Ultramafic rocks of southeast Alaska

Unit symbol: Kum
Age range Early Cretaceous (113 to 100.5 Ma)
Lithology: Igneous - Plutonic
Group name: Mafic and ultramafic rocks in southern Alaska
“Ultramafic intrusive bodies of magnetite-bearing hornblende clinopyroxenite and subordinate dunite, peridotite, and hornblendite (Taylor, 1967). Several complexes are concentrically zoned from a core of dunite to rocks containing progressively less olivine and more hornblende and magnetite. Zoned bodies commonly intrude a two-pyroxene gabbro known to be of Late Triassic age on Duke Island (Gehrels and others, 1987). Geologic and geochemical considerations suggest that rocks in these bodies may be genetically related to some Cretaceous and Jurassic volcanic rocks (Berg and others, 1972; Irvine, 1973). Potassium-argon apparent ages of the ultramafic rocks indicate emplacement during Early Cretaceous time (Lanphere and Eberlein, 1966)” Gehrels and Berg (1992). Himmelberg and Loney (1995) also provide extensive information on the characteristics and petrogenesis of many of these ultramafic intrusions

Source map information

Source map Karl, S.M., 2002, Unpublished data.
Symbol Kum
Unit name Ultramafic rocks
Description Clinopyroxenite and subordinate hornblendite. Pyroxenite in Port Snettisham contains clinopyroxene, magnetite and subordinate hornblende and predates adjacent quartz diorite. The Windham Bay ultramafic body includes very coarse- to fine-grained sulfide-bearing ultramafic rocks along the shore west of the mouth of the Chuck River for about 3 km. This body is layered in part, and consists largely of clinopyroxenite with secondary amphibole-rich rock. Locally several-cm-size plates of biotite are present. Correlated with zoned ultramafic bodies that extend from Klukwan to Duke Island in southeast Alaska.
Lithology Igneous

Correlated geologic units

Label Kmum
Description Ultramafic rocks, especially including zoned ultramafic bodies of southeast Alaska
Geologic age Albian
Geologic setting Intrusive
Lithology Form Importance
Hornblendite < Ultramafic < Plutonic < Igneous Indeterminate, major
Dunite < Peridotite < Ultramafic < Plutonic < Igneous Indeterminate, major
Pyroxenite < Ultramafic < Plutonic < Igneous Indeterminate, major