Gneiss, schist, and quartzite

Unit symbol: PzPxygs
Age range Mississippian, Devonian, and older (635 to 358.9 Ma)
Lithology: Metamorphic
Group name: Gneiss, schist, and amphibolite (Yukon-Tanana crystalline complex)
Coarse- to fine-grained gneiss and quartzite; well-foliated and banded to massive; locally cataclastic; ranges from pelitic schist that contains abundant sillimanite to gneisses of probable igneous origin. All rocks are well foliated, and dominant foliation is folded. Protolith may include both Paleozoic and Precambrian sedimentary and igneous rocks (Weber and others, 1978). Unit is widespread throughout out the Yukon-Tanana Upland and the included meta-plutonic rocks may be equivalent to the Pelly Gneiss in Yukon, Canada. Also includes gray, medium-grained, mylonitic, quartzofeldspathic biotite-sillimanite gneiss that forms core of a gneiss dome in the central Big Delta quadrangle (Dusel-Bacon and Foster, 1983). Several U/Pb zircon ages have been determined on this unit, and Mississippian to Devonian crystallization ages are common for the metaigneous rocks within this unit and within unit |ymi (Aleinikoff and Nokleberg, 1985; Aleinikoff and others, 1986). Day and others (2003), Dusel-Bacon and Williams (2009), Aleinikoff and Nokleberg (1985) all indicate that inheritance of zircon grains is common. Detrital zircon analyses by Aleinikoff and others (1984, 1986) and Dusel-Bacon and Williams (2009) from quartzite in the unit yielded Proterozoic and Archean zircons

Source map information

Source map Weber, F.R., Foster, H.L., Keith, T.E.C., and Dusel-Bacon, Cynthia, 1978, Preliminary geologic map of the Big Delta quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 78-529A, scale 1:250,000.
Symbol Pzg
Unit name Gneiss
Description Gray and weathers tan; locally orange brown where altered; mostly medium grained equigranular; representative mineralogy is strained quartz, plagioclase, potassium feldspar, red-brown biotite and sillimanite; garnet, tourmaline, zircon, and apatite are common accessory minerals. Age unknown.
Lithology Metamorphic

Correlated geologic units

Label PzZyg
Description Big Delta Gneiss dome
Geologic age Paleozoic to Early-Mississippian
Geologic setting Metamorphic, undivided
Lithology Form Importance
Gneiss < Metamorphic Amphibolite, epidote-amphibolite Major