Nikolai and Goon Dip Greenstones and equivalent rocks

Unit symbol: Trn
Age range Late and Middle Triassic (247.2 to 201.3 Ma)
Lithology: Igneous - Volcanic
Group name: Massive basalt and greenstone
Massive, dark-gray-green, dark-gray-brown, and maroon-gray, subaerial and submarine basalt flows and minor interbedded volcaniclastic sedimentary rocks, aquagene and epiclastic tuff, breccia, argillite, and radiolarian chert (Nokleberg and others, 1992a), commonly metamorphosed to lower greenschist facies. Widely distributed and several thousands of meters thick. Includes unnamed Triassic greenstone units in Talkeetna Mountains quadrangle (Csejtey and others, 1978). Commonly associated with Late Triassic carbonate and cherty carbonate rocks. Together with Chitistone and Nizina Limestones, this is one of the diagnostic units of the Wrangellia terrane (Jones and others, 1977). Plafker and others (1976) and Jones and others (1977) correlated the Goon Dip Greenstone of southeast Alaska with the Nikolai Greenstone based on similar lithology and stratigraphic position relative to the overlying Whitestripe Marble, which they correlated with the Upper Triassic Chitistone Limestone. Goon Dip Greenstone is dominantly massive greenstone and minor greenschist and marble. The greenstone also commonly contains sparsely distributed copper-bearing sulfides; the Nikolai was the host rock for the Kennecott group of mines. Similar and possibly correlative units, the Cottonwood Bay and Chilikradrotna Greenstones of the Alaska Peninsula, are described below as unit Trcb

Source map information

Source map MacKevett, Jr., E.M., 1978, Geologic map of the McCarthy quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Series Map I-1032, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.
Symbol Trn
Unit name Nikolai Greenstone
Description Altered tholeiitic basalt. Largely subaerial, locally submarine in northeastern part of quadrangle. where basal sections contain pillow basalt and intercalated argillite. elsewhere, base generally characterized by volcanic conglomerate as much as 70-m-thick. Consists dominantly of pahoehoe and aa flows between 15-cm- and 15-m-thick; some flow tops are brecciated. Characteristically amygdaloidal except interiors of thicker flows. Typically altered and metamorphosed to prehnite-pumpellyite facies
Lithology Igneous

Correlated geologic units

Label Trn
Description Nikolai Greenstone, Late and/or Middle Triassic
Geologic age Anisian to Norian
Geologic setting Extrusive
Lithology Form Importance
Basalt < Mafic-volcanic < Volcanic < Igneous Flow, pillows Major
Basalt < Mafic-volcanic < Volcanic < Igneous Pyroclastic, tuff Indeterminate, major
Basalt < Mafic-volcanic < Volcanic < Igneous Volcaniclastic, volcanic breccia Indeterminate, major
Limestone < Carbonate < Sedimentary Bed Incidental
Conglomerate < Clastic < Sedimentary Bed Incidental
Sandstone < Clastic < Sedimentary Bed Incidental
Siltstone < Clastic < Sedimentary Bed Incidental