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ISBN: 1-897095-22-8

ISSN: 0072-1042

The inner pericratonic terranes of the Canadian-Alaskan Cordillera have posed an enduring challenge to tectonic analysis. Are they fragments, or even extensions, of the ancestral continent margin? Or are they exotic accreted terranes that coincidentally contain continental material? Are they integral crustal blocks, or assemblages of unrelated slivers? Strong metamorphic and structural overprints, along with complex facies relationships and faults, have obscured their nature and relationships, and thus the record for Paleozoic evolution of the western margin of North America. This volume presents the results of a five year cooperative geoscience program, the Ancient Pacific Margin National Mapping Program. The eighteen papers in it address the pericratonic terranes, including the Kootenay, Yukon-Tanana and Slide Mountain/Seventy-mile terranes. Detailed field studies show advances in understanding of protolith geology, stratigraphy, and relationships between different assemblages. Syntheses of stratigraphic, geochemical, geochronological, isotopic and microfossil data provide overviews of current knowledge and future research directions. New and previously published data are compiled in digital format on CD-ROM, along with published detailed geological maps. We present a body of evidence to show that the inner belt of pericratonic terranes probably constituted the Paleozoic continental margin of western North America, as a set of offshore island arcs, marginal ocean basins and continental fragments. The pericratonic terranes are host to significant syngenetic massive sulphide deposits and the papers in this volume provide clear information about their stratigraphic and tectonic settings.

Hardcover • 528 pages, with colour figures • 18 papers • 2 colour fold-out plates • Data Repository CD-ROM • Collection of detailed geological maps in PDF (2006)