Upper Triassic Takla Group volcanic rocks, Stikine Terrane, north-central British Columbia: geochemistry, petrogenesis, and tectonic implications

Abstract

The Upper Triassic Takla Group volcano-sedimentary assemblage is part of the Stikine Terrane of the Intermontane Belt in the Canadian Cordillera and covers an area of more than 30 000 km2 in a belt up to 50 km wide and more than 800 km long. In the McConnell Creek area of north-central British Columbia, the assemblage consists of plagioclase-clinopyroxene-phyric, dominantly basaltic to andesitic flows and pyroclastic rocks, interlayered with volcanogenic sedimentary rocks. Compositionally, the volcanic rocks are intermediate between tholeiitic and calc-alkaline. Their mantle-normalized trace element patterns are characterized by a moderate large-ion lithophile element enrichment and Nb and Ti depletion, suggesting that magmatism occurred in a volcanic-arc setting. Flat, heavy rare earth element chondrite-normalized patterns with (La/Yb)n ratios from 2 to 4.5 suggest that the parent magma was produced by mantle melting in the spinel stability field. The low Sr isotopic ratios (87Sr/86Sri approximately equal to 0.7033-0.7043) and positive εNd values (~ +7) indicate that an older sialic crust was not involved in their genesis. A coeval and compositionally similar volcano-sedimentary assemblage, also of the Takla Group, occurs in the adjacent Quesnel Terrane, in fault contact with the Stikinian Takla Group. Chemical resemblances between the Takla Groups of the Stikine and Quesnel terranes suggest that the volcanic assemblages may have had similar source compositions and melt histories. These results emphasize larger scale similarities between the Stikine and Quesnel terranes and suggest the Upper Triassic volcanic suites represent different fragments of the same early Mesozoic arc system.