Tectonic setting of Mesozoic gold deposits in the Canadian Cordillera

Author(s):  
William J. McMillan ◽  
Andrejs Panteleyev
Geology ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 472 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. E. Nesbitt ◽  
K. Muehlenbachs ◽  
J. B. Murowchick

2001 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jochen E Mezger ◽  
Robert A Creaser ◽  
Philippe Erdmer ◽  
Stephen T Johnston

The Coast Belt of the northern Cordillera in Canada is the locus of the boundary between accreted and ancient North American margin rocks. The largest exposure of metasedimentary rocks in the Coast Belt is the Kluane metamorphic assemblage (KMA), a northwest-striking belt 160 km long of graphitic mica–quartz schist and gneiss with minor interfoliated olivine serpentinite. The KMA does not appear to correlate with other sedimentary or metamorphic rock assemblages in the Canadian Cordillera. To determine its tectonic setting and protolith provenance, we analyzed trace element, rare earth elements, and neodymium isotope compositions of the KMA, of the adjacent pericratonic Aishihik metamorphic suite (AMS) of the Yukon–Tanana terrane, and of adjacent slates of the Dezadeash Formation (DF), filling a Late Jurassic – Early Cretaceous flysch basin. The εNd(0) values of analyzed KMA samples range from –1.4 to –5.6 and depleted mantle model ages (TDM) range from 1.16 to 1.45 Ga. KMA samples are intermediate between more evolved AMS samples (average εNd(0) –25, TDM = 2.6 Ga) and more juvenile DF samples (εNd(0) = +1.9, TDM = 0.95 Ga). The intermediate characteristics of the KMA samples cannot be linked to a known source region and are interpreted to reflect homogeneous mixing from predominantly juvenile and minor evolved sedimentary sources. A compatible tectonic setting is a back-arc basin within influence of a continental source. Eastward subduction of the KMA beneath ancient North America collapsed the back-arc basin by latest Cretaceous time.


1993 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan D. Smith

Volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits at Anyox in the Tracy Arm terrane of the Canadian Cordillera are associated with a sequence of tholeiitic basalts with minor intercalated basaltic andesite tuffs and siliceous sediments. Sm–Nd and Pb–Pb systematics indicate an Early to Middle Jurassic age. The tholeiites are characterized by normal mid-ocean-ridge basalt to weak island-arc tholeiite trace element signatures with slight enrichment in large-ion lithophile elements and depletion in high-field-strength elements, high 207Pb/204Pb, and εNd(170 Ma) values of +8.2 to +8.4. The mineralized sequence is conformably overlain by argillaceous sediments and minor limestones. These features, combined with the location of the strata and similarities with the Spider Peak Formation of the Methow terrane, indicate an origin in a narrowing marginal basin that once separated superterranes I and II.


2005 ◽  
Vol 26 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 137-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laicheng Miao ◽  
Yumin Qiu ◽  
Weiming Fan ◽  
Fuqin Zhang ◽  
Mingguo Zhai

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