Roadside Geology of the Dempster Highway, Northwest Territories and YukonA traveler?s guide to the Geology of Canada?s most northwesternroad

This guidebook describes the rocks and landforms along the Dempster Highway. The southern terminus of the highway is located near Dawson City in west-central Yukon. A drive along the Dempster Highway takes you from its junction with the South Klondike Highway (Hwy 2), 717 km northeastward to Inuvik, Northwest Territories. On road maps this is Highway 8 in Northwest Territories, and Highway 5 in Yukon. The Dempster Highway traverses diverse geological features and many contrasting landscapes. It passes rocks created hundreds of millions of years ago, mountain ranges with a complex history of continental collision, hints of the energy resources at depth, and evidence of recent glaciations. The guide is an update and expansion of a guide produced for a fieldtrip sponsored by the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists (Norris et al., 1992). It also incorporates information from a guide by Tarnocai et al. (1993) and observations of the contributors in 2005 and 2006. In this guidebook you will find an introduction to the general bedrock geology, glacial history and mineral resources of the area, followed by a road log, and a glossary explaining geological terms.