Aspects of cordilleran geothermal history from fission-track analysis in the Lewis and Coleman overthrust plates, southwestern Alberta and southeastern British Columbia

Conference · Sat Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1991 · AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States)

OSTI ID:5861782

Osadetz, K G ^[1]; Kohn, B P; Feinstein, S ^[2]; Price, R A ^[3]

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1. Inst. of Sedimentary and Petroleum Geology, Calgary, Alberta (Canada)
2. Ben Gurion Univ. of Negev, Beer Sheva (Israel)
3. Queen's Univ., Kingston, Ontario (Canada)

Apatite fission-track data from pre-Tertiary rocks in the southern Canadian Front Range and Foothills are younger than their stratigraphic ages, indicating thermal setting. Limited confined track-length distribution data indicate rapid cooling from the total annealing zone at about the age recorded. There appears to be a consistent difference between apatite ages of the Lewis plate (64-80 Ma) and the underlying Coleman plate (46-59 Ma). Zircon single-grain fission-track age distributions in both overthrust plates show a long tail of scattered ages but with a distinctive signal, indicating thermal resetting during the Cretaceous or Tertiary. The age of the thermal zircon fission-track resetting signal overlaps or is only slightly older than corrected apatite fission-track ages, in their respective thrust plates. Between 70 and 80 Ma, Lewis plate samples experienced temperatures higher than those required for total apatite annealing and were subsequently cooled vary rapidly through apatite fission-track annealing to apatite fission-track stability temperatures. The Coleman plate data suggest an analogous thermal history but occurring 15-20 Ma later, during the early Tertiary. Oligocene sediments in the Flathead graben have apatite fission-track ages and track lengths like that of the Lewis plate, the known source of these sediments, indicating no significant postorogenic thermal events.

• OSTI ID: 5861782
• Report Number(s): CONF-9107109--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States) Journal Volume: 75:6
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
152003* -- Geothermal Data & Theory-- Rock-Water-Gas Interactions
58 GEOSCIENCES
580000 -- Geosciences
AGE ESTIMATION
ALBERTA
ANNEALING
APATITES
BRITISH COLUMBIA
CANADA
CENOZOIC ERA
CRETACEOUS PERIOD
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
FISSION TRACKS
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GEOLOGIC FAULTS
GEOLOGIC FRACTURES
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GEOLOGY
GEOTHERMAL SYSTEMS
HEAT TREATMENTS
HYDROTHERMAL ALTERATION
MESOZOIC ERA
MINERALS
NORTH AMERICA
PARTICLE TRACKS
PHOSPHATE MINERALS
RECRYSTALLIZATION
ROCK-FLUID INTERACTIONS
SILICATE MINERALS
STRATIGRAPHY
TERTIARY PERIOD
ZIRCON