Introduction to the geology, physiography, and glacial history of the Canadian Cordillera in British Columbia and Yukon

摘要

The Canadian Cordillera hosts a variety of mineral deposits that reflect a protracted and complex geological history. Combining physiography and geological heritage, the Canadian Cordillera is commonly described in terms of five morphogeological belts (from west to east): Insular, Coast, Intermontane, Omineca, and Foreland. Within these belts are a number of exotic and pericratonic terranes that were accreted to the margin of Ancestral North America. Several times during the Quaternary, the Canadian Cordillera was covered by continental ice maBes referred to as the Cordilleran Ice Sheet. As ice sheets formed and flowed, they altered the landscape and deposited diverse sediments. The evolution of the ice sheets commonly resulted in a range of ice-flow directions at any given location, a critical consideration for mineral explorers. Armed with an understanding of surface proceBes and an appreciation of the growth, decay and flow histories of Pleistocene glaciers, geochemical and mineralogical anomalies detected in stream, lake, and glaciogenic sediments can be effectively traced back to bedrock sources, thus enhancing the potential for new mineral discoveries.