Bulletin 104: 
Geology of the Forrest Kerr-Mess Creek Area,
Northwestern British Columbia, NTS 104B/10, 15 & 104G/2 & 7W

By James M. Logan, P.Geo., John R. Drobe and William C. McClelland

With contributions by: W.E. Bamber, Geological Survey of Canada; M.J. Orchard, Geological Survey of Canada; B.L. Mamet, University of Montreal; F. Cordey, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1

Table of Contents

Cover, Summary, Table of Contents, Chapter One: Introduction and Regional Geology
(PDF document, 5.2 Mb)
Chapter Two: Stratigraphy
(PDF document, 15.3 Mb)
Chapter Three: Intrusive Rocks  
(PDF document, 5.8 Mb)
Chapter Four: Structure  
(PDF document, 3.7 Mb)
Chapter Five: Economic Geology  
(PDF document, 3.6 Mb)
References  
(PDF document, 93 Kb)
Appendices  
(PDF document, 369 Kb)

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At this latitude Stikinia consists of well stratified, middle Paleozoic to Mesozoic sedimentary rocks and volcanic and comagmatic plutonic rocks of island-arc affinity which include: the Early Devonian to Permian Paleozoic Stikine assemblage, the Late Triassic Stuhini Group and the Early Jurassic Hazelton Group. These are overlapped by Middle Jurassic to early Tertiary successor-basin sediments of the Bowser Lake and Sustut Groups, Late Cretaceous to Tertiary continental volcanic rocks of the Sloko Group, and Late Tertiary to Recent bimodal shield volcanism of the Edziza and Spectrum ranges.

Warm-spring, tufa deposits forming in the Mess Creek valley attest to areas of dynamic geological evolution in modern day.

Polyphase deformation affects rocks that are older than Late Cretaceous, and crustal scale faults affect rocks in the area as young as Tertiary. Early and middle Devonian rocks within the map area have been subjected to up to four phases of folding and deformation. Mid-Carboniferous to Early Permian rocks record as few as two phases of deformation, whereas the Late Triassic and Jurassic strata record no more than two phases of deformation and record a regionally important post-Norian unconformity. Mid-Devonian, northeast-verging D1 structures correspond to a northern Cordilleran-wide event correlative with the Antler Orogeny of the southwest United States and Ellesmerian Orogeny in the arctic. Pre-Norian, Permo-Triassic (Tahltanian Orogeny) D2 deformation was accompanied by upper greenschist facies metamorphism. Early Jurassic, D3 (circa 185 Ma) deformation broadly warped and folded the rocks into upright, open structures. Late Jurassic to Tertiary contraction (D4) produced northeast-verging structures related to development of the Skeena Fold and Thrust Belt. The youngest structures record east-west extension and northerly translation, thought to post date the Eocene.