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 Day, W.C., O'Neill, J.M., Aleinikoff, J.N., Green, G.N., Saltus, R.W., and Gough, L.P., 2007, Geologic map of the Big Delta B-1 quadrangle, east-central Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map SIM-2975, 23 p., 1 sheet, scale 1:63,360.
Symbol Pzgn
Unit name Biotite +/- sillimanite gneiss
Description Medium- to dark-gray, medium-grained, foliated equigranular, biotite-rich gneissic migmatite. Migmatite is made up of a paleosome of medium-gray, equigranular, medium- to fine-grained, quartzofeldspathic biotite +/- sillimanite schist invaded by a neosome of biotite trondhjemitic to granodioritic orthogneiss. Metamorphic mineral assemblage includes biotite, muscovite, garnet, and, locally, sillimanite. Protolith was graywacke to muddy siliciclastic sediment and sandstone.
Lithology Metamorphic

Correlated geologic units

Label PzZpg
Description Sillimanite gneiss subunit, pelitic schist
Geologic age Ediacarian to Devonian
Geologic setting Sedimentary, shallow-marine-siliciclastic
Lithology Form Importance
Biotite-gneiss < Gneiss < Metamorphic Major
Quartzite < Metaclastic < Metasedimentary < Metamorphic Minor
Biotite-schist < Mica-schist < Schist < Metamorphic Minor
Marble < Metacarbonate < Metasedimentary < Metamorphic Incidental