Geology Commons^™

An Evaluation Of The Lithologies And Geochemistry Of The Upper Beaver Deposit Of The Kirkland Lake Area, Katherine E. Feick

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Upper Beaver Cu-Au deposit contains a unique style of mineralization in the Larder Lake and Kirkland Lake areas in terms of mineralization, alteration style, and age. This study aims to use company-provided data, supplemented with focused data collection, to evaluate what information can be attained from company-provided geochemical data. The evaluation uses a combination of hand sample, petrographic, geochemical, statistical, and microprobe analytical methods.

Lithogeochemical analyses indicated that the altered igneous host rock is calc-alkaline in composition and is most likely part of the diorite-monzonite suite. Further, exploratory data analysis of Au and Cu mineralization identified that there are …

Channel Form And Processes In A Formerly Glaciated Terrain, Nathaniel Bergman

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Despite that many places around the world in general, and North America in particular, were glaciated during the last ice age, relatively little is known about rivers that evolved over these landscapes once they deglaciated. These rivers are commonly categorized as alluvial with a glacial legacy, and often described as plain gravel-bed or sand-bed rivers. Alternatively, they are considered to be bedrock rivers when the glacial deposits were eroded and underlying rock was exposed. However, ignoring the glacial history of these rivers is scientifically wrong and they should be termed "semi-alluvial". This work shows that classification is important, not only …

Evolution Of Mafic Impact Melt Bodies At The Crater Floor Interfaces Of The Vredefort And Sudbury Impact Structures, Carmela Lisa Cupelli

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Vredefort and Sudbury impact basins in South Africa and Canada, respectively, are currently the world’s oldest and largest impact structures. Over a hundred years of study on both impacts has still not answered all the questions surrounding these sites. The 2019 Ma Vredefort structure is thought to have an original diameter of 300 km, however, due to erosion all that is left of the structure is the basement of the central uplift. Small pockets and dykes of melt rock still remain but in the case of the gabbronorite its origin remains to be proven. The Sudbury structure is 1850 …

The Character And Distribution Of Cu-Pge Mineralization At The Geordie Lake Deposit Within The Coldwell Complex, Ontario, Imran Meghji

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Cu-PGE mineralization at the Geordie Lake Deposit (GLD) is spatially associated with weak to intense actinolite and albite alteration within gabbro and troctolite. Previous studies have determined a magmatic, and magmatic-hydrothermal origin of the deposit. The most significant Cu-PGE occurrence in the GLD is dominantly stratiform, and in contact with a basal syenite. Similar patterns of REE with progressive enrichment from troctolite, to gabbro, and basal syenite indicate that these lithologies are genetically linked. Major element geochemistry shows no discernable variation between the altered and unaltered samples. Whole rock δ¹⁸O analyses were conducted in equal intervals down the …

The Application Of Geophysical Inversion Techniques To The Nechalacho Rare Earth Element Deposit, Nt, Derek W. Kouhi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Nechalacho deposit is a world-class rare earth element deposit located in the Thor Lake region approximately 100 kilometers southwest of Yellowknife, NT, Canada. Located within the Blatchford Lake Intrusion Complex, this deposit has the potential to be a large-scale economic asset due to its relatively shallow and sub-horizontal geometry. In this study, geophysical inversion techniques are used to model subsurface magnetic susceptibility and density in order to delineate the deposit. Isolated and joint inversion of both magnetic and gravity data provides similar models. Each inversion procedure delineates a shallow, sub-horizontal layer of high susceptibility and density in approximately the …

Utilization Of Lidar Intensity Data And Passive Visible Imagery For Geological Mapping Of Planetary Surfaces, Taylor M. Haid

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

While lidar has been historically used for generating digital terrain maps and as a navigation tool, recent research demonstrates that lidar has many potential scientific applications, including high resolution analysis of geological outcrops. Case studies were completed at the Tunnunik impact structure, Victoria Island, Arctic Canada, and the Nickel Rim South mine, Sudbury, Canada, to assess the fidelity of characterizing and differentiating mineralogical and lithological units remotely by integrating passive visible imagery with lidar intensity data. Unsupervised classification via k-means clustering was performed on the fused datasets, with results indicating that lithologies can indeed be successfully differentiated with minor a …

Microstructural Geochronology Of Zircon Across The Central Uplift Of The Vredefort Impact Structure, South Africa, Connor Lawrence Davis

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Vredefort central uplift, or ‘dome,’ represents the erosional remnant of one of the largest (~300 km diameter) and oldest (~2.020 Ga) terrestrial impact structures. This investigation was performed to help elucidate the complexity of the shock process on zircon, incorporating various electron beam methods, including BSE and SE imaging, EBSD, CL, and EDS (mapping and semi-quantitative compositional analysis). A new shock microstructural progression in terrestrial zircon is suggested, as well as a complete structure-wide analysis of impact melt inclusions in zircon. Regional trends in the effects of shock on zircon are included. Impact melt glass inclusion compositions vary widely, …

Emplacement Of The Foy, Hess And Pele Offset Dykes At The Sudbury Impact Structure, Canada, Eric A. Pilles

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The 1.85 Ga Sudbury impact structure is the remnant of what is generally considered to have been an ~150–200 km diameter impact basin in central Ontario, Canada. The so-called Offset Dykes are impact melt dykes that are found concentrically around – and extending radially outward from – the Sudbury Igneous Complex (SIC), a ~3 km thick differentiated impact melt sheet. The dykes are typically composed of two main phases of granodiorite: an inclusion- and sulfide-rich granodiorite in the centre of the dyke, and an inclusion- and sulfide-poor granodiorite along the margins of the dyke. This study uses a combination of …

Constraining The Formation And Alteration Of Sudbury Breccia, Ontario, Canada: Implications For Footwall Cu-Ni-Pge Exploration, Jonathan W. O'Callaghan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Sudbury breccia is an impactite situated in the footwall of the 1.85 Ga Sudbury impact structure, situated in Ontario. Developing exploration vectors towards Sudbury breccia-hosted Cu-Ni-PGE mineralization is inhibited by an insufficient understanding of the relative contributions of footwall lithologies versus impact melt. By combining whole-rock geochemistry, field observations, statistical modelling and petrography, this study has determined that Sudbury breccia is a parautochthonous shock melt, which does not require a melt sheet contribution. Furthermore, the trace metal content of the breccia is largely controlled by the assimilation of mafic footwall lithologies, the exception being breccia proximal to mineralization, where a …

Stratigraphy, Sedimentology And Paleogeography Of The Lower Cretaceous (Upper Albian) Peace River, Joli Fou And Pelican Formations, Northern Alberta, Canada, Kathleen Vannelli

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Late Albian (~ 104-101 Ma) strata in northern Alberta are assigned to the marginal-marine Paddy Member, and the marine Joli Fou, Pelican and Viking formations. Temporal relationships between these units have never been established in detail. This study shows that the marine Joli Fou mudstone forms a sheet that onlaps westward against a subaerial ridge (?forebulge); coeval fluvio-lagoonal lower Paddy strata onlap against the opposite side. The ridge crest was buried by upper Paddy strata, of Cordilleran provenance, that grade eastward into deltaic lower Pelican quartz arenites derived from the Canadian Shield. The presence of quartz arenites in the Peace …

Martian Gully Formation And Evolution: Studies From The Local To Global Scale, Tanya Nicole Harrison

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Gullies in the mid- and high-latitudes of Mars were first observed in Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) images in 1997. Appearing to be geologically young, they quickly became a feature of interest due to the implication of liquid water in their formation based on distinct morphological characteristics including incised channels, many exhibiting features indicative of fluid flow. However, the temperature and pressure conditions on the surface of Mars during its most recent geologic era have not been conducive to sustaining water in the liquid phase for extended periods of time; therefore, a number of “wet” (water-related) and …

Gold Mineralisation At The Fat Deposit, Courageous Lake Greenstone Belt, Northwest Territories, Canada, Marcus A. Adam

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Courageous Lake Greenstone Belt (CLGB) is hosted in the Yellowknife Supergroup of the Central Slave Province, NWT, Canada: a fertile gold district that includes the former Giant, Con and Lupin orogenic gold mines. The largest deposit in the CLGB is the FAT deposit, which has a proven and probable reserve of 91MT at 2.20gpt gold owned by Seabridge Gold Inc. The FAT deposit differs from other gold deposits in the Yellowknife Supergroup in that deformation and shear textures are intermittent, and where present, deformation does not correlate spatially with mineralisation. The CLGB formed as a volcanic succession that was …

Climatic Cycles Recorded In Glacially Influenced Rhythmites Of The Gowganda Formation, Huronian Supergroup, Tim S. Howe, Patricia L. Corcoran, Fred Longstaffe, Elizabeth A. Webb, R Gerhard Pratt

Earth Sciences Publications

The Gowganda Formation of the 2.45–2.2 Ga Huronian Supergroup contains glacially-induced, varve-like rhythmites that potentially preserve a detailed record of climatic conditions during the Paleoproterozoic Era. Four rhythmic couplet thickness records were measured at two outcrops near Wharncliffe, Ontario for the purpose of time-series analysis. The couplets, which range from 1 to 32 mm thick, are composed of alternating layers of siltstone and claystone. Time-series analysis of the couplet thickness records using the MTM Toolkit of Mann and Lees (1996) consistently revealed periodicities in the range of 2.2–2.9 couplets per cycle, which is consistent with climatic cycles such as the …

A Brief Account Of New Petrographic And Isotopic Insights Into The Hertfordshire And Buckinghamshire Puddingstones Of Se England, Jennifer Huggett, Fred Longstaffe

Earth Sciences Publications

Determining the process of silicification in silcretes is essential to understanding their environmental significance. For the late Paleocene silcretes of the Anglo-Paris basin this is of particular interest due to their association with the PETM (Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum). Here puddingstone samples from Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire have been examined by optical, BSEM and CL petrography, X-ray diffraction and oxygen isotope analysis. The range of quartz sand luminescence colours indicates a diverse provenance. Flint pebbles show little variability, consistent with a single source. The oxygen isotope compositional range of the flint pebbles is consistent with chemical sedimentation at normal temperatures from Cretaceous …

Formation Of The Neoarchean Bad Vermillion Lake Anorthosite Complex And Spatially Associated Granitic Rocks At A Convergent Plate Margin, Superior Province, Western Ontario, Canada, Shuda Zhou, Ali Polat, Fred Longstaffe, Kunguang Yang, Brian J. Fryer, Crhis Weisener

Earth Sciences Publications

The Bad Vermilion Lake Anorthosite Complex (henceforth, the BVLA Complex) in western Ontario is one of the well-exposed, anorthosite-bearing, Archean layered intrusions in the Superior Province, Canada. This study presents new whole-rock major and trace element data for the various units of the Complex, oxygen isotope data for the anorthosite, and major and trace element data for the spatially associated granitic rocks intruding the BVLA Complex to constrain their petrogenetic and geodynamic origin. Zircons from granitic rocks have yielded a ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb age of 2716 ± 18 Ma, constraining the minimum intrusion age of the Complex. Despite deformation …

Microbially Induced Sedimentary Structures In The Paleoproterozoic, Upper Huronian Supergroup, Canada, Carolyn Hill, Patricia I. Corcoran, Rohan Aranha, Fred Longstaffe

Earth Sciences Publications

The Paleoproterozoic Gordon Lake and Bar River formations, Huronian Supergroup, contain a variety of sedimentary structures in the Flack Lake area of Ontario, Canada, that have been considered of debatable origin. We identify these structures as microbially induced sedimentary structures (MISS). The preserved MISS are related to microbial mat destruction and decay, and include sand cracks, mat chips, remnant gas domes, pyrite patches, and iron laminae. A biological origin for the fossil structures is supported by their similarities to modern and ancient documented examples of MISS, the sand-dominated nature of the substrate in which they are preserved, and key microtextures …