Upper Paleozoic rocks of the western Canadian Cordillera and their bearing on Cordilleran evolution

1977 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 1832-1859 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. W. H. Monger
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Pacific Ocean ◽  
Sedimentary Rocks ◽  
Ocean Floor ◽  
Canadian Cordillera ◽  
Island Arcs ◽  
South Central ◽  
Early Mesozoic ◽  
Basic Volcanics ◽  
Paleozoic Rocks

Volcanic and sedimentary successions of late Paleozoic and locally Mesozoic age in the Canadian Cordillera form six assemblages, based mainly on lithological association and similar stratigraphy. From east to west these assemblages are: (1) Eastern assemblage, located along the Omineca Crystalline Belt and consisting of Mississippian to Permian largely sedimentary rocks overlain by mainly Permian basic volcanics and ultramafics; (2) poorly known rocks in south-central British Columbia characterized by abundant volcaniclastics of Pennsylvanian and Permian ages; (3) Cache Creek – Bridge River assemblage of the Intermontane Bell, ranging from Lower Mississippian to Middle Jurassic and composed of chert, argillite, carbonate, basic volcanics, and ultramafics: (4) Stikine assemblage of northwestern and north-central British Columbia of Mississippian and Permian age, with basic to acidic volcanics, argillite, and carbonate; (5) Chilliwack Group on the west side of the Cascade Mountains, of Pennsylvanian and Permian age, with basic to acidic volcanics overlying a carbonate and clastic succession: and (6) Sicker–Skolai assemblage of Vancouver Island and the Saint Elias Mountains with basic to acidic volcanics overlain by sedimentary rocks. Coeval faunas in several of these assemblages differ. The assemblages may be largely unrelated to one another and came together in the Mesozoic, Their present distribution, with rocks typical of ocean basins (assemblages 1, 3) east of rocks that probably represent island arcs (assemblages, 2, 4, 5, 6) presents major problems. Two hypotheses attempt to explain this distribution. (1) The oceanic assemblages represent Paleozoic and early Mesozoic Pacific Ocean floor obducted over a broad arc terrane in the Jurassic, or (2) they are Paleozoic and early Mesozoic Pacific Ocean floor, trapped east of allochthonous arc terranes (assemblages 4, 5, 6) emplaced in the Mesozoic.

Geological and geochemical evidence for variable magmatism and tectonics in the southern Canadian Cordillera: Paleozoic to Jurassic suites, Greenwood, southern British Columbia

2001 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Dostal ◽  
B N Church ◽  
T Hoy
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Middle Triassic ◽  
Volcanic Rocks ◽  
Sedimentary Rocks ◽  
Deep Ocean ◽  
Island Arc ◽  
Canadian Cordillera ◽  
South Central ◽  
Upper Paleozoic ◽  
Paleozoic Rocks

The Paleozoic and early Mesozoic rocks of the Greenwood mining camp in southern British Columbia are a part of the Quesnel terrane in the eastern part of the Intermontane Belt of the Canadian Cordillera. Upper Paleozoic rocks include the Knob Hill Group composed of oceanic tholeiitic basalts (with (La/Yb)n [Formula: see text] 0.4–1.2), associated with deep ocean sedimentary rocks and serpentinites; the Attwood Group that comprises island-arc tholeiites (with (La/Yb)n [Formula: see text] 1–4 and positive εNd values), clastic sedimentary rocks and limestones; and a unit of oceanic gabbros with (La/Yb)n < 0.5. These lithologically defined units occur as tectonically emplaced slivers of oceanic crust probably produced during the closure of the Slide Mountain basin during the Permian. They are unconformably overlain by Middle Triassic calc-alkaline volcanic and sedimentary rocks of the Brooklyn Group. The Brooklyn Group volcanic rocks have characteristics of mature island-arc rocks, including (La/Yb)n [Formula: see text] 2.5–4.5 and positive εNd values. The Paleozoic rocks are crosscut by a 200 million years old granodioritic intrusion containing zircon with an Early Proterozoic inheritance age (~2.4 Ga). By inference, southern Quesnellia may have been well offshore from the ancestral North American margin in the Mississippian, in close proximity to the margin by the Middle Triassic, and contiguous with it by the Early Jurassic. It is suggested that the complex tectonic history of extension and contraction of the southern Canadian Cordillera during the post Middle Jurassic can be extended in south-central British Columbia as far back as the upper Paleozoic.

Paleomagnetism of the Triassic Nikolai Greenstone, McCarthy Quadrangle, Alaska

1977 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 2578-2592 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. W. Hillhouse
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
High Temperature ◽  
North America ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Upper Triassic ◽  
Present Position ◽  
Stable Component ◽  
South Central ◽  
Early Mesozoic ◽  
Lamellar Texture

Paleomagnetic evidence indicates that the extensive early Mesozoic basalt field near McCarthy, south-central Alaska, originated far south of its present position relative to North America. Results obtained from the Middle and (or) Upper Triassic Nikolai Greenstone suggest that those basalts originated within 15° of the paleoequator. This position is at least 27° (3000 km) south of the Upper Triassic latitude predicted for McCarthy on the basis of paleomagnetic data from continental North America. The Nikolai pole, as determined from 50 flows sampled at 5 sites, is at 2.2° N, 146.1° E (α95 = 4.8°). The polarity of the pole is ambiguous, because the corresponding magnetic direction has a low inclination and a westerly declination. Therefore, the Nikolai may have originated near 15° N latitude or, alternatively, as far south as 15° S latitude. In addition to being displaced northward, the Nikolai block has been rotated roughly 90° about the vertical axis. A measure of the reliability of this pole is provided by favorable results from the following tests: (1) Within one stratigraphic section, normal and reversed directions from consecutive flows are antipolar. (2) Consistent directions were obtained from sites 30 km apart. (3) Application of the fold test indicated the magnetization was acquired before the rocks were folded. (4) The magnetizations of several pilot specimens are thermally stable up to 550 °C. The stable component is probably carried by magnetite with lamellar texture, a primary feature commonly acquired by a basalt at high temperature during initial cooling of the magma. Geologic and paleomagnetic evidence indicates that the Nikolai is allochthonous to Alaska and that, together with associated formations in southern Alaska and British Columbia, it is part of a now disrupted equatorial terrane.

Evidence for "Caribooan Orogeny" in the Southern Okanagan Region of British Columbia

1972 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 1693-1702
Author(s):  
John V. Ross ◽  
William C. Barnes
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Sedimentary Rocks ◽  
Late Paleozoic ◽  
Deformational History ◽  
Exposed Part ◽  
Strong Deformation ◽  
Paleozoic Rocks ◽  
Okanagan Valley

A sequence of non-metamorphosed, little deformed, fossiliferous, sedimentary rocks, near Keremeos, southern British Columbia, unconformably overlies rocks having a history similar to that of the Vaseaux Formation, the most westerly exposed part of the Shuswap Complex of the southern Okanagan Valley. Fossils from the younger sequence have a late Mississippian – early Pennsylvanian age.This part of the southern Okanagan region has a deformational history that is pre-mid-Carboniferous and likely related to the Caribooan orogeny. This is in contrast to Late Paleozoic rocks at northern Okanagan localities and elsewhere in British Columbia that have under-gone strong deformation of probably Mesozoic age.

scholarly journals U-Pb and Hf Analyses of Detrital Zircons from Paleozoic and Cretaceous Strata on Vancouver Island, British Columbia: Constraints on the Paleozoic Tectonic Evolution of Southern Wrangellia

Lithosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Alberts ◽  
George E. Gehrels ◽  
Joanne Nelson
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Sedimentary Rocks ◽  
Vancouver Island ◽  
Detrital Zircons ◽  
Late Devonian ◽  
Significant Information ◽  
Tectonic Model ◽  
South Central ◽  
Lake Formation ◽  
Alexander Terrane

Abstract Wrangellia is a late Paleozoic arc terrane that occupies two distinct coastal regions of western Canada and Alaska. The Skolai arc of northern Wrangellia in south-central Alaska and Yukon has been linked to the older, adjacent Alexander terrane by shared Late Devonian rift-related gabbros and also by Late Pennsylvanian postcollisional plutons. Late Devonian to Early Permian Sicker arc rocks of southern Wrangellia are exposed in uplifts on Vancouver Island, southwestern British Columbia, surrounded by younger strata and lacking physical connections to other terranes. Utilizing the detrital zircon record of Paleozoic and Cretaceous sedimentary rocks, we provide insight into the magmatic and depositional evolution of southern Wrangellia and its relationships to both northern Wrangellia and the Alexander terrane. 1422 U-Pb LA-ICPMS analyses from the Fourth Lake Formation (Mississippian–Permian) reveal syndepositional Carboniferous age peaks (344, 339, 336, 331, and 317 Ma), sourced from the Sicker arc of southern Wrangellia. These populations overlap in part known ages of volcanism, but the Middle Mississippian cumulative peak (337 Ma) documents a previously unrecognized magmatic episode. Paleozoic detrital zircons exhibit intermediate to juvenile ƐHft values between +15 and +5, indicating that southern Wrangellia was not strictly built on primitive oceanic crust, but instead on transitional crust with a small evolved component. The Fourth Lake samples yielded 49 grains (3.4% of the total grains analyzed) with ages between 2802 Ma and 442 Ma, and with corresponding ƐHft values ranging from +13 to -20. In age—ƐHft space, these grains fall within the Alexander terrane array. They were probably derived from sedimentary rocks in the basement of the Sicker arc. By analogy with northern Wrangellia, this basement incorporated rifted fragments of the Alexander terrane margin as the combined Sicker-Skolai arc system advanced ocean-ward due to slab rollback in Late Devonian to Early Mississippian time. Ultimately, data from detrital zircons preserved in the Fourth Lake Formation provides significant information allowing for an updated tectonic model of Paleozoic Wrangellia.

scholarly journals Conservation Evaluation of Lemmon's Holly Fern, Polystichum lemmonii, a Threatened Fern in Canada

2004 ◽  
Vol 118 (2) ◽  
pp. 164
Author(s):  
George W. Douglas
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Road Construction ◽  
Montane Forest ◽  
Mountain Area ◽  
Forest Road ◽  
South Central ◽  
Northern Idaho ◽  
Mining Exploration ◽  
Conservation Evaluation ◽  
Forest Road Construction

In Canada, Lemmon's Holly Fern, Polystichum lemmonii, is restricted to the Baldy Mountain area on the eastern side of the Okanagan River valley in south-central British Columbia. This population represents the northern limits of the species which ranges south through northern Idaho, Washington and Oregon to northern California. In British Columbia, P. lemmonii is associated with ultramafic rocky ridges within a montane forest at an elevation of 1900 m. The population in the Baldy Mountain area is relatively small, unprotected and potentially imperilled by mining exploration, forest road construction or wildfires.

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