scholarly journals A reexamination of the contacts and other features of the Gravina Belt, southeastern Alaska; supplemental data

1988 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Brew ◽  
Susan M. Karl
Keyword(s):  
Gravina Belt

The Great Tonalite Sill of southeastern Alaska and British Columbia: emplacement into an active contractional high angle reverse shear zone (extended abstract)

1992 ◽  
Vol 83 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 383-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald H. W. Hutton ◽  
Gary M. Ingram
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Metamorphic Grade ◽  
High Grade ◽  
Metamorphic Complex ◽  
High Angle ◽  
Western Margin ◽  
Western Cordillera ◽  
Early Tertiary ◽  
The World ◽  
Gravina Belt

The Great Tonalite Sill (GTS) of southeastern Alaska and British Columbia (Brew & Ford 1981; Himmelberg et al. 1991) is one of the most remarkable intrusive bodies in the world: it extends for more than 800 km along strike and yet is only some 25 km or less in width. It consists of a belt of broadly tonalitic sheet-like plutons striking NW–SE and dipping steeply NE, and has been dated between 55 Ma and 81 Ma (J. L. Wooden, written communication to D. A. Brew, April 1990) (late Cretaceous to early Tertiary). The sill (it is steeply inclined and rather more like a “dyke”) is emplaced along the extreme western margin of the Coast Plutonic and Metamorphic Complex (CPMC), the high grade core of the Western Cordillera. The CPMC forms the western part of a group of tectonostratigraphic terranes including Stikine and Cache Creek, collectively known as the Intermontane Superterrane (Rubin et al. 1990). To the W of the GTS, rocks of the Insular Superterrane, including the Alexander and Wrangellia terranes and the Gravina belt, form generally lower metamorphic grade assemblages. The boundary between these two superterranes is obscure but it may lie close to, or be coincident with, the trace of the GTS.

Thermobarometric constraints on the structural evolution of the Coast Mountains batholith, central southeastern Alaska

1991 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 912-928 ◽  
Author(s):  
William C. McClelland ◽  
Lawrence M. Anovitz ◽  
George E. Gehrels
Keyword(s):  
Shear Zone ◽  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Structural Evolution ◽  
Fault System ◽  
Northern Coast ◽  
Coast Mountains ◽  
Petersburg Region ◽  
Temperature And Pressure ◽  
Gravina Belt ◽  
Zone Temperature

Thermobarometric data from amphibolite-facies metamorphic rocks west of the Coast Mountains batholith provide important constraints on the structural evolution of the mid-Cretaceous Sumdum–Fanshaw fault system and Late Cretaceous – Paleocene Le Conte Bay shear zone in central southeastern Alaska. Ductile structures that make up the Sumdum–Fanshaw fault system record the east-directed underthrusting of the Alexander terrane and Gravina belt beneath the Ruth assemblage (Yukon–Tanana terrane) and Taku terrane. These structures are truncated to the east by the Le Conte Bay shear zone. Temperature and pressure estimates calculated from the garnet–biotite geothermometer and garnet–rutile–ilmenite–plagioclase–quartz geobarometer suggest juxtaposition of the Gravina belt and Yukon–Tanana terrane at relatively deep levels (>7 kbar) during mid-Cretaceous time. Rocks west of the Le Conte Bay shear zone yield thermobarometric estimates of 465–890 ± 50 °C and 7.1–11.8 ± 1 kbar (1 kbar = 100 MPa). Late Cretaceous and Paleocene metamorphism associated with the Le Conte Bay shear zone reflects synkinematic emplacement of tonalitic intrusions along the western margin of the Coast Mountains batholith. Thermobarometric results from samples adjacent to the tonalite bodies record uplift and retrogression and suggest tonalite emplacement at 7.5–7.7 ± 1 kbar. An eastward increase in thermobarometric estimates observed in Thomas and Le Conte bays is inferred to record uplift and east-side-up tilting of rocks west of and within the Le Conte Bay shear zone during Late Cretaceous and Paleocene time. Rocks within the Le Conte Bay shear zone were apparently rapidly (1.5–2 mm/a) uplifted to shallow crustal levels prior to mid-Eocene time. Thermobarometric results for the Petersburg region are similar to those previously reported along the western flank of the northern Coast Mountains batholith.

scholarly journals Very low-grade metamorphism of the Dezadeash Formation (Jura-Cretaceous): Constraints on the tectonometamorphic history of the Dezadeash flysch basin and implications regarding the tectonic evolution of the Northern Cordillera of Alaska and Yukon

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-389
Author(s):  
Grant W Lowey ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
North America ◽  
Maximum Pressure ◽  
Low Grade ◽  
Oblique Collision ◽  
Western Margin ◽  
Facies Metamorphism ◽  
History Of ◽  
Thermal Indicators ◽  
Gravina Belt

<abstract> <p>Mesozoic convergence of the Wrangellia composite terrane with the western margin of North America resulted in the collapse of intervening flysch basins. One of these basins, the Jurassic-Cretaceous Gravina-Nuzotin belt, comprises from south to north, the Gravina sequence and Gravina belt in southeastern Alaska, the Dezadeash Formation in Yukon, and the Nutzotin Mountains sequence in eastern Alaska. Previous work shows that the Gravina sequence and Gravina belt were underthrust &gt; 20 km beneath the margin of North America in mid-Cretaceous time, culminating in amphibolite facies metamorphism. This tectonometamorphic scenario was subsequently applied to the entire Gravina-Nutzotin belt, despite any detailed studies pertaining to the tectonometamorphic evolution of the Dezadeash Formation. The present analysis of the Dezadeash Formation reveals that metamorphic mineral assemblages in sandstone and tuff document subgreenschist, high temperature zeolite facies metamorphism; Kübler indices of illite and Árkai indices of chlorite in mudstone record diagenetic to high anchizone metapelitic conditions; and the color of organic matter (i.e., the Thermal Alteration Index of palynomorphs and the Conodont Alteration Index) and pyrolysis of organic matter in mudstone and hemipelagite beds document thermal maturation at catagenesis to mesogenesis stages. Collectively, the mineralogic and organic thermal indicators in the Dezadeash Formation suggest that strata experienced maximum pressure-temperature conditions of 2.5 ± 0.5 kbar and 250 ± 25 ℃ in the Early Cretaceous. The inferred tectonometamorphic evolution of the Dezadeash Formation does not support the northern part of the Gravina-Nutzotin belt being underthrust &gt; 20 km beneath the western margin of North America in mid-Cretaceous time, thus contrasting sharply with the Gravina sequence and Gravina belt in the southern part of the Gravina-Nutzotin belt. The diverse tectonometamorphic histories recorded by the southern and northern parts of the Gravina-Nutzotin belt may be a manifestation of oblique collision and diachronous south-to-north accretion of the Wrangellia composite terrane to North America.</p> </abstract>

Provenance analysis of the Dezadeash Formation (Jurassic–Cretaceous), Yukon, Canada: implications regarding a linkage between the Wrangellia composite terrane and the western margin of Laurasia

2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grant W. Lowey
Keyword(s):  
Crustal Material ◽  
Provenance Analysis ◽  
Western Margin ◽  
Magmatic Arc ◽  
Point Counts ◽  
Margin Setting ◽  
Gravity Flows ◽  
Convergent Plate Margin ◽  
Gravina Belt ◽  
Detrital Zircon Ages

The Mesozoic convergence of the allochthonous Wrangellia composite terrane (WCT) with the western margin of Laurasia coincided with the construction of the Chitina magmatic arc on the WCT, and the dispersal of volcanic flows and sediment gravity flows into an adjacent flysch basin. The basin, preserved as the Gravina–Nutzotin belt, includes the Dezadeash Formation in southwest Yukon, the Nutzotin Mountains sequence in southern Alaska, and the Gravina belt in southeastern Alaska. The Dezadeash Formation is a submarine fan system comprising stacked channel-lobe transition and lobe deposits interposed with overbank deposits. Conglomerate pebble-counts, sandstone point-counts, detrital zircon ages, and major element, trace element, rare earth element, and Sm–Nd isotopic geochemistry of sandstone, mudstone, and hemipelagite beds suggests that the deposits consist mainly of first-cycle volcanogenic detritus shed from the undissected Chitina arc, in addition to material eroded from the WCT. The arc was constructed of undifferentiated magma sourced from the depleted mantel, as well as older crustal material attributed to the WCT proxying for continental crust. The compositional provenance results, together with published paleocurrent data for the Dezadeash Formation and compositional and directional provenance indicators from the Nutzotin Mountains sequence and Gravina belt, does not require a sediment source from Laurasia. The provenance record is compatible with deposition of the Gravina–Nutzotin belt in a convergent plate margin setting.

scholarly journals U-Pb and Hf isotope analysis of detrital zircons from Mesozoic strata of the Gravina belt, southeast Alaska

Tectonics ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 34 (10) ◽  
pp. 2052-2066 ◽  
Author(s):  
Intan Yokelson ◽  
George E. Gehrels ◽  
Mark Pecha ◽  
Dominique Giesler ◽  
Chelsi White ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Detrital Zircons ◽  
Hf Isotope ◽  
Southeast Alaska ◽  
Gravina Belt

scholarly journals U–Pb and Hf isotopic analyses of detrital zircons from the Taku terrane, southeast Alaska

2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (10) ◽  
pp. 979-992 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominique Giesler ◽  
George Gehrels ◽  
Mark Pecha ◽  
Chelsi White ◽  
Intan Yokelson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Volcanic Rocks ◽  
Detrital Zircons ◽  
Hf Isotope ◽  
Igneous Rocks ◽  
Upper Permian ◽  
Lower Permian ◽  
Coast Mountains ◽  
Isotopic Analyses ◽  
Gravina Belt ◽  
Isotope Analyses

The Taku terrane consists of metamorphosed Carboniferous through Triassic marine clastic strata, volcanic rocks, and limestone that occur along the western margin of the Coast Mountains in southeastern Alaska. These rocks are juxtaposed along mid-Cretaceous thrust faults over Jura-Cretaceous basinal strata of the Gravina belt to the west and beneath Proterozoic through Carboniferous metamorphic rocks of the Yukon–Tanana terrane to the east. This paper presents U–Pb ages and Hf isotope analyses of detrital zircons from the Taku terrane, and compares these values with information from the adjacent Wrangellia, Alexander, and northern and southern portions of the Yukon–Tanana terrane (YTTn and YTTs). These comparisons suggest that (i) Carboniferous strata of the Taku terrane were shed mainly from mid-Paleozoic igneous rocks of YTTs, (ii) Permian strata of the Taku terrane were shed from mid-Paleozoic igneous rocks and intraformational Lower Permian volcanic rocks of YTTs as well as Upper Permian volcanic rocks exposed in YTTn, and (iii) Triassic sandstones were shed from mid-Paleozoic igneous rocks of YTTs, whereas conglomerates were shed mainly from mid-Paleozoic arc rocks in YTTn. Hf isotope analyses of Paleozoic zircons record increasing continental input during Silurian–Devonian and Permian phases of magmatism. Similarities in isotopic characteristics, combined with stratigraphic and geochemical information presented by previous workers, suggest that strata of the Taku terrane accumulated on (and partly as lateral equivalents of) rocks of YTTs, and that the combined assemblages formed outboard or along strike of YTTn.

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