastern North China Craton (NCC) and to understand the early Mesozoic paleotectonic evolution of the region, we combine stratigraphy, U–Pb zircon geochronology, and Hf isotopic analyses. Early Mesozoic strata include the Early Triassic Heisonggou, Late Triassic Changbai and Xiaoyingzi, and Early Jurassic Yihe formations. Detrital zircons in the Heisonggou Formation yield  ∼ 58 % Neoarchean to Paleoproterozoic ages and  ∼ 42 % Phanerozoic ages and were sourced from areas to the south and north of the basins within the NCC, respectively. This indicates that Early Triassic deposition was controlled primarily by the southward subduction of the Paleo-Asian oceanic plate beneath the NCC and collision between the NCC and the Yangtze Craton (YC). Approximately 88 % of the sediments within the Late Triassic Xiaoyingzi Formation were sourced from the NCC to the south, with the remaining  ∼ 12 % from the Xing'an–Mongolia Orogenic Belt (XMOB) to the north. This implies that Late Triassic deposition was related to the final closure of the Paleo-Asian Ocean during the Middle Triassic and the rapid exhumation of the Su–Lu Orogenic Belt between the NCC and YC. In contrast,  ∼ 88 % of sediments within the Early Jurassic Yihe Formation were sourced from the XMOB to the north, with the remaining  ∼ 12 % from the NCC to the south. We therefore infer that rapid uplift of the XMOB and the onset of the subduction of the Paleo-Pacific Plate beneath Eurasia occurred in the Early Jurassic.


2018 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 21-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Marzola ◽  
Octávio Mateus ◽  
Jesper Milàn ◽  
Lars B. Clemmensen

This article presents a synthesis of Palaeozoic and Mesozoic fossil tetrapods from Greenland, including an updated review of the holotypes and a new photographic record of the main specimens. All fossil tetrapods found are from East Greenland, with at least 30 different known taxa: five stem tetrapods (Acanthostega gunnari, Ichthyostega eigili, I. stensioi, I. watsoni, and Ymeria denticulata) from the Late Devonian of the Aina Dal and Britta Dal Formations; four temnospondyl amphibians (Aquiloniferus kochi, Selenocara groenlandica, Stoschiosaurus nielseni, and Tupilakosaurus heilmani) from the Early Triassic of the Wordie Creek Group; two temnospondyls (Cyclotosaurus naraserluki and Gerrothorax cf. pulcherrimus), one testudinatan (cf. Proganochelys), two stagonolepids (Aetosaurus ferratus and Paratypothorax andressorum), the eudimorphodontid Arcticodactylus, undetermined archosaurs (phytosaurs and both sauropodomorph and theropod dinosaurs), the cynodont Mitredon cromptoni, and three mammals (Haramiyavia clemmenseni, Kuehneotherium, and cf. ?Brachyzostrodon), from the Late Triassic of the Fleming Fjord Formation; one plesiosaur from the Early Jurassic of the Kap Stewart Formation; one plesiosaur and one ichthyosaur from the Late Jurassic of the Kap Leslie Formation, plus a previously unreported Late Jurassic plesiosaur from Kronprins Christian Land. Moreover, fossil tetrapod trackways are known from the Late Carboniferous (morphotype Limnopus) of the Mesters Vig Formation and at least four different morphologies (such as the crocodylomorph Brachychirotherium, the auropodomorph Eosauropus and Evazoum, and the theropodian Grallator) associated to archosaurian trackmakers are known from the Late Triassic of the Fleming Fjord Formation. The presence of rich fossiliferous tetrapod sites in East Greenland is linked to the presence of well-exposed continental and shallow marine deposits with most finds in terrestrial deposits from the Late Devonian and the Late Triassic.


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