Abstract: The Paleoproterozoic Wernecke Supergroup is a >13 km-thick metasedimentary succession exposed in the Wernecke, Ogilvie and Richardson mountains of central and northern Yukon. A program of field and laboratory investigations was initiated in 2007 in order to constrain the provenance, age and environment of deposition of the Wernecke Supergroup, as well as to better constrain the age of subsequent Proterozoic deformation (Racklan orogeny). Clastic and carbonate samples were collected from the Wernecke Supergroup for analysis of detrital and metamorphic minerals, as well as whole rocks, using a range of isotopic methods. Preliminary results from U-Pb analysis of detrital zircons from quartz sandstone beds, using ion probe mass spectrometry, are provided in this report. Patterns of the detrital zircon ages are broadly comparable to other Paleo- to Mesoproterozoic basins in Canada, suggesting a common Laurentian source. The maximum age of the Supergroup of 1.61 ± 0.03 Ga is provided by the age of the youngest detrital grain, which is ~0.1 Ga younger than expected.

Authors: Furlanetto, F., Thorkelson, D.J., Davis, W.J., Gibson, H.D., Rainbird, R.H. and Marshall, D.D.

Keywords: detrital zircon, Racklan Orogeny

NTS Mapsheet(s): 106D09, 106L06

Citation: Furlanetto, F., Thorkelson, D.J., Davis, W.J., Gibson, H.D., Rainbird, R.H. and Marshall, D.D., 2009. Preliminary results of detrital zircon geochronology, Wernecke Supergroup, Yukon. In: Yukon Exploration and Geology 2008, L.H. Weston, L.R. Blackburn and L.L. Lewis (eds.), Yukon Geological Survey, p. 125-136.

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