Transport of the Yakutat Terrane, Southern Alaska: Evidence from Sediment Petrology and Detrital Zircon Fission-Track and U/Pb Double Dating

Abstract

Two hypotheses have been offered to account for the transport and accretion history of the Yakutat terrane in southern Alaska. To investigate these two options, we deconvolved fission-track (FT) and U/Pb ages of detrital zircons from stratigraphically coordinated samples collected in the northern Robinson Mountains into component populations. The strata of the Yakutat terrane include the Middle Eocene Kulthieth Formation, the Lower Oligocene to Lower Miocene Poul Creek Formation, and the Miocene-Pleistocene Yakataga Formation. The Kulthieth and Poul Creek formations record erosion of a simple, uniform, long-lived, nonvolcanic source terrain that crystallized from ∼50 to 220 Ma and cooled from ∼40 to 110 Ma. Miocene cooling episodes recorded in the source to the Kulthieth and Poul Creek formations are likely associated with plutons in the northern Coast Plutonic Complex and the Kuiu-Etoilin belt. The Upper Miocene to Pleistocene Yakataga Formation records erosion of rocks that crystallized from ∼50 to 53 Ma and cooled below the zircon FT closure at ∼70–20 Ma. Upper Miocene strata are likely derived from erosion of the Chugach–Prince William terranes and the superimposed Sanak-Baranof plutonic belt. The uniform provenance of the Kulthieth and Poul Creek formations, the overall FT grain age distribution, and the distinct lack of volcanic zircons favor a northern position of the Yakutat terrane since the Eocene. However, a far-traveled southern option for the basement rocks cannot be ruled out, but it is unlikely that the Eocene and younger cover strata were deposited far to the south.