Bedrock geology of southwest McQuesten (NTS 115P) and part of northern Carmacks (NTS 115I) map area

The Southwest McQuesten-northern Carmacks area is primarily underlain by rocks of the Yukon-Tanana terrane which is divided into two distinct belts separated by the Willow Creek fault: 1) a central belt of polydeformed, upper greenschist-amphibolite facies metasedimentary and metaplutonic rocks of Permian and older ages; and 2) a northeastern belt of generally undeformed and unmetamorphosed volcano-plutonic rocks of the Early Mississippian Reid Lakes complex. The southern part of the area is underlain mainly by rocks of Quesnellia and Stikinia, including: 1) Paleozoic retrogressed metamorphic rocks of the Boswell assemblage; 2) Upper Triassic augite-phyric volcanic rocks; and 3) Early Jurassic granitoids of the Aishihik plutonic suite. These rocks are dissected by a series of dextral strike-slip faults, probably related to the Teslin fault system. Post-accretion rocks include: 1) mid-Cretaceous biotite monzogranite plutons; 2) dacite and minor basalt of the Upper Cretaceous Carmacks Group; and 3) Quaternary basalt of the Selkirk volcanics. The southwest McQuesten-northern Carmacks area is under-explored, but shares many geological attributes with nearby, highly prospective districts such as the Dawson Range mineral belt, the recently discovered White Gold area and the producing Minto Mine.

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Last Updated April 17, 2026, 17:35 (UTC)
Created April 17, 2026, 17:35 (UTC)
contact_email eservices@gov.yk.ca
contact_person {"en": "Yukon Geological Survey", "fr": "Yukon Geological Survey"}
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open_canada_date_published 2011-04-04 00:00:00
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