Metamorphic rocks, southeast Alaska

Unit symbol: TrPvs
Age range Triassic to Permian (541 to 201.3 Ma)
Lithology: Metamorphic
Group name: Metamorphic rocks, southeast Alaska
Recrystallized, relatively low-grade, andesitic volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks, flysch, and minor limestone in the central and eastern parts of the Coast Plutonic Complex of Brew and Morrell (1979b). Slightly metamorphosed basalt of the Stuhini group of Brew and others (2009) in the Atlin quadrangle is included; it has relict pillows in a 30-m-thick bed within a sequence of metamorphosed tuff, mudstone, and minor pebbly mudstone, as well as several hundred meters of semischistose graywacke (Brew and others, 2009). Brew and others (2009) also mapped 90 m of massive, locally laminated gray dolostone, dark-gray metamudstone, light-gray dolostone, and lesser dark-gray limestone that was locally fossiliferous. To the south, the dominant rocks are interbedded andesitic tuff breccia, volcanic graywacke, siltstone, and argillite. Coarse volcanic conglomerate, possible broken-pillow breccia, and dark-blue-gray marble occur as lesser constituents (Koch and Berg, 1996). Also included here is light- to dark-gray and medium-brown limestone, layers enclosed within metasedimentary and metavolcaniclastic rocks. Locally, the carbonate layers exceed 10 m thick (Koch and Berg, 1996). The sequence extends eastward into British Colombia and crops out discontinuously northwestward along the Alaska-Canada boundary. In the Atlin quadrangle, Brew and others (2009) report middle Early Triassic conodonts and Middle Triassic ammonites and conodonts, whereas in the Bradfield Canal quadrangle, Koch and Berg (1996) report fossils of Permian age including the conodonts Adetognathus lautus and Adetognathus(?), a brachiopod, Yakovlevia(?), fusulinids, Pseudofusulinella sp.(?), Pseudoschwagerina sp., Schwagerina sp., and the gastropod Omphalotrochus(?)

Source map information

Source map Berg, H.C., Elliott, R.L., and Koch, R.D., 1988, Geologic map of the Ketchikan and Prince Rupert quadrangles, southeastern Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Series Map I-1807, pamphlet, 27 p., scale 1:250,000.
Symbol MzPzvs
Unit name Recrystallized volcanic and sedimentary rocks
Description A sequence of recrystallized andesitic volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks, flysch, and minor limestone. The sequence extends eastward into British Colombia and crops out discontinuously northwestward along the Alaska-Canada boundary. The dominant rocks in the sequence are interbedded andesitic tuff breccia, volcanic graywacke, and siltstone and argillite; less common rocks include coarse volcanic conglomerate, possibly broken pillow breccia, and dark blue-gray marble. Age based partly on Permian fossils collected from limestone in a probably correlative sequence in Alaska at Mount Whipple on the Alaska-Canada boundary about 120 km northwest of the Ketchikan quadrangle.
Lithology Metamorphic

Correlated geologic units

Label TrPzvs
Description Stikine, recrystallized volcanic and sedimentary rocks
Geologic age Paleozoic to Triassic
Geologic setting Metamorphic, undivided
Lithology Form Importance
Metavolcanic < Metaigneous < Metamorphic Greenschist Major
Metasedimentary < Metamorphic Greenschist Minor
Marble < Metacarbonate < Metasedimentary < Metamorphic Greenschist Incidental