SOLD OUT GAC010FT Barrovian and Buchan Metamorphism and their Tectonic Juxtaposition, southeastern British Columbia
The field trip will take participants to Barrovian and Buchan metamorphic domains of varying age and tectonic relations in southeastern British Columbia. A theme will be the juxtaposition of areas with contrasting metamorphic histories across faults or shear zones.
Localities to be visited will include (in approximate order):
- the Matthew Creek Metamorphic Zone near Kimberley, BC. This is a tectonic window into schistose rocks metamorphosed under low pressure (Buchan-type), middle-upper amphibolite-facies conditions during the middle Proterozoic. This isolated metamorphic culmination is an anomaly in an area dominated by Mesozoic-Cenozoic greenschist-facies metamorphic and structural features.
- the Purcell Trench fault near Creston, BC, an Eocene normal fault across which there is a marked metamorphic contrast in correlative lithological units (transitional greenschist-amphibolite facies in the hanging wall vs. middle-upper amphibolite facies in the footwall).
- an elongate, Barrovian metamorphic culmination running parallel to Kootenay Lake in the Purcell Trench, containing garnet, staurolite, kyanite, sillimanite and sillimanite+K-feldspar zones. This narrow belt of amphibolite-facies rocks is partially fault-bounded and reflects localized exhumation in the footwall of two Eocene normal faults - the Purcell Trench fault and the Gallagher-Schroeder fault zone.
- the Gallagher-Schroeder fault zone on the west side of Kootenay Lake, north of the West Arm. This is an Eocene extensional fault system that juxtaposes Cretaceous Barrovian metamorphic rocks in the footwall against the Jurassic Nelson batholith and its Buchan-type contact metamorphic aureole in the hanging wall
- three localities south of Nelson, BC, showing different depth levels in the Buchan-type contact metamorphic aureole of the Jurassic Nelson Batholith.
- possibly some other localities on the way back, depending on time
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Dave Pattison is a Professor of Metamorphic Geology in the Department of Geoscience at the University of Calgary. He obtained his PhD from the University of Edinburgh and his BSc from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. He works on metamorphic phase equilibria, contact metamorphism around igneous intrusions, high grade metamorphism, metamorphosed ore deposits and the petrogenesis of accessory minerals used for geological age dating. He and his students integrate metamorphic petrology with other techniques to decipher tectonic processes.
David Moynihan is a PhD student at the University of Calgary, working under the supervision of Professor David Pattison. He is studying metamorphic petrology and structural geology around Kootenay Lake in southeastern British Columbia. Before coming to Calgary David obtained a M.Sc. from Dalhousie University, Halifax and a B.A. from the University of Dublin, Trinity College.
Chris McFarlane is an Assistant Professor in the Geology Department at the University of New Brunswick. He obtained his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, his MSc from the University of Calgary, and his BSc from the University of Toronto. His research is focused on deciphering the mechanisms and timescales of high-temperature metamorphic and magmatic-hydrothermal processes using a combination of field and laboratory studies supported by the application of in-situ U-Pb, Sm-Nd, and Sr-isotope measurements on accessory minerals.
