| Popis: |
Approximately half of the exposed bedrock in northern Alaska has been regionally metamorphosed. In the southern Brooks Range and on the Seward Peninsula, continental rocks experienced a clockwise pressure-temperature path that evolved during Middle Jurassic to late Early Cretaceous time from the low- to high-temperature subfacies of the blueschist facies and, finally, due to decreasing pressure, evolved to the greenschist facies. Metamorphism in the southern Brooks Range was associated with north-vergent compression along a south-dipping subduction zone that emplaced the oceanic rocks of the Angayucham terrane onto the continental margin. High-pressure metamorphism on the Seward Peninsula probably had a similar origin to that in the southern Brooks Range, but remnants of the overriding plate have not been identified, and the mechanism by which the high-pressure rocks in the two areas were separated is not known. In the Ruby geanticline, glaucophane, attesting to high-pressure metamorphism, is sporadically developed both within the continental rocks of the lower plate and, less commonly, near the base of the overlying oceanic thrust sheets. Although the majority of the metamorphic episodes that affected northern Alaska occurred during the Mesozoic, older episodes have been documented or are suspected in a few areas. |
