Published in

American Geophysical Union, Tectonics, 1(26), p. n/a-n/a, 2007

DOI: 10.1029/2006tc001950

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Crustal architecture of SW Yukon, northern Cordillera: Implications for crustal growth in a convergent margin orogen

Journal article published in 2007 by Stephen T. Johnston ORCID, Dante Canil
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Orange circle
Published version: archiving restricted
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

A structural analysis of southwest Yukon based on mapping and the compilation of structural data is used to determine if convergent margin orogenesis has contributed to westward growth of North America. The crust of SW Yukon is tilted regionally to the ESE, exposing a >20 km section of crust. A down-plunge profile is used to determine the geometry and evolution of the crust. Four lithotectonic packages are recognized. These are, from east to west, (1) the Triassic-Jurassic Whitehorse Trough assemblage of arc and arc-derived volcanic and sedimentary rocks, (2) the Devonian-Mississippian continental Aishihik metamorphic assemblage, (3) the Jurassic-Cretaceous metapelitic Kluane metamorphic assemblage, and (4) the Jurassic-Cretaceous Dezadeash Group of arc-marginal graywackes. The Early Jurassic Aishihik and Tertiary Coast plutonic suites are major synkinematic tabular intrusive complexes that facilitated crustal growth by subcretion of the Aishihik metamorphic assemblage beneath the Whitehorse Trough and the Kluane metamorphic assemblage and Dezadeash Group beneath Aishihik metamorphic assemblage and overlying strata, respectively. Early Jurassic crustal growth gave rise to a crust that became older and more radiogenic at depth; Tertiary growth gave rise to a crust that became younger and less radiogeneic at depth. Crustal growth by subcretion necessarily involved the removal of the lower crust and mantle of the upper plate. The lithotectonic assemblages and the tabular intrusive complexes along which they were assembled are identifiable in the seismic reflection data along Slave Northern Cordillera Lithosphere Evolution Project (SNORCLE) line 3 and are broadly imaged by a regional electromagnetic (EM) survey. The ACCRETE program to the south has documented a comparable and directly correlative crustal geometry across the Great Tonalite Sill. Our findings are inconsistent with crustal growth models of tectonic flakes being emplaced onto an autochthonous lower crust and mantle. Instead our findings support models (Lithoprobe Vancouver Island, and ACCRETE) of crustal growth at convergent margins as resulting from synmagmatic subcretion.