Geology of the northwest quarter of Whitehorse map-area, Yukon, and studies of weathered granite rocks near Whitehorse ...

• Main Author: Fyles, John Gladstone
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2012
• Subjects: Whitehorse; Yukon
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0053519; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0053519

The northwest quarter of Whitehorse map-area occupies about 1000 square miles in southwestern Yukon. The southwest part of the area lies within the Coast Range and the northern and eastern parts are in the Yukon Plateau but the boundary between these physiographic provinces is very indefinite and the physiography of the area is best classed as transitional. The valleys are mostly broad and steep walled; a few are narrow and U-shaped. The plateau or upland surface, found throughout most of the Yukon Plateau, is here represented by broad ridges and by a few small tablelands averaging 5000 to 6000 feet in altitude, and these are surmounted by groups of mountains up to about 7000 feet in altitude. Some of the mountains have mature profiles but others, showing the effects of glacial erosion, are more rugged. During the Pleistocene the area was overridden by an icesheet to an altitude of at least 6000 feet but, except for cirques on some of the mountains, most evidence of glacial erosion is confined to the valleys ...