ResearchCurrent ProjectsThe Central and Schist belts of the Koyukuk River
Frank Robinson (Post-doctoral researcher)
The Central (brown) and Schist (pink) Belts strike across the whole of Arctic Alaska. The potential Caledonian suture may be exposed within them.
The North Fork River represents our easternmost river and it flows across the Central Belt and the Schist Belt that comprise thick sections of polydeformed graphitic and calcareous schists, marbles and metavolcanic rocks of uncertain age and relationship to one another. These mostly sedimentary rocks constituted the margin of Arctic Alaska during the middle Paleozoic but due to a lack of fossils their age and paleogeography remain poorly understood. This location is critical for tracking the transition of rocks directly linked to Early Paleozoic Laurentia and those that have links to Baltica, e.g.- Caledonian affinities.
See www.AAEO.geo.su.se for more information.