ABSTRACT The time interval from Supercontinent Nuna assembly in the late Paleoproterozoic to Supercontinent Rodinia breakup in the Neoproterozoic is considered by some geologists to comprise the “Boring Billion,” an interval possibly marked by a slowdown in plate tectonic processes. In northeastern Washington State, USA, similar to much of western Laurentia, early workers generally thought the tectonostratigraphic framework of this interval of geologic time consisted of two major sequences, the (ca. 1480–1380 Ma) Mesoproterozoic Belt Supergroup and unconformably overlying (<720 Ma) Neoproterozoic Windermere Supergroup. However, recent research indicates that strata considered by early workers as Belt Supergroup equivalents are actually younger, and a post-Belt, pre-Windermere record is present within the <1360 Ma Deer Trail Group and <760 Ma Buffalo Hump Formation. Thus, the northeastern Washington region perhaps comprises the most complete stratigraphic record of the “Boring Billion” time interval in the northwestern United States and holds important insights into global Proterozoic supercontinent tectonic processes. In light of these exciting developments, this field guide will address the early historic economic geology and original mapping of these Proterozoic sequences in the northeastern Washington region, and from that foundation explore more recent isotopic provenance data and their regional to global context. Finally, the guide will end with a discussion of remaining questions with a goal of stimulating interest in these relatively understudied, yet important, rocks.

The Blackbird cobalt-copper (Co-Cu) district in the Salmon River Mountains of east-central Idaho occupies the central part of the Idaho cobalt belt—a northwest-elongate, 55-km-long belt of Co-Cu occurrences, hosted in grayish siliciclastic metasedimentary strata of the Lemhi subbasin (of the Mesoproterozoic Belt-Purcell Basin). The Blackbird district contains at least eight stratabound ore zones and many discordant lodes, mostly in the upper part of the banded siltite unit of the Apple Creek Formation of Yellow Lake, which generally consists of interbedded siltite and argillite. In the Blackbird mine area, argillite beds in six stratigraphic intervals are altered to biotitite containing over 75 vol% of greenish hydrothermal biotite, which is preferentially mineralized. Past production and currently estimated resources of the Blackbird district total ~17 Mt of ore, averaging 0.74% Co, 1.4% Cu, and 1.0 ppm Au (not including downdip projections of ore zones that are open downward). A compilation of relative-age relationships and isotopic age determinations indicates that most cobalt mineralization occurred in Mesoproterozoic time, whereas most copper mineralization occurred in Cretaceous time. Mesoproterozoic cobaltite mineralization accompanied and followed dynamothermal metamorphism and bimodal plutonism during the Middle Mesoproterozoic East Kootenay orogeny (ca. 1379–1325 Ma), and also accompanied Grenvilleage (Late Mesoproterozoic) thermal metamorphism (ca. 1200–1000 Ma). Stratabound cobaltite-biotite ore zones typically contain cobaltite 1 in a matrix of biotitite ± tourmaline ± minor xenotime (ca. 1370–1320 Ma) ± minor chalcopyrite ± sparse allanite ± sparse microscopic native gold in cobaltite. Such cobaltite-biotite lodes are locally folded into tight F 2 folds with axial-planar S 2 cleavage and schistosity. Discordant replacement-style lodes of cobaltite 2 -biotite ore ± xenotime 2 (ca. 1320–1270 Ma) commonly follow S 2 fractures and fabrics. Discordant quartz-biotite and quartz-tourmaline breccias, and veins contain cobaltite 3 ± xenotime 3 (ca. 1058–990 Ma). Mesoproterozoic cobaltite deposition was followed by: (1) within-plate plutonism (530–485 Ma) and emplacement of mafic dikes (which cut cobaltite lodes but are cut by quartz-Fe-Cu-sulfide veins); (2) garnet-grade metamorphism (ca. 151–93 Ma); (3) Fe-Cu-sulfide mineralization (ca. 110–92 Ma); and (4) minor quartz ± Au-Ag ± Bi mineralization (ca. 92–83 Ma). Cretaceous Fe-Cu-sulfide vein, breccia, and replacement-style deposits contain various combinations of chalcopyrite ± pyrrhotite ± pyrite ± cobaltian arsenopyrite (not cobaltite) ± arsenopyrite ± quartz ± siderite ± monazite (ca. 144–88 Ma but mostly 110–92 Ma) ± xenotime (104–93 Ma). Highly radiogenic Pb (in these sulfides) and Sr (in siderite) indicate that these elements resided in Mesoproterozoic source rocks until they were mobilized after ca. 100 Ma. Fe-Cu-sulfide veins, breccias, and replacement deposits appear relatively undeformed and generally lack metamorphic fabrics. Composite Co-Cu-Au ore contains early cobaltite-biotite lodes, cut by Fe-Cu-sulfide veins and breccias, or overprinted by Fe-Cu-sulfide replacement-style deposits, and locally cut by quartz veinlets ± Au-Ag ± Bi minerals.

Abstract Sandstone-hosted copper (sandstone Cu) deposits occur within a 200-km reach of the northern Chu-Sarysu basin of central Kazakhstan (Dzhezkazgan and Zhaman-Aibat deposits, and the Zhilandy group of deposits). The deposits consist of Cu sulfide minerals as intergranular cement and grain replacement in 10 ore-bearing members of sandstone and conglomerate within a 600- to 1,000-m thick Pennsylvanian fluvial red-bed sequence. Copper metal content of the deposits ranges from 22 million metric tons (Mt, Dzehzkazgan) to 0.13 Mt (Karashoshak in the Zhilandy group), with average grades of 0.85 to 1.7% Cu and significant values for silver (Ag) and rhenium (Re). Broader zones of iron reduction (bleaching) of sandstones and conglomerates of the red-bed sequence extend over 10 km beyond each of the deposits along E-NE-trending anticlines, which began to form in the Pennsylvanian. The bleached zones and organic residues within them are remnants of former petroleum fluid accumulations trapped by these anticlines. Deposit sites along these F 1 anticlines are localized at and adjacent to the intersections of nearly orthogonal N-NW-trending F 2 synclines. These structural lows served to guide the flow of dense ore brines across the petroleum-bearing anticlines, resulting in ore sulfide precipitation where the two fluids mixed. The ore brine was sourced either from the overlying Early Permian lacustrine evaporitic basin, whose depocenter occurs between the major deposits, or from underlying Upper Devonian marine evaporites. Sulfur isotopes indicate biologic reduction of sulfate but do not resolve whether the sulfate was contributed from the brine or from the petroleum fluids. New Re-Os age dates of Cu sulfides from the Dzhezkazgan deposit indicate that mineralization took place between 299 to 309 Ma near the Pennsylvanian-Permian age boundary. At the Dzhezkazgan and some Zhilandy deposits, F 2 fold deformation continued after ore deposition. Copper orebodies in Lower Permian shale near the Zhaman-Aibat deposit indicate that at least some of the mineralization there is younger than at Dzhezkazgan, consistent with the Re-Os age and with differences in their ore Pb isotopes.

Abstract West-central Alaska includes a broad area that stretches from the Bering and Chukchi seacoasts on the west to the upper Yukon-Tanana Rivers region on the east, and from the Brooks Range on the north to the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta on the south. It covers 275,000 km 2 , nearly one-fifth of the entire state—and all or parts of 29 1:250,000 scale quadrangles (Fig. 1). Rolling hills with summit altitudes between 300 and 1,000 m and isolated mountain ranges that rise to a maximum altitude of 1,500 m characterize the area (Wahrhaftig, this volume). The uplands are separated by broad alluviated coastal and interior lowlands that stand less than 200 m above sea level. Bedrock exposures are generally limited to elevations above 500 m and to cutbanks along the streams. The bedrock underlying this huge area consists of six pre-mid-Cretaceous lithotectonic terranes, which were assembled by Early Cretaceous time and were subsequently overlapped by mid- and Upper Cretaceous terrigenous sediments (Figs. 2 and 3; Jones and others, 1987; Silberling and others, this volume). The bedrock in the east-central part is composed of lower Paleozoic sedimentary rocks and Precambrian metamorphic rocks that belong to the Nixon Fork and Minchumina terranes. A broad mid-Cretaceous uplift, the Ruby geanticline (Fig. 4), borders the Nixon Fork terrane on the northwest and extends diagonally across the area from the eastern Brooks Range to the lower Yukon River valley. The core of the geanticline consists of the Ruby terrane, an assemblage of Precambrian(?) and Paleozoic continental rocks that was metamorphosed

Abstract Southwest Alaska lies between the Yukon-Koyukuk province to the north, and the Alaska Peninsula to the south (Wahrhaftig, this volume). It includes the southwestern Alaska Range, the Kuskokwim Mountains, the Ahklun Mountains, the Bristol Bay Lowland, and the Minchumina and Holitna basins. It is an area of approximately 175,000 km 2 , and, with the exception of the rugged southwestern Alaska Range and Ahklun Mountains, consists mostly of low rolling hills. The oldest rocks in the region are metamorphic rocks with Early Proterozoic protolith ages that occur as isolated exposures in the central Kuskokwim Mountains, and in fault contact with Mesozoic accretionary rocks of the Bristol Bay region. Precambrian metamorphic rocks also occur in the northern Kuskokwim Mountains and serve as depositional basement for Paleozoic shelf deposits. A nearly continuous sequence of Paleozoic continental margin rocks underlies much of the southwestern Alaska Range and northern Kuskokwim Mountains. The most extensive unit in southwest Alaska is the predominantly Upper Cretaceous Kuskokwim Group, which, in large part, rests unconformably on older rocks of the region. Volcanic rocks of Mesozoic age are common in the Bristol Bay region, and volcanic and plutonic rocks of latest Cretaceous and earliest Tertiary age are common throughout southwest Alaska. Two major northeast-trending faults are known to traverse southwest Alaska, the Denali-Farewell fault system to the south, and the Iditarod-Nixon Fork fault to the north. Latest Cretaceous and Tertiary right-lateral offsets of less than 150 km characterize both faults. The Susulatna lineament (or Poorman fault), north of the Iditarod-Nixon Fork

Abstract This chapter describes and gives elemental abundances of many of the accreted volcanic rocks and of a few hypabyssal rocks of Alaska. These rocks range from early Paleozoic (or perhaps late Precambrian) to Eocene age. All formed prior to accretion of the terrane containing them and thus were generated either as primary features in the ancestral Pacific Ocean or on terranes or superterranes carried by plates underlying that ocean. These accreted volcanic rocks are important in terms of continental growth by accretion of oceanic rocks. Various workers have asserted that such growth is by accretion of intraoceanic island arcs. This assertion, however, must be appreciably modified for the ca. 400,000-km 2 region of southern and central Alaska that is underlain by accreted rocks. Though these rocks are not known in sufficient detail to yield a precise figure, I estimate that no more than 70 to 75 percent of this newly formed crust consists of former island arcs and arc-derived epiclastic sedimentary rocks. Most of the tectonostratigraphic (lithotectonic) terranes of Alaska have minor exposures of volcanic rocks. Accounts of local and regional geology of the state contain cursory to extensive descriptions of such rocks. However, a catalog of such occurrences is not considered appropriate for this volume, and we discuss here only rocks studied by modern methods. The particular terranes containing these rocks are shown on Plate 13 (Barker and others, this volume), whereas all tectonostratigraphic terranes of Alaska are shown on Plate 3 (Silberling and others, this volume). Though virtually all

Abstract Mafic and ultramafic complexes are widespread throughout Alaska, ranging in size from huge allochthonous masses several hundred square kilometers in area to tiny isolated blocks (Fig. 1). Some of these, such as the complexes in northern and western Alaska, clearly can be labeled ophiolites; others, such as the concentrically zoned bodies of southeastern Alaska, are not ophiolites; and still others, such as those in the Livengood belt of central Alaska, have uncertain affinities. All of the complexes discussed here, however, belong to well-defined belts that for the most part are confined to specific lithotectonic terranes or lie along terrane boundaries. Few of these complexes have been studied in detail, and the mode and time of emplacement of most are uncertain or controversial. In this chapter, we review available information on the structural setting and petrography of the complexes, and we describe the tectonic models that have been suggested to explain the mode of emplacement.