Skip Links

USGS - science for a changing world

Professional Paper 1709

Studies by the U.S. Geological Survey in Alaska, 2004

Edited by Peter J. Haeussler and John P. Galloway

A view of the Tordrillo Mountains and the Trimble Glacier in western Alaska Range. (USGS Photo by Peter Haeussler)Summary

The collection of six papers that follows continues the series of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) investigative reports in Alaska under the broad umbrella of the geologic sciences. This series represents new and sometimes-preliminary findings that are of interest to Earth scientists in academia, government, and industry; to land and resource managers; and to the general public. The reports presented in Studies by the U.S. Geological Survey in Alaska cover a broad spectrum of topics from various parts of the State, serving to emphasize the diversity of USGS efforts to meet the Nation's needs for Earth-science information in Alaska. This professional paper is the first “online only” version of Studies by the U.S. Geological Survey in Alaska, reflecting the current trend toward disseminating research results on the World Wide Web with rapid posting of completed reports.

The six papers in this volume cover a broad spectrum of Earth-science topics from many parts of Alaska. Houseknecht and Schenk describe Upper Cretaceous strata of the upper part of the Nanushuk Formation, the Seabee Formation, and the lower part of the Tuluvak Formation that are exposed along the Colville River on the east flank of Umiat Mountain in north-central Alaska. In the western Brooks Range, paleosols have been recognized in outcrops of the Endicott Group and Kingak Shale. Dumoulin and White present the first microscopic analysis of paleosols from these units, which provide the first evidence of subaerial exposure of the Siksikpuk and Ipewik Formations. An aeromagnetic study of the Lake Clark Fault by Haeussler reveals a north-trending band of magnetic anomalies that are right-laterally offset about 26 km across the fault in south-central Alaska. The magnetic anomalies correlate spatially with a belt of dated 34–39-m.y.-old granitic plutons. Therefore, the Lake Clark Fault apparently has had ~26 km of right-lateral offset in the past 34–39 m.y. The aeromagnetic data also define another previously unknown fault, which appears to have about 11 km of right-lateral offset. Calvert and others present a series of high-precision 40Ar/39Ar ages of selected lavas from Westdahl Volcano, in southwestern Alaska. A dike cutting an old pyroclastic flow and associated lahar deposits from a precursor volcano yields an age of 1,654 k.y., indicating that this precursor volcano is older than early Pleistocene. A total of 11 geographically distributed lavas with ages ranging from 47 to 127 k.y. date construction of the Westdahl volcanic center. Lava flows cut by an apparent caldera-rim structure yielded ages of 81±5 and 121±8 k.y., placing a maximum date of 81 ka on caldera formation.

Two other papers discuss the framework geology of southeastern Alaska. Himmelberg and Brew discuss thermobarometric constraints on mid-Cretaceous to Late Cretaceous metamorphic events in the western metamorphic belt of the Coast Mountains near Petersburg. The western metamorphic belt, which ranges from a few kilometers to several tens of kilometers in width, records a complex sequence of contact-metamorphic and regional metamorphic events. A second paper by Haeussler and others presents a laser-ablation/ICPMS study of detrital zircons from turbidites in the Sitka Graywacke. This monotonous unit was previously believed to be of essentially one age and to correlate with the Valdez Group, but another part is 25 m.y. older and correlates with rocks of the McHugh Complex in south-central Alaska.

First posted October 3, 2005

  • Professional Paper 1709-A, Haeussler, Peter J., and Saltus, Richard W., 2005, 26 km of offset on the Lake Clark Fault since late Eocene time.
  • Professional Paper 1709-B, Houseknecht, David W., and Schenk, Christopher J., 2005, Sedimentology and sequence stratigraphy of the Cretaceous Nanushuk, Seabee, and Tuluvak Formations exposed on Umiat Mountain, north-central Alaska.
  • Professional Paper 1709-C, Himmelberg, Glen R., and Brew, David A., 2005, Thermobarometric constraints on mid-Cretaceous to Late Cretaceous metamorphic events in the western metamorphic belt of the Coast Mountains Complex near Petersburg, southeastern Alaska.
  • Professional Paper 1709-D, Calvert, Andrew T., Moore, Richard B., and McGimsey, Robert G., 2005, Argon geochronology of late Pleistocene to Holocene Westdahl Volcano, Unimak Island, Alaska.
  • Professional Paper 1709-E, Dumoulin, Julie A., and White, Tim, 2005, Micromorphologic evidence for paleosol development in the Endicott Group, Siksikpuk Formation, Kingak(?) Shale, and Ipewik Formation, western Brooks Range, Alaska.
  • Professional Paper 1709-F, Haeussler, Peter J., Gehrels, George E., and Karl, Susan M., 2006, Constraints on the age and provenance of the Chugach accretionary complex from detrital zircons in the Sitka Graywacke near Sitka, Alaska.

Return to Studies by the U.S. Geological Survey in Alaska main page

  • These publications are online only

For additional information, contact:
Alaska Science Center staff
U.S. Geological Survey
4210 University Dr.
Anchorage, AK 99508
Alaska Mineral Resources
Alaska Science Center

Part or all of this report is presented in Portable Document Format (PDF). For best results viewing and printing PDF documents, it is recommended that you download the documents to your computer and open them with Adobe Reader. PDF documents opened from your browser may not display or print as intended. Download the latest version of Adobe Reader, free of charge. More information about viewing, downloading, and printing report files can be foundĀ here.


Suggested citation:

Haeussler, P.J., Galloway, J.P., eds., 2005, Studies by the U.S. Geological Survey in Alaska, 2004: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1709, https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/pp1709/.

ISSN 2330-7102 (online)



Contents

Professional Paper 1709-A, Haeussler, Peter J., and Saltus, Richard W., 2005, 26 km of offset on the Lake Clark Fault since late Eocene time.

Professional Paper 1709-B, Houseknecht, David W., and Schenk, Christopher J., 2005, Sedimentology and sequence stratigraphy of the Cretaceous Nanushuk, Seabee, and Tuluvak Formations exposed on Umiat Mountain, north-central Alaska.

Professional Paper 1709-C, Himmelberg, Glen R., and Brew, David A., 2005, Thermobarometric constraints on mid-Cretaceous to Late Cretaceous metamorphic events in the western metamorphic belt of the Coast Mountains Complex near Petersburg, southeastern Alaska.

Professional Paper 1709-D, Calvert, Andrew T., Moore, Richard B., and McGimsey, Robert G., 2005, Argon geochronology of late Pleistocene to Holocene Westdahl Volcano, Unimak Island, Alaska.

Professional Paper 1709-E, Dumoulin, Julie A., and White, Tim, 2005, Micromorphologic evidence for paleosol development in the Endicott Group, Siksikpuk Formation, Kingak(?) Shale, and Ipewik Formation, western Brooks Range, Alaska.

Professional Paper 1709-F, Haeussler, Peter J., Gehrels, George E., and Karl, Susan M., 2006, Constraints on the age and provenance of the Chugach accretionary complex from detrital zircons in the Sitka Graywacke near Sitka, Alaska.


Accessibility FOIA Privacy Policies and Notices

Take Pride in America logo USA.gov logo U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://pubsdata.usgs.gov/pubs/pp/pp1709/index.html
Page Contact Information: GS Pubs Web Contact
Page Last Modified: Thursday, 01-Dec-2016 16:09:53 EST