CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Ferbey, T.; and Levson, V.
Date : 2001.
Title : Quaternary geology and till Geochemistry of the Huckleberry Mine area.
Publication : Geological Fieldwork 2000. A Summary of Field Activities and Research. B.C. Ministry of Energy and Mines, Paper
Issue : 2001-1:
Page(s) : 397-410.
Abstract
This paper summarizes Quaternary geology and till geochemistry studies conducted as part of a detailed case study on the Huckleberry Mine area. The study was initiated as a follow up to previous research conducted in the Nechako Plateau on the Late Wisconsinan glacial history of west-central British Columbia; specifically, studies that have confirmed the westward flow of ice from the interior of British Columbia towards the Pacific Ocean. Preliminary analyses of ice flow data indicate that glaciers early in the Fraser Glaciation, sourced in high elevation areas in the Coast Mountains, flowed easterly through the Huckleberry Mine area into the Nechako Plateau, but west to southwest ice flow dominated in the region during the glacial maximum. This latter event was regionally significant as there is clear evidence of west to southwest ice flow across mountain peaks above elevations of 1500 metres in the Huckleberry region, and across high mountain ranges elsewhere in the western part of the Nechako Plateau. The source of ice for this event was an ice dome(s) east of the study area in central British Co-lumbia, which formed a migrating ice divide(s). Towards the end of the Late Wisconsinan this divide locally shifted west back towards the Coast Mountains, probably as the ice sheet that covered west-central British Columbia began to thin. As a result, in some areas such as in the region east of the Huckleberry mine, ice flow directions reversed and glaciers again flowed east and northeast from the Tahtsa Ranges out into the Nechako Plateau. Geochemical analyses conducted to date in the Huck-leberry mine area show significant variance both laterally and in vertical profile, in elemental concentrations of basal tills. Preliminary results indicate that copper concentrations in basal till decrease with increasing distance from known mineralization and are consistent with westerly dispersal in most cases. This relationship is observed in both bore hole samples and in routine surface samples although there are some indications of early easterly dis-persal in the region. Also of interest is an area of anomalous copper (>80th percentile) in surface till samples on the west end of the Huckleberry Mine property. Copper concentrations there gradually decrease west of a site with the second highest copper value (1351 ppm) in till encountered in the study area to date. Copper concentrations in till east of this site, closer to the Main Zone, are relatively low suggesting the presence of a westerly di-rected dispersal plume. Although the source of mineralization for this dispersal plume could be mineralized volcanics under the tailings pond (approximately 750 metres east), or possibly even the Main Zone further (~2 kilometres) to the east, the data is suggestive of an as yet unidentified source closer to the till anomaly. The results and interpretations presented here are preliminary. Further analyses on striae data, fabric measurements, and pebble counts are required to refine the ice flow model presented for the Huckleberry Mine property. More geochemical analyses are also needed before dis-persal plumes, and their two and three-dimensional geometry, can be thoroughly investigated, and before the effects of a shifting ice divide in the Huckleberry Mine area on geochemical dispersal in till, can be fully determined.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology