scholarly journals Tectonic assemblages of the eastern Coast Belt, southwestern British Columbia: implications for the history and mechanisms of terrane accretion

1993 ◽  
Author(s):  
J M Journeay
1989 ◽  
Vol 26 (8) ◽  
pp. 1612-1616 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. P. Poulton ◽  
J. D. Aitken

Sinemurian phosphorites in southeastern British Columbia and southwestern Alberta conform with the "West Coast type" phosphorite depositional model. The model indicates that they were deposited on or near the Early Jurassic western cratonic margin, next to a sea or trough from which cold water upwelled. This suggests that the allochthonous terrane Quesnellia lay well offshore in Sinemurian time. The sea separating Quesnellia from North America was partly floored by oceanic crust ("Eastern Terrane") and partly by a thick sequence of rifted, continental terrace wedge rocks comprising the Purcell Supergroup and overlying Paleozoic sequence. This sequence must have been depressed sufficiently that access of upwelling deep currents to the phosphorite depositional area was not impeded.


2009 ◽  
Vol 121 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 1362-1380 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Brian Mahoney ◽  
Sarah M. Gordee ◽  
James W. Haggart ◽  
Richard M. Friedman ◽  
Larry J. Diakow ◽  
...  

1995 ◽  
Vol 32 (10) ◽  
pp. 1759-1776 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Brian Mahoney ◽  
Richard M. Friedman ◽  
Sean D. McKinley

The Harrison Lake Formation is an Early to Middle Jurassic volcanic-arc assemblage unconformably overlying Triassic oceanic basement in the eastern Coast Belt of southwestern British Columbia. The formation is subdivided into four members including, in ascending order, the Celia Cove Member (conglomerate), the Francis Lake Member (fine-grained strata), the Weaver Lake Member (flows and breccias), and the Echo Island Member (pyroclastic and epiclastic strata). New biostratigraphic constraints pinpoint the initiation of volcanism to late early Toarcian. U–Pb geochronology demonstrates the arc was active until at least late Bajocian–early Bathonian time (166.0 ± 0.4 Ma), and that the timing of arc volcanism strongly overlaps emplacement of both hypabyssal intrusions (Hemlock Valley stock) and deep-seated plutons (Mount Jasper pluton) within and adjacent to the arc. Geochemical data indicate the arc is of medium- to high-K calc-alkaline affinity, and is strongly light rare earth element enriched (LaN/YbN = 1.5 – 2.5). Nd and Sr isotopic data from primary volcanic rocks demonstrate the juvenile nature of the magmatic system, but isotopic data from associated fine-grained sedimentary rocks suggest temporally controlled variations in isotopic composition interpreted to represent two-component mixing between juvenile volcanic detritus and a more evolved detrital component. The succession of facies in the Harrison Lake Formation records initial basin subsidence in the Early Jurassic, initiation of explosive volcanism in the late early Toarcian, a change to effusive volcanism in the early Aalenian, and late-stage explosive volcanism in the late Bajocian. The Harrison Lake Formation contains mesoscopic folds and overturned bedding that are absent in the overlying Callovian Mysterious Creek Formation, strongly suggesting the existence of a regional Bathonian deformational event in the southern Coast Belt.


1985 ◽  
Vol 22 (9) ◽  
pp. 1262-1273 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. J. Lewis ◽  
A. M. Jessop ◽  
A. S. Judge

Measured heat fluxes from previously published data and 34 additional boreholes outline the terrestrial heat flow field in southern British Columbia. Combined with heat generation representative of the crust at 10 sites in the Intermontane and Omineca belts, the data define a heat flow province with a reduced heat flow of 63 mW m−2 and a depth scale of 10 km. Such a linear relationship is not found or expected in the Insular Belt and the western half of the Coast Plutonic Complex where low heat fluxes are interpreted to be the result of recent subduction. The apparent boundary between low and high heat flux is a transition over a distance of 20 km, located in Jervis Inlet 20–40 km seaward of the Pleistocene Garibaldi Volcanic Belt.The warm, thin crust of the Intermontane and Omenica Crystalline belts is similar to that of areas of the Basin and Range Province where the youngest volcanics are more than 17 Ma in age. Processes 50 Ma ago that completely heated the crust and upper mantle could theoretically produce such high heat fluxes by conductive cooling of the lithosphere. But it is more likely that the asthenosphere flows towards the subduction zone, bringing heat to the base of the lithosphere. Since the reduced heat flow is high but constant, large differences in upper crustal temperatures within this heat flow province at present are caused by large variations in both crustal heat generation and near-surface thermal conductivity. The sharp transition in heat flux near the coast is the result of the combined effects of convective heating of the eastern Coast Plutonic Complex, pronounced differential uplift and erosion across a boundary within the Coast Plutonic Complex, and the subducting oceanic plate.


1983 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. E. Howes

Materials from two glacial intervals and one nonglacial interval have been identified on northern Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The oldest Pleistocene unit, termed "older drift," consists of glaciomarine silt and clay >38 000 years BP in age that overlie a till that has only been recorded in well logs. "Older drift" is tentatively correlated with Dashwood drift of the Semiahmoo Glaciation (early Wisconsin or older). No sediments of the succeeding Olympia nonglacial interval (mid-Wisconsin) have been found in the area. It is thought that this interval was characterized by a period of degradation in which Olympia-age sediments were deposited in transient sedimentary environments and subsequently eroded, in part during the Fraser Glaciation (late Wisconsin). The youngest Pleistocene unit, termed Port McNeill drift, includes advance deposits, till, and deglacial sediments, all deposited during Fraser Glaciation. Ice of this glaciation did not cover most of northern Vancouver Island until after 20 600 ± 330 years BP. At the maximum, which probably occurred about 15 000 years ago, Coast Mountain ice coalesced with and overrode Vancouver Island ice, and flowed in a westerly to northwesterly direction across northern Vancouver Island. Deglaciation commenced prior to 12 930 ± 160 years BP and possibly as early as 13 630 years ago on the eastern coast. Maximum sea level during and immediately following deglaciation was about 92 and 20 m elevation on the east and west coasts, respectively. This suggests that ice thickness at the Fraser maximum decreased westward across the study area. Deposits of Recent time include colluvial sediments formed by weathering and mass movement processes, alluvial fan and floodplain deposits, eolian sands associated with active beaches on the west coast, and organic deposits.


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