Cassiar Terrane
Encyclopedia
The Cassiar Terrane is a 1500 km (932.1 mi) long Cretaceous
terrane
located in the Northern Interior British Columbia
and southern Yukon
. It consists of miogeoclinal strata
and contains the Cassiar Batholith, a 100 million year old igneous intrusion
and the single largest intrusive body in the hinterland of the Canadian portion of the Western Cordillera.
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...
terrane
Terrane
A terrane in geology is short-hand term for a tectonostratigraphic terrane, which is a fragment of crustal material formed on, or broken off from, one tectonic plate and accreted or "sutured" to crust lying on another plate...
located in the Northern Interior British Columbia
British Columbia Interior
The British Columbia Interior or BC Interior or Interior of British Columbia, usually referred to only as the Interior, is one of the three main regions of the Canadian province of British Columbia, the other two being the Lower Mainland, which comprises the overlapping areas of Greater Vancouver...
and southern Yukon
Yukon
Yukon is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River. The word Yukon means "Great River" in Gwich’in....
. It consists of miogeoclinal strata
Stratum
In geology and related fields, a stratum is a layer of sedimentary rock or soil with internally consistent characteristics that distinguish it from other layers...
and contains the Cassiar Batholith, a 100 million year old igneous intrusion
Intrusion
An intrusion is liquid rock that forms under Earth's surface. Magma from under the surface is slowly pushed up from deep within the earth into any cracks or spaces it can find, sometimes pushing existing country rock out of the way, a process that can take millions of years. As the rock slowly...
and the single largest intrusive body in the hinterland of the Canadian portion of the Western Cordillera.