| Issue ID: | GBCR2006-01-25 |
| Title: | Geology and Mineral Deposits of the Skeena Arch, West-Central B.C.: A Geoscience BC Digital Data Compilation Project |
| Author(s): | MacIntyre, D.G. |
| Purpose: | The objective of this two year project is to promote new exploration along the Skeena arch by: compiling all existing data relevant to mineral exploration along the arch and building a GIS data-base, suing Manifold 6.5 GIS software, for use by explorationists; various data formats will be produced in order to make the data as widely useable as possible; data will be made available on CD and possibly over the internet in standard GIS format; and spatial analysis of the data and definition of explorations targets based on correlation of positive indicators, such as geochemical and geophysical anomalies and stratigraphic settings. |
| Series Name: | Geoscience BC Report |
| Publication Year: | 2006 |
| Other Citation Details: | Geoscience BC Report 2006-1 |
| Larger Work Citation: | in Geological Fieldwork 2005, Geoscience BC Report 2006-01, pages 303 to 312 |
| Scale: | 1:100000 |
| NTS Map Sheet(s): | 093E, 093L, 093M, 094D, 103I, 103P |
| Place Keyword(s): | British Columbia, Skeena arch |
| Lat/Long (NSWE): | 56, 53, -129, -126 |
| Theme Keyword(s): | Geoscience BC Fieldwork, digital data, GIS, mineral deposits, geology |
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Abstract:
| The Skeena Arch is a northeast-trending belt of uplifted Jurassic and older rocks that transects central British Columbia. This uplift is believed to have formed in the Middle Jurassic and resulted in separation of the Bowser and Nechako basins (Yorath, 1991). Rocks exposed along the Skeena Arch represent a long-lived magmatic arc that has produced a diverse range of mineral deposits in a wide variety of geological settings. This area represents some of the most richly endowed terrain in BC and has been the site of mineral exploration for the past 125 years. Since 1985, the BC Geological Survey and the Geological Survey of Canada have been involved in regional mapping projects along the Skeena arch, first as part of the Whitesail and Smithers projects (e.g., MacIntyre et al., 1989) and more recently as part of the Interior Plateau (Diakow et al., 1997) and Nechako NATMAP (MacIntyre et al., 1996a, 1996b, 1997, 1998; MacIntyre 1998, 2001a, b; MacIntyre and Villeneuve, 2001) projects. This work has resulted in a much better understanding of the geological evolution of the arch, particularly during the metallogenically important Jurassic through Cretaceous time periods. Although there are gaps in the map coverage, a large part of the project area (80%) has now been mapped in detail. These data were originally compiled at 1:100 000 scale as part of the Mineral Potential Project (MacIntyre et al., 1994) and revised and updated as part of the Digital Geology of BC Project (Massey et al., 2003, 2003a). The Skeena Arch Project will provide a means of bringing this and other digital datasets together as a series of standardized, digital geological maps with linked databases for structure, mineral occurrences, geochemistry, geophysics, geochronology and paleontology. A new series of 1:100 000-scale maps will be produced for the area and made available in digital and hardcopy format. |
