SURFICIAL DEPOSITS IN THE LOUIS CREEK AND CHU CHUA CREEK AREA
Surficial geological mapping and drift exploration studies were undertaken in the summer of 1997 north of Kamloops in NTS map sheets 92Pil (Louis Creek) and 92P18 (Chu Chua Creek), as a continuation of the Eagle Bay Project initiated in the previous year (Bohrowsky et al., 1997; Dixon-Warren er al., 1997). The surticial component is pat of an integrated regional study centred on Devono-Mississippian rocks of the Eagle Bay Assemblage and Permian to Devonian rocks of the Fennell Formation. Massive sulphide deposits hosted in stratiform volcanogenic assemblages of the Fennell Formation at Chu Chua (MINFILE 092P 140) and syngenetic sedimentary rocks of the Eagle Bay Assemblage at Mount Armour (MINFILE 092P 051) suggest the region has considerable mineral potential. Polymetallic gold-bearing veins hosted in volcanic and volcanogenic rocks of the Fennel Formation at Windpass (MINFILE 092P 039) also suggest a high potential for gold in the area. Several placer occurrences of Au have also been recorded in the region.
Glacial transport and secondary hydromorphic metal mobilization: examples from the southern interior of British Columbia, Canada
Abstract Glacial transport of trace elements was studied at seven mineral occurrences in the southern interior of British Columbia; a region where mineral exploration is hampered by the scarcity of bedrock outcrop and by a variable sediment thickness associated with the Cordilleran Ice Sheet. The till deposited in the region was, for the most part, a product of the last glacial period. A review of previous geochemical studies conducted by the mineral exploration industry provides an indication to the variable configuration of the local dispersal patterns in the area. Dispersal trains in till are short, generally < 1–2 km, rarely exceeding 10 km in length and are usually proximal to bedrock source. They are commonly ribbon-shaped and rarely exceed 1 km in width. Observed dispersal patterns suggest that drastic changes in topography might have affected basal ice velocity which increased the distance of glacial transport. In addition, the distance that separates bedrock mineralization from its surficial geochemical expression in till varies with drift thickness and topography. Several glacial dispersal trains have been modified in shape by secondary hydromorphic dispersion.
Flow patterns in the central North American ice sheet
Patterns of glacial dispersal of lithologically distinctive erratics around Hudson Bay show the central portion of the North American Laurentide ice sheet to have been made up of at least two land-based centres, one that grew and dissipated in Keewatin, and one that grew and dissipated in Nouveau Quebec–Labrador.