Uplift & Continental Growth in Wrangellia

Continental crust on earth is produced at convergent margins, where juvenile magma is emplaced beneath arc volcanoes. The Bonanza arc along Vancouver Island is part of the Wrangellia terrane of western North America.

The geology suggests Wrangellia is tilted on its side by tectonics and uplift during accretion in the last 100 Ma, exposing an oblique section of arc crust of unknown structural depth.

Hornblende geobarometry of intrusive rocks of various ages along with thermochronology will reveal the depth extent to which arc crust is exposed on Vancouver Island.

We are using Wrangellia as a 'natural laboratory' to test processes involved in formation of continental crust and its denudation and recycling by studying the field geology and geochemistry of igneous rocks and their eroded products.

An additional and related pursuit is an understanding of how much of the water budget in an arc (and the crust-mantle system) may be accommodated in intrusive vs. extrusive rocks.

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