scholarly journals Upper Triassic to Middle Jurassic biostratigraphic and facies studies in the Iskut River map area, northwestern British Columbia

1994 ◽  
Author(s):  
G K Jakobs ◽  
J Pálfy
1987 ◽  
Vol 24 (11) ◽  
pp. 2279-2291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret E. Rusmore

Several lower Mesozoic, fault-bounded units separate the Intermontane and Insular superterranes in southwestern British Columbia. Detailed study of one of these Mesozoic units, the Cadwallader Group, helps clarify the boundary between the superterranes and establish the tectonic evolution of southwestern British Columbia. The Cadwallader Group is the oldest unit in an Upper Triassic through Middle Jurassic volcanic and sedimentary tectono-stratigraphic terrane. Two formations, the Pioneer and the Hurley, compose the Cadwallader Group; the previously recognized Noel Formation is no longer considered valid. The Pioneer Formation contains pillow basalt, flows, and basalt breccia. Siltstone, sandstone, conglomerate, and minor amounts of limestone megabreccia and basalt belonging to the Hurley Formation conformably overlie the Pioneer. The Hurley spans latest Carnian or earliest Norian to middle Norian time. Two episodes of deformation affected the Cadwallader, and a thrust fault separates the group from slightly younger clastic rocks of the Tyaughton Group. Similarities in clastic rocks indicate the Tyaughton was deposited on the Cadwallader; together the units form the Cadwallader terrane. Basalts and clastic rocks in the terrane record deposition in or near a Carnian to earliest Norian volcanic arc. Volcanism waned later in the Norian, but presence of the arc is preserved in the clastic rocks.Oceanic rocks of the Middle Triassic to Middle Jurassic Bridge River terrane became juxtaposed with the Cadwallader terrane in Middle Jurassic time, after which the terranes functioned as a single tectonic block. Contrasting volcanic histories suggest that the Cadwallader terrane was not accreted to the Intermontane superterrane until Middle Jurassic or Early Cretaceous time, although the similar tectonic settings of Stikinia and the Cadwallader terrane allow a common earlier history. The Cadwallader terrane is not part of either the Alexander terrane or Wrangellia, and so the inboard margin of the Insular superterrane must lie west of the Cadwallader terrane.


1990 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 702-711 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul J. Umhoefer

The Upper Triassic to Middle Jurassic Cadwallader terrane lies on the northeastern edge of the Coast Plutonic Complex in southwestern British Columbia. Previous work on the Cadwallader Group, the basal unit of the terrane, suggested it was an Upper Triassic (Carnian to middle Norian) volcanic arc and related clastic rocks. Volcanism ceased in early Norian time. A detailed study of the upper part of the Cadwallader terrane (Tyaughton Group and overlying Last Creek formation) shows that it is a sedimentary sequence deposited on the fringe of the inactive Cadwallader magmatic arc. The Upper Triassic (middle to upper Norian) Tyaughton Group consists of nonmarine to shallow-marine clastic rocks and limestones that show sudden changes in depositional setting. The Lower to Middle Jurassic Last Creek formation, a transgressive sequence of clastic rocks, disconformably overlies the Tyaughton Group. The clastic rocks in the two units were derived from a mixed volcanic and plutonic source region that also included a minor metamorphic component and local lower Norian limestones. The stratigraphy of the upper part of the Cadwallader terrane records long-term thermal subsidence of the basin caused by cooling of the magmatic arc after volcanism ceased in the early Norian. The detailed stratigraphy of the upper Cadwallader terrane supports correlation of the Cadwallader with the Stikine terrane, along which it is currently structurally juxtaposed.


1965 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
pp. 442-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Carlisle ◽  
Takeo Susuki

The highly deformed section at Open Bay is one of the few good exposures of a thick sedimentary unit within the prebatholithic rocks along coastal British Columbia. It provides new structural information relating to emplacement of a part of the Coast Range batholith and it contains an important Upper Triassic fauna unusually well represented. Structural and paleontological analyses are mutually supporting and are purposely combined in one paper.Thirteen ammonite genera from 14 localities clearly substantiate McLearn's tentative assignment to the Tropites subbullatus zone (Upper Karnian) and suggest a restriction to the T. dilleri subzone as defined in northern California.Contrary to an earlier view, the beds are lithologically similar across the whole bay except for variations in the intensity of deformation and thermal alteration. Their contact with slightly older relatively undeformed flows is apparently a zone of dislocation. Stratigraphic thicknesses cannot be measured with confidence, and subdivision into "Marble Bay Formation" and "Open Bay Group" cannot be accepted. Open Bay Formation is redefined to include all the folded marble and interbedded pillow lava at Open Bay. Lithologic and biostratigraphic correlation is suggested with the lower middle part of the Quatsino Formation on Iron River, 24 miles to the southwest. Basalt flows and pillowed volcanics west of Open Bay are correlated with the Texada Formation within the Karmutsen Group.The predominant folding is shown to precede, accompany, and follow intrusion of numerous andesitic pods and to precede emplacement of quartz diorite of the batholith. Structural asymmetry is shown to have originated through gentle cross-folding and emplacement of minor intrusives during deformation.


1992 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Beaudoin ◽  
J. C. Roddick ◽  
D. F. Sangster

The Ag–Pb–Zn–Au vein and replacement deposits of the Kokanee Range, southeastern British Columbia, are hosted by the Middle Jurassic Nelson batholith and surrounding Cambrian to Triassic metasedimentary rocks in the hanging wall of the transcrustal Slocan Lake Fault, Field relations indicate that mineralization is younger than the Nelson batholith and a Middle Jurassic foliation in the Ainsworth area but coeval or older than Eocene unroofing of the Valhalla metamorphic core complex in the footwall of the Slocan Lake Fault. Lamprophyre and gabbro dykes are broadly coeval with mineralization and have biotite and hornblende K–Ar ages defining a short-lived Middle Eocene alkaline magmatic event between 52 and 40 Ma. An older, Early Cretaceous alkaline magmatic event (141 – 129 Ma) is possible but incompletely documented.K–Ar and step-heating 40Ar/39Ar analyses on hydrothermal vein and alteration muscovite indicate that hydrothermal fluids were precipitating vein and replacement deposits 58–59 Ma ago. Crosscutting relationships with lamprophyre dykes indicate the Kokanee Range hydrothermal system lasted for more than 15 Ma. Eocene crustal extension resulted in a high heat flow and structures which were probably responsible for hydrothermal fluid movement and flow paths.A 100 Ma time interval is documented between batholith emplacement and spatially associated mineralization, ruling out any genetic link between the two. Similar large age differences between granite intrusion and peripheral mineralization have recently been documented for two world-sea le Ag–Pb–Zn vein districts, which suggest that spatial association between granite and Ag–Pb–Zn mineralization is not sufficient to infer a genetic link.


1977 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 2578-2592 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. W. Hillhouse

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.


2010 ◽  
Vol 297 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 609-620 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rowan C. Martindale ◽  
John-Paul Zonneveld ◽  
David J. Bottjer

1969 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 399-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. C. Findlay

The Tulameen Complex is a composite ultramafic-gabbroic intrusion that outcrops over 22 sq. mi. (57 km2) in the Southern Cordillera of British Columbia. The complex intruded Upper Triassic metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks of the Nicola Group, and on the basis of geologic relations and a K–Ar age determination (186 m.y.) is tentatively dated as Late Triassic.The principal ultramafic units — dunite, olivine clinopyroxenite, and hornblende clinopyroxenite — form an elongate, non-stratiform body whose irregular internal structure is best explained by deformation contemporaneous with crystallization of the rocks. The derivation of the ultramafic rocks is attributed to fractional crystallization of an ultrabasic magma. The gabbroic mass, which consists of syenogabbro and syenodiorite, partly borders and partly overlies the ultramafic body and was apparently intruded by it.The ultramafic and gabbroic parts of the complex probably formed from separate intrusions of different magmas, but the two suites have sufficient mineralogical and chemical features in common to indicate an ultimate petrogenic affinity of the magmas. Comparison of the Tulameen rocks with nearby intrusions of the same general age, in particular the Copper Mountain stock, suggests that they are members of a regional suite of alkalic intrusions. The possibility is also raised that these intrusions may be comagmatic with the Nicola volcanic rocks.


1991 ◽  
Vol 28 (10) ◽  
pp. 1553-1560 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. McGowan

New ichthyosaur material is reported from an Upper Triassic locality on Williston Lake, northeastern British Columbia. The paucity of ichthyosaurs from the Triassic of North America make this a potentially important site. An isolated forefin is described, which is unlike that of any Triassic species from North America but which compares closely with certain Lower Jurassic species from England and Germany. The new material suggests that the transition in the ichthyosaurian fauna at the close of the Triassic may have been less abrupt than was previously supposed.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document