Rocks west of the Coast Mountains batholith in central southeastern Alaska include the Alexander terrane, Gravina belt, Taku terrane, and newly defined Ruth assemblage. Geologic, geochronologic and thermobarometric studies of these rocks in the Petersburg region provide new constraints on the accretionary history of the Alexander terrane and structural evolution of the Coast Mountains batholith. Paleozoic and Upper Triassic strata of the Alexander terrane were deformed within the Duncan Canal shear zone. Dextral shear in this zone during Early or Middle Jurassic time is inferred to reflect deformation along the eastern margin of the Alexander terrane and record the juxtaposition of the Alexander terrane with the North American margin. Deposition of the Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous Gravina belt occurred within a transtensional back-arc to intra-arc basin that evolved during the northward translation of the Alexander terrane. The Ruth assemblage and Taku terrane were structurally emplaced over the Gravina belt and Alexander terrane along the Sumdum-Fanshaw fault system during mid-Cretaceous time. West-vergent thrusting of the Ruth assemblage was accompanied by metamorphic P,T conditions of 6.8 kb, < 450°C in the Gravina belt and 6.9 to > 7.4 kb, > 550°C in the Ruth assemblage. The age of deformation is constrained by syntectonic and post tectonic intrusive bodies that yield U-Pb lower intercept apparent ages of 92.3 ± 3 Ma and 91.3 ± 6.3 Ma, respectively. Late Devonian-Mississippian orthogneiss and felsic metavolcanic rocks in the Ruth assemblage suggest correlation of the assemblage with continental margin rocks of the Yukon-Tanana and Nisling terranes east of the Coast Mountains batholith. Thus the mid-Cretaceous Sumdum-Fanshow fault system marks the fundamental boundary between the Alexander terrane and inboard fragments. This deformation records the final structural accretion of the Alexander, Wrangellia, and Peninsular terranes to the western margin of North America. The mid-Cretaceous thrust system is truncated to the east by the LeConte Bay shear zone: a complex zone of Late Cretaceous-early Tertiary fabrics that occur within and west of the Coast Mountains batholith. This zone has apparently accommodated both west-side-up and east-side-up displacement during the collapse of the overthickened crust developed during mid-Cretaceous time.

A portion of northern southeastern Alaska known as the Juneau gold belt is composed of a disparate assemblage of lithotectonic terranes which range in age from Paleozoic and perhaps older to Cretaceous. Five progressive deformational events associated with contractional tectonism began in the mid-Cretaceous time and continued well into the Tertiary. Widespread plutonism occurred in the region from Cretaceous through Tertiary time. Gold-bearing quartz vein systems in the Juneau gold belt formed within a 160-km-long by 5- to 8-km-wide zone along the western margin of the Coast Mountains, Alaska. The vein systems are localized in second and third order shear zones spatially associated with terrane-bounding, mid-Cretaceous thrust faults. Mesoscopic structures integrated with ⁴⁰Ar/ ³⁹Ar ages from vein sericite are interpreted to indicate that a fluid cycling event along the entire belt occurred between 56.5 and >52.8 Ma. Structural analysis of the vein orientations and geometries are interpreted to indicate that mineralization developed under a near-field stress regime of subhorizontal contraction along a west-southwest to east-northeast trending axis. The axis of extension plunged steeply to the southeast. Slight variations in the interpreted stress axes may have been the result of variations in fluid pressure. Post-mineralization deformation was associated with a dextral transpressive regime along the Denali-Chatham Strait fault system. Gold vein mineralization occurred during the latter stages of orogenesis. Fluid flow and subsequent vein development was temporally associated with changes in plate motion during Eocene time. Veining was also synchronous with exhumation and voluminous plutonism immediately inboard of the gold belt. These interacting tectonic events likely facilitated fault-valve action and vein development along now exhumed shear zones.

[Truncated abstract] The Tintina Gold Province (TGP) comprises numerous (<15) gold belts and districts throughout interior Alaska and Yukon that are associated with Cretaceous plutonic rocks. With a gold endowment of ∼70Moz, most districts are defined by their placer gold contributions, which comprise greater than 30 Moz, but four districts have experience significant increases in gold exploration with notable discoveries at Fort Knox (5.4 Moz), Donlin Creek (12.3 Moz), Pogo (5.8 Moz), True North (0.79 Moz), and Brewery Creek (0.85 Moz). All significant TGP gold deposits are spatially and temporally related to reduced (ilmenite-series) and radiogenic Cretaceous intrusive rocks that intrude (meta-) sedimentary strata. The similar characteristics that these deposits share are the foundation for the development of a reduced intrusion-related gold deposit model. Associated gold deposits have a wide variety of geological and geochemical features and are categorized as intrusion-centered (includes intrusion-hosted, skarns and replacements), shear-related, and epizonal. The TGP is characterized by vast, remote under-explored areas, unglaciated regions with variable oxidation depths and discontinuous permafrost, which, in combination with a still-evolving geological model, create significant exploration challenges. Twenty-five Early and mid-Cretaceous (145-90 Ma) plutonic suites and belts are defined across Alaska and Yukon on the basis of lithological, geochemical, isotopic, and geochronometric similarities. These features, when combined with aeromagnetic characteristics, magnetic susceptibility measurements, and whole-rock ferric:ferrous ratios define the distribution of magnetite- and ilmenite-series plutonic belts. Magnetite-series plutonic belts are dominantly associated with the older parts of the plutonic episode and comprise subduction-generated metaluminous plutons that are distributed preferentially in the more seaward localities dominated by primitive tectonic elements. Ilmenite-series plutonic belts comprise slightly-younger, slightly-peraluminous plutons in more landward localities in pericratonic to continental margin settings. They were likely initiated in response to crustal thickening following terrane collision. The youngest plutonic belt forms a small, but significant, magnetite-series belt in the farthest inboard position, associated with alkalic plutons that were emplaced during weak extension. Intrusion-related metallogenic provinces with distinctive metal associations are distributed, largely in accord with classical redox-sensitive granite-series. Copper, Au and Fe mineralisation are associated with magnetite-series plutons and tungsten mineralisation associated with ilmenite-series plutons. However, there are some notable deviations from expected associations, as intrusion-related Ag-Pb-Zn deposits are few, and significant tin mineralisation is rare. Most significantly, many gold deposits and occurrences are associated with ilmenite-series plutons which form the basis for the reduced intrusion-related gold deposit model