Surficial geological mapping in the central Kluane Ranges was undertaken to better understand the distribution and character of surficial materials. Upland surficial materials in the area are dominated by near-source bedrock derivatives. Valley bottom settings, including Shakwak trench and Duke River valley, are characterized by broad open valleys with thick deposits of Quaternary sediment. Permafrost is discontinuous in the study area and its character is affected by slope and aspect, topography and material texture. Mass wasting processes in the study area include rock fall and avalanches, debris flows and avalanches and active layer detachment slides. The distribution and character of surficial materials has significance for soil geochemical sampling programs and infrastructure and implications for mineral exploration and developments are addressed.

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The Kluane Ranges, located in southwest Yukon, are underlain by Late Paleozoic to Late Triassic volcanic and sedimentary rocks assigned to Wrangellia. Bedrock mapping completed within the White River area indicates Wrangellian rocks underwent several phases of deformation between Late Triassic and Miocene time. Middle Triassic marine, fine-grained sedimentary rocks are preserved in grabens where they are overlain by basal conglomerates and breccias of the Nikolai formation. The grabens are related to uplift associated with the deposition of Nikolai formation flood basalts and intrusion of ultramafic bodies. Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous compression resulted in structural stacking of older rocks and northeast- and southwest-verging overturned folds. Latest (?) Cretaceous to Miocene dextral strike-slip along the Denali fault system led to the formation of steeply dipping faults, extensional and compressional basins and refolding of older regional scale folds. Reactivation of Jura-Cretaceous faults also occurred at this time. An enigmatic pre-Middle Triassic deformation event is believed to be preserved locally in rocks of the Hasen Creek Formation.

Geological map (1:50,000 scale) of the West Klondike area, central Yukon (NTS 115O/14,15 and 116B/2,3) including marginal notes on mineral occurrences.

Quaternary geology investigations in the Coal River map sheet (NTS 95D) during the 2009 field season focused on characterizing surficial materials and their distributions, with attention to the eastern half of the map sheet which has not been previously mapped. Moraine deposits are relatively thin in valley bottoms (<2 m) and become thinner and more intensely colluviated on upland surfaces. Streamlined glacial landforms and till plains are pronounced in the southern half of the map sheet. Surficial deposits are limited in many east-trending meltwater canyons, and in the northeastern corner of the map sheet. The map area was glaciated most recently by the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, which advanced from the south and west. Meltwater from montane glaciers and the Laurentide Ice Sheet in adjacent map sheets likely contributed to extensive glaciolacustrine, glaciofluvial and glaciodeltaic deposits in north-trending valleys that were dammed by the Cordilleran Ice Sheet.

Geological map (1:50,000 scale) of the East Klondike area, central Yukon (NTS 115O/9,10,11,14,15,16 and 116B/2) including marginal notes on geologic history, economic geology and mineral occurrences.

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The NTS 106B/04 map area straddles the upper reaches of the Stewart River in east-central Yukon. The area north of the Stewart River is underlain by Ediacaran clastic and carbonate continental slope deposits of the uppermost Windermere Supergroup, and by Ediacaran-Cambrian rocks of the Hyland Group (Selwyn basin). The area south of the Stewart River is dominated by the Cambrian Gull Lake Formation and Cambrian (-Silurian?) volcanic rocks of the Old Cabin Formation. The main structures in 106B/04 define an arcuate pattern; they are oriented NW-SE in most of the area, but are approximately E-W in the westernmost part of the map area. These structures include upright, gently-plunging folds and steeply-dipping, axial-planar cleavage. Folding was locally accompanied by thrusting. Late structures include a steeply-dipping sinistral fault that transects the central part of the map area and a number of NW-WNW-striking normal (± dextral) faults. Stratigraphic relationships suggest correlation of the upper Yusezyu, Algae, and Narchilla formations of the Hyland Group (Selwyn basin) with the upper Blueflower, Risky, and Ingta formations of the Windermere Supergroup (Ogilvie and Mackenzie platforms). Gold mineralization has recently been discovered in the Algae Formation, which has also been explored for Mississippi Valley-type lead-zinc-silver mineralization elsewhere in the area.

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