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Nd isotopic data are reported for 52 samples from the crustal region between the Alexander‐Wrangellia terrane and the Stikine terrane of the Alaskan and Canadian Cordillera. This region is composed of the Gravina belt, a Jurassic‐Cretaceous assemblage of volcanic and clastic sedimentary rocks, the Taku terrane, a terrane of probable Early Permian to Late Triassic age, and four assemblages of metamorphic rocks that occur to the west of and within the Coast Mountains batholith. The Gravina belt has εNd(T) values that range from −1.1 to +8.3, similar to values of the underlying Alexander terrane, and consistent with the interpretation that it is a juvenile belt that formed in a back‐arc or intra‐arc basin within the Alexander terrane. Mid‐Cretaceous plutons that were emplaced into the Gravina belt have εNd(T) values of +4.4 to +5.7 and were probably produced by mantle‐derived melts that incorporated some Alexander terrane crust. The Taku terrane has εNd(0) values that range from −5.5 to +3.3, with corresponding depleted‐mantle model (TDM) ages of 440 to 1430 Ma. A mid‐Cretaceous pluton intruding the Taku terrane has an εNd(T) value of +5.1, a value indistinguishable from those determined for Cretaceous plutons intruding the Gravina belt. Metamorphic rocks east of and structurally overlying the Taku terrane are divided into the Tracy Arm assemblage, εNd(0)=−26 to 0, TDM=800–2450 Ma; the Endicott Arm assemblage, eNd(0)=−10 to −1.3, TDM=950–1500 Ma; the Port Houghton assemblage, εNd(0)=−9.4 to +1.1, TDM = 550–1500 Ma; and the Ruth assemblage, εNd(0) = −9.4 to +2.0, TDM=650–1300 Ma. These isotopic signatures indicate that a substantial component of each metamorphic assemblage was derived from Precambrian continental crust. The metamorphic rocks from these assemblages are lithologically very similar to rocks of the Yukon‐Tanana (YTT) terrane of eastern Alaska and Yukon Territory and have such similar U‐Pb detrital zircon ages and Nd isotopic compositions to YTT rocks that they are considered part of that terrane. Possible tectonic scenarios that can explain the present geometry of the YTT with respect to the Alexander‐Wrangellia and Stikine terranes include: (1) The YTT is the upturned stratigraphic basement of the Stikine terrane, (2) part of the YTT was structurally emplaced beside the Stikine terrane in a transpressive tectonic regime, (3) the Stikine terrane and other inboard terranes are huge sheets that were thrust over the margin of the YTT before the final accretion of the Alexander‐Wrangellia terrane.
Nd isotopic data are reported for 52 samples from the crustal region between the Alexander‐Wrangellia terrane and the Stikine terrane of the Alaskan and Canadian Cordillera. This region is composed of the Gravina belt, a Jurassic‐Cretaceous assemblage of volcanic and clastic sedimentary rocks, the Taku terrane, a terrane of probable Early Permian to Late Triassic age, and four assemblages of metamorphic rocks that occur to the west of and within the Coast Mountains batholith. The Gravina belt has εNd(T) values that range from −1.1 to +8.3, similar to values of the underlying Alexander terrane, and consistent with the interpretation that it is a juvenile belt that formed in a back‐arc or intra‐arc basin within the Alexander terrane. Mid‐Cretaceous plutons that were emplaced into the Gravina belt have εNd(T) values of +4.4 to +5.7 and were probably produced by mantle‐derived melts that incorporated some Alexander terrane crust. The Taku terrane has εNd(0) values that range from −5.5 to +3.3, with corresponding depleted‐mantle model (TDM) ages of 440 to 1430 Ma. A mid‐Cretaceous pluton intruding the Taku terrane has an εNd(T) value of +5.1, a value indistinguishable from those determined for Cretaceous plutons intruding the Gravina belt. Metamorphic rocks east of and structurally overlying the Taku terrane are divided into the Tracy Arm assemblage, εNd(0)=−26 to 0, TDM=800–2450 Ma; the Endicott Arm assemblage, eNd(0)=−10 to −1.3, TDM=950–1500 Ma; the Port Houghton assemblage, εNd(0)=−9.4 to +1.1, TDM = 550–1500 Ma; and the Ruth assemblage, εNd(0) = −9.4 to +2.0, TDM=650–1300 Ma. These isotopic signatures indicate that a substantial component of each metamorphic assemblage was derived from Precambrian continental crust. The metamorphic rocks from these assemblages are lithologically very similar to rocks of the Yukon‐Tanana (YTT) terrane of eastern Alaska and Yukon Territory and have such similar U‐Pb detrital zircon ages and Nd isotopic compositions to YTT rocks that they are considered part of that terrane. Possible tectonic scenarios that can explain the present geometry of the YTT with respect to the Alexander‐Wrangellia and Stikine terranes include: (1) The YTT is the upturned stratigraphic basement of the Stikine terrane, (2) part of the YTT was structurally emplaced beside the Stikine terrane in a transpressive tectonic regime, (3) the Stikine terrane and other inboard terranes are huge sheets that were thrust over the margin of the YTT before the final accretion of the Alexander‐Wrangellia terrane.
Exotic and far-traveled oceanic crustal rocks of the Cache Creek terrane (CC) are bordered by less exotic Quesnel (QN) and Stikine (ST) arc terranes to the east, north, and west. All of these terranes are enveloped by an arcuate belt of displaced continental margin rocks; the Kootenay (KO), Nisling (NS), and parts of the Yukon-Tanana (YTT) terranes, that have indirect ties to ancestral North America (NA). Initial 87Sr/86Sr isopleths conform to this arcuate pattern. Such a pattern of concentric belts presents a geological comlndrum: How did the QN, ST, and CC come to be virtually enveloped by terranes with ties to NA? Past and current models that explain assembly of the Canadian Cordillera are deficient in their treatment of this problem. We propose that Early Mesozoic QN and ST were joined through their northern ends as two adjacent arc festoons that faced south toward the Cache Creek ocean (Panthalassa?). Oceanic plateau remnants within the CC today were transported from the Tethyan realm and collided with these arcs during subduction of the Cache Creek ocean. Counterclockwise oroclinal rotation of ST and NS terranes in the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic caused enclosure of the CC. Rotation continued until these terranes collided with QN in the Middle Jurassic. Paleomagnetic declination data provide support for this model in the form of large average anticlockwise rotations for Permian to Early Jurassic sites in ST but moderate clockwise rotations for sites in QN. Specific modem analogues for the Cordilleran orocline include the Yap trench, where the Caroline rise is colliding end-on with the Mariana Arc and the Banda Arc, located on the southeastern "tail" of the Asian plate, which is being deformed into a tight loop by interactions with the Australian and Pacific plates.
Fragments of upper Paleozoic and lower Mesozoic metavolcanic and metasedimentary sequences of the Taku terrane are exposed discontinuously along a narrow belt in southeast Alaska and form a distinct lithostratigraphic package in the Ketchikan area called the Alava sequence. Crinoidal and argillaceous marble, carbonaceous phyllite, argillite, mafic flows, pillow breccia, pyroclastic tuff, and quartzite characterize the sequence. These strata are unconformably overlain by Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous fine- to coarse-grained epiclastic rocks of the Gravina sequence. The upper Paleozoic part of the Alava sequence may be correlative with the Yukon–Tanana terrane, whereas the Middle and Upper Triassic portion of the Alava sequence may represent a metamorphic vestige of the Stikine terrane. Both parts are now exposed on the western flank of the Coast Plutonic Complex, in contrast with their correlatives to the east. These relations suggest that the Stikine and Alexander terranes were juxtaposed prior to deposition of the Gravina sequence. The western boundary between rocks of North American affinity and allochthonous ensimatic crustal fragments of the Alexander and Wrangellian terranes lies west of the Coast Plutonic Complex.
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