In southeastern Alaska, granodiorite–tonalite plutons of the Admiralty–Revillagigedo belt intruded the Jurassic–Cretaceous Gravina belt along the eastern side of the Alexander terrane around 90 Ma. These plutons postdate some deformation related to a major contractional event between the previously amalgamated Wrangellia and Alexander terranes and the previously accreted terranes of the North American margin. We studied the aureole mineral assemblages of these plutons near Petersburg, Alaska, determined pressure and temperature of equilibration, and examined structures that developed within and adjacent to these plutons. Parallelism of magmatic and submagmatic fabrics with fabrics in the country rock indicates synchroneity of pluton emplacement with regional deformation and suggests that magma transport to higher crustal levels was assisted by regional deformation. Replacement of andalusite by kyanite or sillimanite indicates crustal thickening soon after pluton emplacement. Regional structural analysis indicates the crustal thickening was accomplished by thrust burial. Thermobarometric analyses indicate the aureoles reached near-peak temperatures of 525 to 635 °C at pressures of 570 to 630 MPa. Consideration of the rate of thermal decay of the aureoles suggests that burial was rapid and occurred at rates around 5 to 8 mm/year. Structural observations indicate there was contractional deformation before, during, and after emplacement of the 90-Ma plutons. Initial exhumation of the Admiralty–Revillagigedo belt in the Petersburg area may have occurred along a thrust west of the pluton belt within the Gravina belt.

Pleistocene basalt of the Mount Edgecumbe volcanic field (MEF) is subdivided into a plagioclase type and an olivine type. Olivine basalt crops out farther inboard from the nearby Fairweather transform than plagioclase basalt. Th/La ratios of plagioclase basalt are similar to those of mid-ocean-ridge basalt (MORB), whereas those of olivine basalt are of continental affinity. The olivine basalt has higher 87Sr/86Sr ratios than the plagioclase basalt.We model rare earth element (REE) contents of the olivine basalt, which resemble those of transitional MORB, by 10–15% partial melting of fertile spinel–plagioclase lherzolite followed by removal of 8–13% olivine. Normative mineralogy indicates melting in the spinel stability field. REE contents of an undersaturated basalt (sample 5L005) resemble those of Mauna Loa tholeiite and are modelled by 5–10% partial melting of fertile garnet lherzolite followed by 10% olivine removal. Plagioclase basalt resembles sample 5L005 in REE contents but is lower in other incompatible-element contents and 87Sr/86Sr ratios. Plagioclase basalt either originated in depleted garnet lherzolite or is a mixture of sample 5L005 and normal MORB; complex zoning of plagioclase and colinear Sc and Th contents are consistent with magma mixing.We conclude that olivine basalt originated in subcontinental spinel lherzolite and that plagioclase basalt may have originated in suboceanic lithosphere of the Pacific plate. Lithospheric melting seemingly requires vertical flow of mantle material, although there is no direct evidence at the MEF for crustal extension that might provide a mechanism for mantle advection. In any case, most MEF magmas are subalkaline because of moderately high degrees of partial melting at shallow depth.

The Mount Edgecumbe volcanic field in southeastern Alaska consists of 5-6 km3 (DRE) of postglacial pyroclasts that overlie Pleistocene lavas. All eleven pyroclast vents align with the long axis of the field, implying that the pyroclast magma conduits followed a crustal fissure. Most of these vents had previously erupted lavas that are compositionally similar to the pyroclasts, so a persistent magma system (chamber) had likely evolved by the onset of the pyroclastic eruptions. The pyroclastic sequence was deposited in about a millennium and is remarkable for a wide range of upward-increasing silica contents (51-72% SiO2), which is consistent with rise of coexisting magmas at different rates governed by their viscosity.Basaltic and andesitic lava flows have erupted throughout the lifetime of the field. Rhyolite erupted late; we infer that it formed early but was hindered from rising by its high viscosity. Most of the magmas-and all siliceous ones-erupted from vents on the central fissure. Basalt has not erupted from the center of the field during at least the latter part of its lifetime. Thus the field may illustrate basalt underplating: heat and mass flux are concentrated at the center of a Stratified magma chamber in which a cap of siliceous, melt blocks the rise of basalt.Major-element, strontium isotope, and mineral compositions of unaltered pyroclasts are broadly similar to those of older lavas of similar SiO2 content. Slightly fewer phenocrysts, inherited grains, and trace amphibole in pyroclastic magmas may be due simply to faster rise and less undercooling and degassing before eruption relative to the lavas. Dacite occurs only in the youngest deposits; the magma formed by mixing of andesitic and rhyolitic magmas erupted shortly before by the dacitic vents.

The Cordilleran orogen in south‐eastern Alaska includes 14 distinct metamorphic belts that make up three major metamorphic complexes, from east to west: the Coast plutonic–metamorphic complex in the Coast Mountains; the Glacier Bay–Chichagof plutonic–metamorphic complex in the central part of the Alexander Archipelago; and the Chugach plutonic–metamorphic complex in the northern outer islands. Each of these complexes is related to a major subduction event. The metamorphic history of the Coast plutonic–metamorphic complex is lengthy and is related to the Late Cretaceous collision of the Alexander and Wrangellia terranes and the Gravina overlap assemblage to the west against the Stikine terrane to the east. The metamorphic history of the Glacier Bay–Chichagof plutonic–metamorphic complex is relatively simple and is related to the roots of a Late Jurassic to late Early Cretaceous island arc. The metamorphic history of the Chugach plutonic–metamorphic complex is complicated and developed during and after the Late Cretaceous collision of the Chugach terrane with the Wrangellia and Alexander terranes.The Coast plutonic–metamorphic complex records both dynamothermal and regional contact metamorphic events related to widespread plutonism within several juxtaposed terranes. Widespread moderate‐P/T dynamothermal metamorphism affected most of this complex during the early Late Cretaceous, and local high‐P/T metamorphism affected some parts during the middle Late Cretaceous. These events were contemporaneous with low‐ to moderate‐P, high‐T metamorphism elsewhere in the complex. Finally, widespread high‐P–T conditions affected most of the western part of the complex in a culminating late Late Cretaceous event. The eastern part of the complex contains an older, pre‐Late Triassic metamorphic belt that has been locally overprinted by a widespread middle Tertiary thermal event.The Glacier Bay–Chichagof plutonic–metamorphic complex records dominantly regional contact‐metamorphic events that affected rocks of the Alexander and Wrangellia terranes. Widespread low‐P, high‐T assemblages occur adjacent to regionally extensive foliated granitic, dioritic and gabbroic rocks. Two closely related plutonic events are recognized, one of Late Jurassic age and another of late Early and early Late Cretaceous age; the associated metamorphic events are indistinguishable. A small Late Devonian or Early Mississippian dynamothermal belt occurs just north‐east of the complex. Two older low‐grade regional metamorphic belts on strike with the complex to the south are related to a Cambrian to Ordovician orogeny and to a widespread Middle Silurian to Early Devonian orogeny.The Chugach plutonic–metamorphic complex records a widespread late Late Cretaceous low‐ to medium/high‐P, moderate‐ T metamorphic event and a local transitional or superposed early Tertiary low‐P, high‐T regional metamorphic event associated with mesozonal granitic intrusions that affected regionally deformed and metamorphosed rocks of the Chugach terrane. The Chugach complex also includes a post‐Late Triassic to pre‐Late Jurassic belt with uncertain relations to the younger belts.

Late Pleistocene tephra deposits found from Sitka to Juneau and Lituya Bay are assigned to a source at the Mount Edgecumbe volcanic field, based on similarity of glass compositions to nearvent deposits and on thinning away from Kruzof Island. The sequence of near-vent layers is basaltic andesite and andesite at the base, rhyolite, and mixed dacite and rhyolite on top. The only breaks in the tephra sequence are two 1-mm-thick silt partings in a lake-sediment core, indicating a depositional interval from basaltic andesite to dacite of no more than about a millennium. Tephra deposits at sites >30 km from the vent are solely dacite and rhyolite and are 10,600 to 11,400 14C yr old based on interpretation of 18 radiocarbon ages, including 5 by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). Basaltic andesite and andesite deposits nearer the vent are as much as 12,000 yr old.

An inverted metamorphic gradient is preserved in the western metamorphic belt near Juneau, Alaska. The western metamorphic belt is part of the Coast plutonic–metamorphic complex of western Canada and southeastern Alaska that developed as a result of tectonic overlap and/or compressional thickening of crustal rocks during collision of the Alexander and Stikine terranes. Detailed mapping of pelitic single‐mineral isograds, systematic changes in mineral assemblages, and silicate geothermometry indicate that thermal peak metamorphic conditions increase structurally upward over a distance of about 8 km. Peak temperatures of metamorphism increase progressively from about 530 °C for the garnet zone to about 705 °C for the upper kyanite–biotite zone. Silicate geobarometry suggests that the thermal peak metamorphism occurred under pressures of 9–11 kbar. The metamorphic isograds are in general parallel to the tonalite sill that is regionally continuous along the east side of the western metamorphic belt, although truncation of the isograds north of Juneau indicates that the sill intrusion continued after the isograds were established. Our preferred interpretation of the cause of the inverted gradient is that it formed during compression of a thickened wedge of relatively wet and cool rocks in response to heat flow associated with the formation and emplacement of the tonalite sill magma. Garnet rim compositions and widespread growth of chlorite suggest partial re‐equilibration of the schists under pressures of 5–6 kbar during uplift in response to final emplacement and crystallization of the tonalite sill. The combined results of this study with previous studies elsewhere in the western metamorphic belt indicate that high‐T/high‐P metamorphism associated with the collision of the Alexander and Stikine terranes was a long‐lived event, extending from about 98 Ma to about 67 Ma.

The 155 km wide, 310 km long Sitka Sound – Atlin Lake continent–ocean transect includes almost all the geologic, geophysical, and geotectonic elements of the Canadian Cordillera. It crosses the Chugach, Wrangellia, Alexander, Stikine, and Cache Creek terranes, the Gravina and Laberge overlap assemblages, intrusive and metamorphic belts, and neotectonic faults that bound major blocks. Linear belts of magnetic highs are associated with Jurassic and Cretaceous granitic belts in Wrangellia and the western and central parts of the Alexander terrane and with the granitic rocks of the Coast plutonic–metamorphic complex (CPMC). The Border Ranges fault may be expressed at depth on either side of the Peril Strait fault. An enigmatic northeast-trending gradient in the CPMC and adjacent rocks separates a regional magnetic low to the northwest from a 300 nT high field to the southeast. The Bouguer gravity field decreases in broad steps from Pacific crust high values to lows at the international boundary, with pronounced gradients at the east edge of Chugach terrane and west edge of of CPMC. It indicates that the crust thickens from about 20 to 40 km from southwest to northeast. Ultramafic bodies in the Chugach, Alexander, and Wrangellia terranes and Gravina assemblage underlie local highs. Most of the accumulated seismic strain is released by large earthquakes on the Fairweather – Queen Charlotte Islands plate-margin fault, but the northern part of the Glacier Bay region, the Denali fault zone, and the Coast Mountains also have significant seismicity. Part of the Glacier Bay region is being uplifted at a high rate. Most of these features are related to the joining of (i) Wrangellia to Alexander terrane (Carboniferous), (ii) Stikine to Cache Creek terrane (Early Jurassic), (iii) Alexander terrane and Gravina assemblage to Stikine (Late Cretaceous), and (iv) Chugach to Wrangellia and Alexander terrane (Late Cretaceous or Paleogene).

U–Pb geochronologic studies demonstrate that steeply dipping, sheetlike tonalitic plutons along the western margin of the northern Coast Mountains batholith were emplaced between ~83 and ~57 (perhaps ~55) Ma. Less elongate tonalitic–granodioritic bodies in central portions of the batholith yield ages of 59–58 Ma, coeval with younger phases of the tonalitic sheets. Large granite–granodiorite bodies in central and eastern portions of the batholith were emplaced at 51–48 Ma. Trends in ages suggest that the tonalitic bodies generally become younger southeastward and that, at the latitude of Juneau, plutonism migrated northeastward across the batholith at ~0.9 km/Ma. Variations in the age, shape, location, and degree of fabric development among the various plutons indicate that Late Cretaceous – Paleocene tonalitic bodies were emplaced into a steeply dipping, dip-slip shear zone that was active along the western margin of the batholith. Postkinematic Eocene plutons were emplaced at shallow crustal levels. Inherited zircon components in these plutons range in age from mid-Paleozoic to Early Proterozoic and are coeval with detrital zircons in adjacent metasedimentary rocks. These old zircons, combined with evolved Nd isotopic signatures for most plutons, record assimilation of continental crustal or supracrustal rocks during the generation and (or) ascent of the plutons.

The presence of only three major tectonostratigraphic terranes (TSTs) in southeastern Alaska and northwestern British Columbia (Chugach, Wrangell, and Alexander) is indicated by critical analysis of available age, stratigraphic, and structural data. A possible fourth (Stikine) is probably an equivalent of part or all of the Alexander. The Yakutat block belongs to the Chugach TST, and both are closely linked to the Wrangell and Alexander(-Stikine) TSTs; the Gravina is an overlap assemblage. The Alexander(-Stikine) is subdivided on the basis of age and facies. The subterranes within it share common substrates and represent large-scale facies changes in a long-lived island-arc environment. The Taku TST is the metamorphic equivalent of the upper part (Permian and Upper Triassic) of the Alexander(-Stikine) with some fossil evidence preserved that indicates the age of protoliths. Similarly, the Tracy Arm TST is the metamorphic equivalent of (1) the lower (Ordovician to Carboniferous) Alexander without any such fossil evidence and (2) the upper (Permian to Triassic) Alexander(-Stikine) with some newly discovered fossil evidence. Evidence for the ages of juxtaposition of the TSTs is limited. The Chugach deformed against the Wrangell and Alexander TSTs in Late Cretaceous. Gravina rocks were deformed at that time and also earlier. The Wrangell was stitched to the Alexander(-Stikine) by middle Cretaceous plutons but may have arrived before its Late Jurassic plutons were emplaced. The Alexander(-Stikine) and Cache Creek TSTs were juxtaposed before Late Triassic. End_of_Article - Last_Page 657------------

The Coast Range megalineament is a prominent, nearly continuous topographic and structural feature that extends southeastward about 550 km (330 mi) from its junction with the Chatham Strait – Lynn Canal fault at Point Sherman to Tongass Passage near the mouth of Pearse Canal where it leaves southeastern Alaska. It probably extends still further southeastward into British Columbia along Work Channel and Chatham Sound – Grenville Channel.The megalineament is a zone a few hundred metres to 10 km (6 mi) wide in which closely spaced joints, foliation, compositional layering, and small faults define the megalineament trend. The zone usually coincides with topographic depressions apparently caused by selective fluvial and glacial erosion of the less resistant rocks of the zone.Studies in the Juneau, Endicott Arm, and Behm Canal areas indicate that the megalineament (1) is locally the site of lateral and (or) vertical separations of no greater than several kilometres; (2) does not mark a major structural or metamorphic discontinuity in the near-surface rocks; (3) may be located near a pre-metamorphic and pre-intrusive discontinuity; (4) is consistently associated with and parallel to steep gradients in both the gravity and aeromagnetic fields; and (5) probably is the surface expression of the western contact, at depth, of the intrusive rocks and gneisses of the Coast Range batholithic complex with the schists to the southwest.

Recently determined lead-alpha and potassium-argon ages from northern southeastern Alaska indicate major plutonic events in the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Tertiary; in contrast, previous studies suggested that only one complex Jurassic and Cretaceous event occurred. The ages presented in this paper indicate the following Mesozoic and Tertiary plutonic events: Middle or Late Jurassic (144–164 m.y.); Early Cretaceous (103–117 m.y.); Eocene (42–48 m.y.); and Oligocene to Miocene (24–31 m.y.). The present data show no distinctive a real pattern for the Mesozoic plutons, but those of known Tertiary age are restricted to Baranof and Kruzof islands, a distribution that suggests a belt of Tertiary plutonism along the margin of the Pacific Ocean. Stratigraphic evidence and radiometric ages indicate that Baranof Island and possibly Chichagof Island have been uplifted several kilometers since Miocene time, whereas Admiralty Island to the east appears to have been relatively stable since Paleocene time. This movement apparently took place on the north-striking Chatham Strait fault, which separates the islands, and probably also had a large right-lateral component. Northwest-striking faults in Chichagof and Baranof islands were probably active during at least part of the movement on the Chatham Strait fault. Movement on one of the northwest-striking faults, the Patterson Bay fault of Baranof Island, took place some time between the Eocene and the Miocene and produced a 5-km, right-lateral separation. The inferred uplift of Baranof Island relative to Admiralty Island is based on the present-day exposure on Baranof Island of mesozonal Tertiary plutons, which were probably intruded at a depth of several kilometers, contrasted with the present-day exposure on Admiralty Island of continental sedimentary and volcanic rocks that were being deposited near sea level during the Tertiary. The uplift of the Baranof Island plutons to the surface in post-Miocene time contrasts sharply with the stable or weakly negative tectonic conditions that have prevailed on Admiralty Island since the Paleocene.