An Analysis of Glacial Sediment Dispersion with Applications to Diamond Exploration, Lac de Gras, Northwest Territories
Diamond exploration is important to the economy of the Northwest Territories and Canada. In recent years, however, there has been a marked decline in the discovery rate of large diamond deposits. Emphasis is being put on improving geological models and developing new approaches of exploration in the...
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University of Waterloo
2020
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ftunivwaterloo:oai:uwspace.uwaterloo.ca:10012/16339 2023-05-15T17:46:30+02:00 An Analysis of Glacial Sediment Dispersion with Applications to Diamond Exploration, Lac de Gras, Northwest Territories Janzen, Robert 2020-09-10 http://hdl.handle.net/10012/16339 en eng University of Waterloo http://hdl.handle.net/10012/16339 Diamond Exploration Quaternary Geology Lac de Gras indicator minerals kimberlite Master Thesis 2020 ftunivwaterloo 2022-06-18T23:03:02Z Diamond exploration is important to the economy of the Northwest Territories and Canada. In recent years, however, there has been a marked decline in the discovery rate of large diamond deposits. Emphasis is being put on improving geological models and developing new approaches of exploration in the hope of finding previously overlooked deposits. A proven approach in diamond exploration in the Northwest Territories and other similarly glaciated terrains has been to characterize the glacial cover to reveal secondary detrital dispersion of indicator minerals and geochemical pathfinders, which can help vector towards a buried kimberlitic source. Typically, only the surficial indicator mineral expression of a kimberlitic signature is known and mapped, which may lead to missed targets, especially in places with shifting ice flows and a complex glacial sedimentary record. This research, in the Lac de Gras area of Northwest Territories, uses a dataset containing both surface and subsurface data, from hand sampling and RC drilling, to bring new knowledge about the glacial geology and to improve our understanding of till production and related detrital dispersion in this prospective region. Erosional outcrop-scale paleo-ice flow indicators show an evolving history of ice-flow in a clockwise sequence starting in the southeast, then west, and finally to the northwest. The ice-flow indicators in the study area show that the northwest ice-flow phase is prominent accounting for 77% of all observations. The particle size distribution of surficial till samples is relatively homogenous, which lends support to the interpretation that the surface till forms a single till unit. The clast lithological analysis shows that the till contains all the different lithologies present in the study area in variable proportions, which appears to reflect a combination of processes and factors, such as bedrock hardness in the up-ice area versus in the dispersion area. The principal component analysis (PCA) of the major oxides shows the till is a ... Master Thesis Northwest Territories University of Waterloo, Canada: Institutional Repository Canada Lac de Gras ENVELOPE(-110.501,-110.501,64.500,64.500) Northwest Territories |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Waterloo, Canada: Institutional Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftunivwaterloo |
language |
English |
topic |
Diamond Exploration Quaternary Geology Lac de Gras indicator minerals kimberlite |
spellingShingle |
Diamond Exploration Quaternary Geology Lac de Gras indicator minerals kimberlite Janzen, Robert An Analysis of Glacial Sediment Dispersion with Applications to Diamond Exploration, Lac de Gras, Northwest Territories |
topic_facet |
Diamond Exploration Quaternary Geology Lac de Gras indicator minerals kimberlite |
description |
Diamond exploration is important to the economy of the Northwest Territories and Canada. In recent years, however, there has been a marked decline in the discovery rate of large diamond deposits. Emphasis is being put on improving geological models and developing new approaches of exploration in the hope of finding previously overlooked deposits. A proven approach in diamond exploration in the Northwest Territories and other similarly glaciated terrains has been to characterize the glacial cover to reveal secondary detrital dispersion of indicator minerals and geochemical pathfinders, which can help vector towards a buried kimberlitic source. Typically, only the surficial indicator mineral expression of a kimberlitic signature is known and mapped, which may lead to missed targets, especially in places with shifting ice flows and a complex glacial sedimentary record. This research, in the Lac de Gras area of Northwest Territories, uses a dataset containing both surface and subsurface data, from hand sampling and RC drilling, to bring new knowledge about the glacial geology and to improve our understanding of till production and related detrital dispersion in this prospective region. Erosional outcrop-scale paleo-ice flow indicators show an evolving history of ice-flow in a clockwise sequence starting in the southeast, then west, and finally to the northwest. The ice-flow indicators in the study area show that the northwest ice-flow phase is prominent accounting for 77% of all observations. The particle size distribution of surficial till samples is relatively homogenous, which lends support to the interpretation that the surface till forms a single till unit. The clast lithological analysis shows that the till contains all the different lithologies present in the study area in variable proportions, which appears to reflect a combination of processes and factors, such as bedrock hardness in the up-ice area versus in the dispersion area. The principal component analysis (PCA) of the major oxides shows the till is a ... |
format |
Master Thesis |
author |
Janzen, Robert |
author_facet |
Janzen, Robert |
author_sort |
Janzen, Robert |
title |
An Analysis of Glacial Sediment Dispersion with Applications to Diamond Exploration, Lac de Gras, Northwest Territories |
title_short |
An Analysis of Glacial Sediment Dispersion with Applications to Diamond Exploration, Lac de Gras, Northwest Territories |
title_full |
An Analysis of Glacial Sediment Dispersion with Applications to Diamond Exploration, Lac de Gras, Northwest Territories |
title_fullStr |
An Analysis of Glacial Sediment Dispersion with Applications to Diamond Exploration, Lac de Gras, Northwest Territories |
title_full_unstemmed |
An Analysis of Glacial Sediment Dispersion with Applications to Diamond Exploration, Lac de Gras, Northwest Territories |
title_sort |
analysis of glacial sediment dispersion with applications to diamond exploration, lac de gras, northwest territories |
publisher |
University of Waterloo |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10012/16339 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-110.501,-110.501,64.500,64.500) |
geographic |
Canada Lac de Gras Northwest Territories |
geographic_facet |
Canada Lac de Gras Northwest Territories |
genre |
Northwest Territories |
genre_facet |
Northwest Territories |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/10012/16339 |
_version_ |
1766150182957744128 |