Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Résumé Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Gunning, M.H. Articles by Mortensen, J.K. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

The mid-Carboniferous Arctic Lake Formation, northwestern Stikine terrane, British Columbia

Triex Minerals Corporation, 1410 - 650 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 4N8, mgunning{at}triexminerals.com

J. Fedorowski

Institute of Geology, Adam Mickiewicz University, ul. Maków Polnych 16, 61-606, Poznán, Poland

M.J. Orchard

Geological Survey of Canada, 101 - 605 Robson Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 5J3

E.W. Bamber

Geological Survey of Canada, 3303 - 33 Street NW, Calgary, AB T2L 2A7, wabamber{at}nrcan.gc.ca

R. Friedman

Department of Geological Sciences, University of British Columbia, 6339 Stores Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4

L. Rui

Geological Survey of Canada, 3303 - 33 Street NW, Calgary, AB T2L 2A7

R.G. Anderson

Geological Survey of Canada, 101 - 605 Robson Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 5J3

B.L. Mamet

Département des Sciences de la Terre et de, l’Environement, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Avenue F. D. Roosevelt 50, B-1050 Bruxelles, Belgique

J.K. Mortensen

Department of Geological Sciences, University of British Columbia, 6339 Stores Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4

The Lower Devonian to Upper Permian Stikine Assemblage is well exposed in northwestern British Columbia, near the west-central margin of the Stikine terrane. The stratigraphic base of the assemblage is not exposed and the Upper Triassic Stuhini Group disconformably overlies the assemblage locally. The assemblage consists mainly of various types of volcanic rocks, and there is a large, polyphase, Devono-Mississippian sub-volcanic plutonic complex. The assemblage includes a distinctive, but laterally discontinuous mid-Carboniferous limestone named the Arctic Lake Formation. Facies are mainly locally re-worked, well-bedded skeletal wackestone, but whole fossil floatstone and intraformational olistostromal deposits are present. Stratigraphic thickness varies from 32 to 80 metres. Stratigraphic contacts with bounding Lower and Upper Carboniferous successions are conformable and intergradational, but paraconformities may also be present. The formation records weak development of disjointed carbonate ramps on volcanic highlands. Neritic faunal assemblages have warm water, open marine affinity. The formation spans the Serpukhovian-Bashkirian boundary and encompasses microfacies assigned to Global Foraminiferal zones 17, 18 and 20. Integrated foraminiferal-coral-conodont biostratigraphy and uranium-lead geochronology support a circa 350 Ma age for the Tournaisian-Visean boundary, and a circa 320 Ma age for the Serpukhovian-Bashkirian (Mississippian-Pennsylvanian) boundary.