Structure and metamorphism at the western margin of the Omineca belt near Boss mountain, east central British Columbia
Creators: name: Fillipone, Jeffrey Alan
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2010

description: Rocks of the Hadrynian and Early Paleozoic (?) Snowshoe Group comprise the core of the Boss Mountain area at the western margin of the Omineca Belt near Crooked Lake. Structurally overlying these are rocks of the Intermontane Belt: the Permian Slide Mountain Group (Antler Formation), Triassic fine grained sediments (unnamed), and Jurassic volcanic rocks (Takla Group). In the Snowshoe Group, a large, lensoid intrusion of coarse grained granitic rock (Boss Mountain gneiss) was emplaced during the mid-Paleozoic, and later deformed and metamorphosed with the enclosing metasediments. The rocks of the Snowshoe Group act as basement to the overlying Late Paleozoic/Early Mesozoic cover rocks. Within the basement, four phases of regionally significant deformation have been recognized, and are manifest as fold generations designated Fl through F4. Earliest structures, Fl, in the Snowshoe Group are isoclinal folds, accompanied by a transposed foliation of regional extent, which are overprinted by penetrative deformation related to easterly verging F2 nappe structures. The F3 folds are upright or inclined to the northeast, and give a consistent southwesterly sense of vergence. These folds are responsible for the regional map pattern, and have folded both the basement and cover into an antiformal culmination in the Boss Mountain area. Fourth phase structures refold the other features, but do not appreciably affect the F3 geometry. In the cover sequences, the first phase of deformation is equivalent to the second phase within the basement During the Phase 2 deformational episode the cover rocks were emplaced over rocks of the Snowshoe Group. West-dipping imbricate faults characterize the western margin of the area, where basement rocks contain fault-bounded slivers of the cover, and the tectonic contact between basement and cover rocks is marked by a zone of mylonitization. Similarly, the F2 and F3 folding phases in the cover are equivalent to the F3 and F4 structures in the basement, respectively, but are only weakly developed in the cover. An early, enigmatic metamorphic event accompanied Phase 1 deformation in rocks of the Snowshoe Group. Field relations suggest that this was probably coeval with the mid-Paleozoic emplacement of the Boss Mountain gneiss. Metamorphism during the Jurassic was synchronous with F2 deformation in rocks of the Snowshoe Group, and resulted in Barrovian type mineral assemblages ranging from the biotite through sillimanite zones. The metamorphic grade increases from west to east; with only low grade metamorphism of the cover rocks in the study area. Phase 2 structures in the Snowshoe Group were overprinted by the peak of this metamorphic event, as indicated by staurolite through sillimanite zone assemblages. The Boss Mountain area is structurally correlative with rocks of the Shuswap Complex. These rocks appear to comprise a portion of the continental margin sedimentary wedge, which was overridden by an allochthonous terrane accreted to the western margin of North America in post-Early Jurassic times.