The Tummel fault zone, a northwest-trending belt of rocks of uncertain age and/or tectonic affinity, separates Paleozoic miogeoclinal strata of Cassiar Terrane from Yukon-Tanana Terrane metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks. Northeast of the fault, Cassiar Terrane comprises pelitic and semipelitic rocks with rare amphibolite, which are correlated with the Kechika Group. These are overlain by carbonate correlated with the Askin Group. Southwest of the fault, in Yukon-Tanana Terrane, Devono-Mississippian siliciclastic rocks are overlain by Mississippian arc volcanic rocks. Granodiorite and diorite of the Telegraph Plutonic Suite (348-350 Ma) intrude the siliciclastic rocks. Foliated greenstone, leucogabbro intrusions, serpentinite and chert occur in the Tummel fault zone. The Early Cretaceous Glenlyon Batholith intrudes strata of Cassiar Terrane. Contact metamorphism recognized across the Tummel fault zone is interpreted to have been imposed by the Glenlyon Batholith. If correct, this interpretation requires that post-mid-Cretaceous displacement across the Tummel fault zone has been minimal (~5 km).

Yukon-Tanana Terrane in Little Kalzas Lake area consists of a lower quartzite package and an upper metavolcanic package. The lower quartzite package includes a discontinuous metavolcaniclastic and mafic metavolcanic unit. The upper metavolcanic package consists predominantly of intermediate to felsic metavolcanic rocks in the northern part of the map area. These rocks pass southward into a clastic-dominated metavolcanic assemblage. A conspicuous crinoidal marble occurs in the middle of the upper metavolcanic package and can be traced between the northern and southern domains. The layered metamorphic rocks are intruded by the multi-phase Little Kalzas orthogneiss complex in the northeastern part of the map area along the southwestern side of Tintina Trench. The Little Kalzas orthogneiss complex, of uncertain age, comprises granodioritic to granitic gneiss and contains abundant xenoliths of country rock. Younger (Jurassic?), post-kinematic quartz monzonite (in the north) to quartz-diorite (in the south) plutons also intrude the area. The youngest intrusive rocks are small plugs of Tertiary quartz-feldspar porphyry. A pervasive transposition foliation and mineral lineation are developed throughout the area, except in local low-strain domains where primary textures are preserved. The transposition foliation is axial-planar to tight south southwest-vergent folds whose axial surfaces become progressively upright to south southwest-dipping toward the northeast. These structures are deformed by younger crenulation cleavages and associated open folds.

Between the Cretaceous granitic rocks (Hake Batholith on the west; Cassiar Batholith to the east) are three belts of metamorphic rocks, collectively part of Yukon-Tanana terrane. These are remnants of oceanic and continental volcanic arcs, and marginal basin sediments of Early to mid-Paleozoic age. At the head of Borden Creek are thick carbonate and andesitic volcanic rocks correlated with Klinkit Group. The Ram Creek fault and Hidden Lake fault are not exposed but deduced to be steeply dipping brittle structures with northeastward thrust or transpressional offset, based upon more complete exposure to the southeast in 105B/3 map area. The former is likely of Cretaceous age; the latter was active between mid-Permian and Early Jurassic time.

Geological mapping of Yukon-Tanana Terrane in Little Salmon Range has outlined a coherent stratigraphic succession in rocks that were previously described as strongly foliated and lineated mylonitic tectonites. The widespread occurrence of primary sedimentary and volcanic textures and the lateral continuity of the units are incompatible with the previous interpretation of the area. A laterally continuous volcanic arc sequence occupies the core of a broad synclinorium and rests unconformably on disparate clastic units to the east and west. The volcanic sequence is structurally overlain by an allochthonous sheet of distal turbidites. The occurrence of massive sulphide and exhalite within the volcanic sequence attests to the high mineral potential of this largely unexplored region.

Lower Paleozoic miogeoclinal calcareous rocks of the Cassiar Terrane are intruded by the Early Cretaceous Glenlyon Batholith. Garnet-biotite and garnet-muscovite-biotite-aluminum silicatequartz geothermobarometry on the intrusive wall rocks indicate metamorphism to lower amphibolite facies at temperatures of approximately 700°C and pressures of approximately 3 kbar. Progressive deformation, indicated by porphyroblast-matrix relationships, are interpreted to be a result of minor displacements of the country rock associated with and facilitated by intrusion of the Glenlyon Batholith, followed by static heating. Isolated skarn units exist along contacts between the batholith and its wall rocks. A skarn unit is also present along a nearby north-northeast-trending dextral strike-slip fault that predates and is intruded by the batholith.

The Yukon-Tanana Terrane (YTT) is a terrane of pericratonic affinity which occupies an intermediate position between continental margin rocks of Ancestral North America (Cassiar Terrane, Selwyn Basin) to the east and arc and oceanic terranes accreted in Mesozoic time to the west (Quesnellia, Stikinia and Cache Creek). It consists of polydeformed and metamorphosed Paleozoic metasedimentary and meta-igneous rocks which have isotopic and provenance ties to Archean and Proterozoic cratonic source regions, comparable to those of sedimentary strata from northwestern Canada, but whose paleogeographic evolution with respect to the Laurentian craton is enigmatic. The YTT is host to significant base metal occurrences, including the Wolverine and Kudz Ze Kayah deposits in the Finlayson Lake district, in the part of the terrane which lies northeast of Tintina Fault.

for a copy of this paper please contact the Yukon Geological Survey; geology@gov.yk.ca.

for a copy of this paper please contact the Yukon Geological Survey; geology@gov.yk.ca.

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