Structural relations at the eastern margin of the Shuswap Complex, near Revelstoke, southeastern British Columbia

1968 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 831-849 ◽  
Author(s):  
John V. Ross

Three major phases of folding affected rocks of Late Proterozoic and Early Paleozoic age and members long assigned to the Shuswap Complex of southeastern British Columbia. The main and first phase of folding produced a large recumbent anticline, having a northerly trend, overturned to the east, that contains an exotic wedge of granite-gneiss within its core. This gneiss was mechanically emplaced into the Late Proterozoic and Early Paleozoic sediments, and already had a metamorphic and deformational history prior to its emplacement. Its age is possible Hudsonian equivalent. Metamorphism during this recumbent phase of folding was greenschist facies.Phase 2 folding was accompanied by amphibolite facies metamorphism, and caused refolding of the earlier composite recumbent anticline into open folds along southeasterly axes.A third and final phase of folding, associated with waning metamorphism, gave rise to folds along southeasterly striking axial-planes that dip steeply to the northeast. Thus, phase three folds caused tightening-up of the previously formed folds.The absolute age of these deformations is not yet known, but the Shuswap Complex, at its eastern margin, is shown to include Paleozoic rocks and some older gneisses, possibly of Hudsonian age.

1968 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 851-872 ◽  
Author(s):  
John V. Ross ◽  
P. Kellerhals

The Slocan Syncline, located in the center of the Kootenay Arc, south-central British Columbia, is outlined in its core by deformed Triassic sediments—the Slocan Group. These deformed sediments were originally deposited unconformably into a synform developed on the upward-facing limb of a recumbent, eastward-closing anticline, comprising Paleozoic and older rocks.The first phase of deformation resulted in the development of a recumbent anticline closing to the east. This anticline involved a sequence of rocks ranging in age from Windermere (late Precambrian—Horsethief Creek Group) up to Permian (Milford Group) and was originally developed along almost horizontal axes contained in an axial-plane having a shallow westerly dip. The core of this anticline contains granite gneiss, having a history pre-dating the deposition of the Horsethief Creek Group, which is in imbricate relation with the gneiss.Later, phase 2 deformation refolded this recumbent anticline into a synform and a westerly complementary antiform along shallow southeasterly axes contained within axial planes dipping southwesterly at about 45 degrees. Amphibolite-facies metamorphism (the "Shuswap Metamorphism") accompanied these phases of deformation and culminated in phase 2 time. Phase 1 and phase 2 deformation and metamorphism ate dated at post-Milford Group (Permian) and pre-Slocan Group (Triassic).Slocan Group (Triassic) sediments were deposited into the phase 2 synform, whose limbs consist of variable older rocks. A later non-metamorphic deformation, phase 3, along southeasterly striking axial planes dipping steeply to the northeast tightened the earlier phase 1 anticline and the phase 2 synform, and produced the Slocan Syncline. The Triassic sediments exhibit only phase 3 structures and are cut by the Nelson batholith dated at 171 × 106 years (Early Jurassic). Phase 3 deformation is then dated at post-Triassic and pre-Early Jurassic.Structural and stratigraphic evidence suggests that the phase 1 recumbent anticline herein described is but one of a set of nappes disposed structurally above and below the one presently described, and that the Kootenay Arc is an old structure perhaps resulting from interference of phase 1 and phase 2 deformations.


1972 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 1693-1702
Author(s):  
John V. Ross ◽  
William C. Barnes

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.


1991 ◽  
Vol 28 (8) ◽  
pp. 1202-1216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael R. McDonough ◽  
Randall R. Parrish

Proterozoic gneisses of the Malton Complex in the vicinity of Valemount, British Columbia, occur in a series of lithologically and structurally complex, fault-bounded slices of crystalline basement and interleaved cover. Gneisses of the Malton Complex span the Southern Rocky Mountain Trench and underlie the western part of the Rocky Mountain fold and thrust belt and the eastern part of the Omineca Belt of the Canadian Cordillera. Structural and stratigraphic relationships indicate that they formed the basement upon which an enigmatic quartzite unit and the Late Proterozoic Windermere Supergroup were deposited.The Yellowjacket and Bulldog gneisses, on the east side of the Rocky Mountain Trench, have yielded four U–Pb zircon crystallization ages of ca. 1870 Ma, with εNd(T) values of −2.6 to −3.4. The Hugh Allan gneiss, also on the east side of the trench but separated from the Yellowjacket gneiss by a major thrust fault, includes leucocratic granite gneiss having a zircon U–Pb age of [Formula: see text], which has intruded an older (undated) lithologically heterogeneous assemblage of gneiss. The basal Windermere succession of the Valemount region is inferred to be younger than ca. 740 Ma, since these intrusions are not found within the Late Proterozoic stratified rocks.Augen granitoid orthogneiss of the Malton Range on the west side of the Rocky Mountain Trench has been dated as [Formula: see text] using zircons. A second sample yields data suggesting an age between 2050 and 2100 Ma, but its interpretation is uncertain because of scatter in analyses and possible zircon inheritance. The latter sample has an εNd(T) at 1990 Ma of −2.6. Nd model ages for the Malton, Yellowjacket, and Bulldog samples range from 2.45 to 2.56 Ga, indicating that the igneous protoliths were derived from a source that probably had some component of Archean crustal material involved.The U–Pb ages and Nd model ages are quite similar to those of rocks underlying portions of Alberta and the western Canadian Shield, specifically the Fort Simpson terrane, the Great Bear magmatic zone, and parts of the Thelon–Taltson arc. This evidence, as well as structural and stratigraphic arguments, links the Malton Complex gneisses with those of the Canadian Shield, precluding their derivation by large-magnitude displacements from the southwestern United States. Structural analysis indicates that they restore to locations 100–200 km southwest of their present exposure.Structural, stratigraphic, and isotopic data indicate that the Southern Rocky Mountain Trench is not a suture.


1988 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Devlin ◽  
Gerard C. Bond

The uppermost Proterozoic–Lower Cambrian Hamill Group of southeastern British Columbia contains geologic evidence for a phase of extensional tectonism that led directly to the onset of thermally controlled subsidence in the Cordilleran miogeocline. Moreover, the Hamill Group contains the sedimentological record of the passage of the ancient passive margin from unstable tectonic conditions associated with rifting and (or) the earliest phases of thermal subsidence to post-rift conditions characterized by stabilization of the margin and dissipation of the thermal anomaly generated during the rift phase (the rift to post-rift transition). Widespread uplift that occurred prior to and during the deposition of the lower Hamill Group is indicated by an unconformable relation with the underlying Windermere Supergroup and by stratigraphic relations between Middle and Upper Proterozoic strata and unconformably overlying upper Lower Cambrian quartz arenites (upper Hamill Group) in the southern borderlands of the Hamill basin. In addition, the coarse grain size, the feldspar content, the depositional setting, and the inferred provenance of the lower Hamill Group are all indicative of the activation of basement sources along the margins of the Hamill basin. Geologic relations within the Hamill Group that provide direct evidence for extensional tectonism include the occurrence of thick sequences of mafic metavolcanics and rapid vertical facies changes that are suggestive of syndepositional tectonism.Evidence of extensional tectonism in the Hamill Group directly supports inferences derived from tectonic subsidence analyses that indicate the rift phase that immediately preceded early Paleozoic post-rift cooling could not have occurred more than 10–20 Ma prior to 575 ± 25 Ma. These data, together with recently reported isotopic data that suggest deposition of the Windermere Supergroup began ~730–770 Ma, indicate that the rift-like deposits of the Windermere Supergroup are too old to represent the rifting that led directly to the deposition of the Cambro-Ordovician post-rift strata. Instead, Windermere sedimentation was apparently initiated by an earlier rift event, probably of regional extent, that was part of a protracted, episodic rift history that culminated with continental breakup in the latest Proterozoic – Early Cambrian.


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