| The Princeton Group is an assemblage of volcanic and clastic sedimentary rocks in south-central British Columbia, and is part of the Challis-Kamloops belt that stretches from central British Columbia to the northwestern USA. Volcanics were deposited largely as composite-volcanoes, and are composed of calc-alkaline basaltic-andesite, andesite, dacite, and rhyolite. 40Ar/39Ar dating indicates that magmatism occurred during the Early to Middle-Eocene, from 53-47 Ma. 143Nd/ 144Nd measurements indicate that the PG is primarily juvenile, with epsilonNd 50 = 1.2-6.4.; Princeton Group rocks geochemically resemble those of many modern continental arcs and have an "adakitic" signature that extends throughout their compositional range. This signature is not derived from melting of subducted oceanic crust, but from an already enriched "arc-like" source, hypothesized to be mafic dykes emplaced into the lithospheric mantle during Mesozoic magmatism. These dykes subsequently melted during lithospheric heating in the Eocene, probably caused by upwelling asthenosphere related to a slab-window or slab-tear. |
