Geology of the Racing River area, British Columbia

• Main Author: Vail, John Randolph
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 1957
• Subjects: Geology > British Columbia > Racing River Valley; Laudon; Racing River; Rocky Mountain Foothills; Yukon; Alaska
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/40256

The Racing River area is situated near the northern end of the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia about sixty miles south of the Yukon border. The Alaska Highway passes through the map area from mile 370 to mile 460. The area covered is about two thousand square miles. Rocks exposed in the map area range in age from Late Precambrian to Upper Cretaceous, and except for thin basic dykes which cut the basement rocks, are made up entirely of sedimentary sequences. Fourteen formations have been recognized, using earlier work by M.Y. Williams (1944) and Laudon and Chronic (1949) as a basis for the subdivisions. Units mapped are essentially rock units and do not always coincide with the Formations. The area includes the physiographic provinces of the Rocky Mountain Foothills Belt, and the Rocky Mountains proper. Topography is closely related to the underlying structures, which are comprised essentially of large thrust sheets overriding each other from the west; the planes of the faults dip towards the west at varying angles. Except close to the thrust faults, the strata in general are remarkably unfolded. Secondary tension fractures have developed, often along pre-existing dykes, and quartz and carbonate material has been introduced. The veins are in places accompanied by copper mineralization. Science, Faculty of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of Graduate