Cache Creek terrane entrapment: Oroclinal paradox within the Canadian Cordillera

Abstract

Exotic and far‐traveled oceanic crustal rocks of the Cache Creek terrane (CC) are bordered by less exotic Quesnel (QN) and Stikine (ST) arc terranes to the east, north, and west. All of these terranes are enveloped by an arcuate belt of displaced continental margin rocks; the Kootenay (KO), Nisling (NS), and parts of the Yukon‐Tanana (YTT) terranes, that have indirect ties to ancestral North America (NA). Initial 87Sr/86Sr isopleths conform to this arcuate pattern. Such a pattern of concentric belts presents a geological conundrum: How did the QN, ST, and CC come to be virtually enveloped by terranes with ties to NA? Past and current models that explain assembly of the Canadian Cordillera are deficient in their treatment of this problem. We propose that Early Mesozoic QN and ST were joined through their northern ends as two adjacent arc festoons that faced south toward the Cache Creek ocean (Panthalassa?). Oceanic plateau remnants within the CC today were transported from the Tethyan realm and collided with these arcs during subduction of the Cache Creek ocean. Counterclockwise oroclinal rotation of ST and NS terranes in the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic caused enclosure of the CC. Rotation continued until these terranes collided with QN in the Middle Jurassic. Paleomagnetic declination data provide support for this model in the form of large average anticlockwise rotations for Permian to Early Jurassic sites in ST but moderate clockwise rotations for sites in QN. Specific modern analogues for the Cordilleran orocline include the Yap trench, where the Caroline rise is colliding end‐on with the Mariana Arc and the Banda Arc, located on the southeastern “tail” of the Asian plate, which is being deformed into a tight loop by interactions with the Australian and Pacific plates.