Abstract
The northern Canadian Cordillera contains a second fold and thrust belt west of the well-known Rocky Mountain fold and thrust belt and the metamorphic/plutonic Omineca belt. The Skeena fold belt occupies one quarter of the width of the Cordillera, and merges to the west with a second plutonic/metamorphic belt, the Coast Plutonic Complex. The Skeena fold belt has many features common to thin-skinned fold and thrust belts, including: low-angle thrust faults which sole into a detachment; a wide variety of fold styles depending on the rock type; a minimum of 44% shortening; a foreland basin that was cannibalized by continued deformation; termination in a frontal triangle zone; and a hinterland of metamorphic and plutonic rocks. The Skeena fold belt is similar in many respects to the Rocky Mountain fold and thrust belt, but rather than involving a continental terrace wedge, it deformed a terrane of Devonian to Lower Jurassic strata (Stikinia) which accreted to North America in the early Mesozoic. Also deformed is the Jurassic to Cretaceous clastic succession which overlies Stikinia, and the Cretaceous clastic succession of the associated foreland basin.
Published Version
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