Dynamic Computer Model for the Metallogenesis and Tectonics of the Circum-North Pacific

By

W.J. Nokleberg (U.S. Geological Survey), C.R. Scotese (University of Texas, Arlington), T.K. Bundtzen (Pacific Rim Geological Consulting, Inc.), L.M. Parfenov (Yakutian Academy of Sciences), J.W.H. Monger, K.M. Dawson (Geological Survey of Canada), A.I. Khanchuk, N.A. Goryachev, V.I. Shpikerman (Russian Academy of Sciences), and I.O. Norton (Exxon Exploration Company)

The metallogenic and tectonic development of the Circum-North Pacific (Russian Far East, Alaska, Canadian Cordillera, and adjacent offshore areas) is illustrated in a dynamic computer model that portrays the formation of a series of metallogenic belts. The Phanerozoic metallogenic and tectonic evolution of the Circum-North Pacific (Russian Far East, Alaska, and the Canadian Cordillera) is recorded in the cratons, craton margins, and orogenic collages of the Circum- North Pacific mountain belts that separate the North Pacific from the eastern North Asian and western North American Cratons. The collages consist of tectonostratigraphic terranes with older metallogenic belts that are composed of fragments of igneous arcs, accretionary-wedge and subduction-zone complexes, passive continental margins, and cratons; they are overlapped by continental-margin- arc and sedimentary-basin assemblages with younger metallogenic belts. The metallogenic and geologic history of terranes, overlap assemblages, cratons, and craton margins is highly complicated because of post-accretion dismemberment and translation during strike-slip faulting that occurred subparallel to continental margins.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90008©2002 AAPG Pacific Section/SPE Western Region Joint Conference of Geoscientists and Petroleum Engineers, Anchorage, Alaska, May 18–23, 2002.