Late Paleozoic Chronostratigraphy and Tectonostratigraphy of Pericratonic Terranes near Barkerville, British Columbia: Implications for the Lower Permian (Asselian) Sugar Limestone

The Lower Permian Sugar limestone unit is a discontinuous calci-tubidite deposit in the Barkerville Terrane near Barkerville, British Columbia. It is here interpreted that the Pundata Thrust, which transported the Slide Mountain Terrane over the Barkerville and Cariboo terranes, separates the Sugar limestone unit from the underlying Hardscrabble Mountain succession. The Sugar limestone unit was likely deposited adjacent to an isolated carbonate platform in the Slide Mountain Ocean, prior to being thrust to its current location. This interpretation is based on the age and localized nature of the Sugar limestone unit, plus its proximity to klippen of the Slide Mountain Terrane. Regional stratigraphy and detrital zircon analysis indicate the Lower Paleozoic units of the pericratonic terranes share affinity with ancestral North America. A structural and stratigraphic reinterpretation, which incorporates 'accordion tectonics' was used to explain differences between the Lower and Upper Paleozoic units within the pericratonic terranes near Barkerville.