1. Yukon & Alaska

3. Our Route in Canada & Alaska

4. Yukon: Drainage Divides Peel River Drainage Area Yukon River Drainage Area Mackenzie River Drainage Area Yukon Natural Resources

5. Yukon Natural Resources

6. Topographic Map: Yukon & NW Territory A continuation of the Mountains of BC

7. Fault Bounded Regional Geologic: Mountains of BC and Yukon On into Alaska

9. Geological Map of Yukon, BC & Alberta Yukon geology: a northern continuation of the geology in BC

10. Omineca Belt

11. Mackenzie Mountains

12. Yukon Mackenzie Mountains

13. Alaska

15. No Copper or Tin

16. Complex collage of Mountain Ranges The Siberian Connection

21. Now Beringia: the Connection of Siberia to Alaska

22. Ages of Oceanic Crust Oldest 150 mm years YoungestPresent Oceanic Crust like Gulf of Mexico Geosyncline Future major oil province? Shared with Russia! Beringia: the Connection of Siberia to Alaska Beringia

23. Beringia: Connection of Asia to North America

24. Yukon River

25. Figure 30. Map of the Bering land bridge during the late Wisconsin glaciation, when global sea level dropped to about 120 meters or more below its present position. This exposure of huge areas of the shallow continental shelf provided a broad land connection between northeastern Asia and unglaciated parts of Alaska and Yukon. This land bridge allowed many plants and animals to spread between the Asian and American continents. Major Rivers of Beringia

27. What will we know in 2025? See you then!

30. Geologic History Map Legend CodeTerrane NameCodeTerrane Name ACTArctic Composite Terrane PWPrince William Terrane AXAlexander TerraneQNQuesnellia Terrane CACassiar TerraneRBRuby Terrane CCCache Creek TerraneSMSlide Mountain Terrane CCTCentral Composite Terrane STStikine Terrane CGChugach TerraneTGTogiak Terrane KHKahiltna TerraneWRWrangellia Terrane KYKoyukuk TerraneYAYakutat Terrane PEPeninsular TerraneYTYukon-Tanana Terrane By the Eocene, Alaska has assumed a familiar appearance. The Prince William and Yakutat Terrranes have formed from the sediments of the ocean basins; the Denali Fault and others are in place; and the western part of Alaska is rotating southward towards its present latitude. Back Alaskan Terrane Nomenclature

31. Geologic History Map Legend CodeTerrane NameCodeTerrane Name ACTArctic Composite TerranePWPrince William Terrane AXAlexander TerraneQNQuesnellia Terrane CACassiar TerraneRBRuby Terrane CCCache Creek TerraneSMSlide Mountain Terrane CCTCentral Composite TerraneSTStikine Terrane CGChugach TerraneTGTogiak Terrane KHKahiltna TerraneWRWrangellia Terrane KYKoyukuk TerraneYAYakutat Terrane PEPeninsular TerraneYTYukon-Tanana Terrane Insular Belt Coastal Belt Coastal Belt: no name Omineca Belt Insular Belt Foreland Belt No equivalent Foreland Belt Terrane Correlation: Alaska to Yukon

37. Depth color key: blue = 0-33km, green = 33-75km, red = 75-125km, yellow = 125+km http://www.aeic.alaska.edu/html_docs/faq.html

38. Depth color key: blue = 0-33km, green = 33-75km, red = 75-125km, yellow = 125+km

40. A A’

42. Wrangellia collided and amalgamated with the Alexander Terrane by Pennsylvanian time. By the end of the Triassic Period, the Peninsular Terrane had also joined the Wrangellia CT. A subduction zone existed on the west side of Wrangellia. Seafloor rocks too light to be subducted were instead compressed againgst the western edge of Wrangellia; these rocks are now known as the Chugach Terrane. A complex fault system, known as the Border Ranges Fault, is the modern expression of the suture zone between Wrangellia and Chugach Terranes. Over time, plate tectonics moved this amalagamation of crust generally northeastward into contact with the North American continental margin. The Wrangellia CT collided with and docked to North America by Cretaceous time. Strike-slip displacement, with Wrangellia travelling northward, continued after docking, although the amount of post-accretion displacement is controversialChugach Terraneplate tectonicsCretaceousStrike-slipaccretion

44. Geologic History Map Legend CodeTerrane NameCodeTerrane Name ACTArctic Composite Terrane PWPrince William Terrane AXAlexander TerraneQNQuesnellia Terrane CACassiar TerraneRBRuby Terrane CCCache Creek TerraneSMSlide Mountain Terrane CCTCentral Composite Terrane STStikine Terrane CGChugach TerraneTGTogiak Terrane KHKahiltna TerraneWRWrangellia Terrane KYKoyukuk TerraneYAYakutat Terrane PEPeninsular TerraneYTYukon-Tanana Terrane The few parts of Alaska that existed at this time were at much warmer latitudes. The Alexander and Wrangellia Terranes were forming near the equator, somewhere to the west of North America. Back

45. Geologic History Map Legend CodeTerrane NameCodeTerrane Name ACTArctic Composite Terrane PWPrince William Terrane AXAlexander TerraneQNQuesnellia Terrane CACassiar TerraneRBRuby Terrane CCCache Creek TerraneSMSlide Mountain Terrane CCTCentral Composite Terrane STStikine Terrane CGChugach TerraneTGTogiak Terrane KHKahiltna TerraneWRWrangellia Terrane KYKoyukuk TerraneYAYakutat Terrane PEPeninsular TerraneYTYukon-Tanana Terrane The Wrangellia CT approaches North America in the vicinity of California and Oregon, which don’t yet exist. North America itself has moved farther north than it is today. What will become northern Alaska begins to split and rotate away from northern Canada. Back

46. Geologic History Map Legend CodeTerrane NameCodeTerrane Name ACTArctic Composite Terrane PWPrince William Terrane AXAlexander TerraneQNQuesnellia Terrane CACassiar TerraneRBRuby Terrane CCCache Creek TerraneSMSlide Mountain Terrane CCTCentral Composite Terrane STStikine Terrane CGChugach TerraneTGTogiak Terrane KHKahiltna TerraneWRWrangellia Terrane KYKoyukuk TerraneYAYakutat Terrane PEPeninsular TerraneYTYukon-Tanana Terrane The Wrangellia CT approaches North America in the vicinity of California and Oregon, which don’t yet exist. North America itself has moved farther north than it is today. What will become northern Alaska begins to split and rotate away from northern Canada. Back

47. Fault Bounded Regional Geologic “Belts” of BC and Yukon

52. Figure 30. Map of the Bering land bridge during the late Wisconsin glaciation, when global sea level dropped to about 120 meters or more below its present position. This exposure of huge areas of the shallow continental shelf provided a broad land connection between northeastern Asia and unglaciated parts of Alaska and Yukon. This land bridge allowed many plants and animals to spread between the Asian and American continents.

53. Figure 38. Map of central Beringia during deglaciation, when melting of glacier ice caused sea level to rise, gradually flooding the land bridge. In this map, much of the land bridge was flooded when sea level rose to 40 m below its present position. At this stage of flooding, the land connection between northeastern Asia and Alaska was severed near Bering Strait. Compare this map with full glacial conditions and lowest sea level position in Fig. 30. The approximate shoreline positions shown on this map would have developed by about 11,000-10,500 radiocarbon years ago.