Geologic Map of the Challis 1° X 2° Quadrangle, Idaho
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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Geologic map of the Challis 1° x 2° quadrangle, Idaho Compiled by Frederick S. Fisher1 , David H. Mclntyre, and Kathleen M. Johnson1 Open-File Report 83-523 1983 This report is preliminary and has not been reviewed for conformity with U. S. Geological Survey editorial standards and stratigraphic nomenclature Denver, Colorado TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Surficial deposits............................................... 1 Miocene volcanic and sedimentary rocks........................... 1 Challis Volcanics and related sedimentary and intrusive rocks.... 2 Sunnyside Mine-Marble Creek area............................ 2 Yellowjacket Creek-Camas Creek-Panther Creek- Morgan Creek area........................................... 5 Intrusive rocks of uncertain age............................ 10 Corral Creek-Iron Creek area................................ 11 Twin Peaks caldera-East Fork Mayfield Creek area............ 12 Challis-Custer Graben-East Fork-Jerry Peak area............. 18 Area west and north of Stanley and White Cloud Peak area.... 24 Granitic rocks of Idaho batholith................................ 26 Paleozoic sedimentary rocks...................................... 29 Paleozoic(?) and Precambrian rocks............................... 33 Precambrian rocks................................................ 34 References Cited................................................. 37 ILLUSTRATIONS Plate 1. Geologic map of the Challis 2° quadrangle, Idaho Plate 2. Correlation of map units, Challis 2° quadrangle, Idaho DESCRIPTION OF MAP UNITS SURFICIAL DEPOSITS (QUATERNARY) Qa ALLUVIUM, UNDIVIDED Includes floodplain, terrace, and alluvial fan deposits. Materials include stream-deposited gravel, sand, and silt; gravel and peat in filled ponds and lakes Qf ALLUVIAL FAN DEPOSITS Shown separately only in area near Challis and at southeast corner of quadrangle Ql LANDSLIDE AND RELATED DEPOSITS Qm GLACIAL DEPOSITS, UNDIVIDED Unsorted boulders, cobbles, pebbles, sand, silt, and clay in moraines and in glaciofluvatile outwash. Piedmont belt of coalescent moraines along the eastern front of the Sawtooth Range has been attributed to two major late Pleistocene glaciations, the Bull Lake and the Pinedale (Williams, 1961) Qd QUATERNARY DEPOSITS, UNDIVIDED Includes modern stream alluvium, terrace gravel, talus and related slope material, landslide debris, unconsolidated glacial moraines and outwash gravel MIOCENE VOLCANIC AND SEDIMENTARY ROCKS Tcb COLUMBIA RIVER BASALT Dark gray to black, fine-grained, consists chiefly of plagioclase laths embedded in augite, and scattered crystals of magnetite. Exposures include a small cap on the ridge immediately west of Grimes Pass, and small outcrops west of Paddy Flat, near the west border of the map Tmp PAYETTE FORMATION Stratified, tan to gray, loosely consolidated arkosic sandstone and siltstone with interstratified conglomerate, and thin-bedded dark-gray to black shale in which are abundant impressions of upper middle to lower upper Miocene leaves (W. C. Rember, written commun., 1983). It also contains seams of low-rank coal as much as 30 cm thick, bedded intervals several m thick of light gray to white diatomaceous earth, and beds of gray volcanic ash as much as 30 cm thick. The formation crops out along the west side of Middle Fork Payette River northwest of Crouch. It was deposited in an intermontane basin 'and now exists as a west-tilted down-faulted block. Minimum thickness 1,680 m; base is not exposed CHALLIS VOLCANICS AND RELATED SEDIMENTARY AND INTRUSIVE ROCKS (EOCENE) [Modal analyses are reported as follows: phenocryst abundance as percent of rock sample ("Phenocrysts 30" means that 30 percent of the rock consists of phenocrysts) Phenocryst mineral abundance is reported as percent of total phenocrysts. Names of phenocryst minerals are abbreviated as follows: q=quartz, af=alkali feldspar, pf=plagioclase feldspar, b=biotite, hb*hornblende, px-pyroxene, cpx=clinopyroxene, opx=orthopyroxene, ol*olivine, op=opaque oxides. All K-Ar ages are calculated using the constants of Steiger and Jaeger (1977).] SUNNYSIDE MINE-MARBLE CREEK AREA Tl LATITE OF LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN Black, nearly aphyric, vesicular lavas interbedded with cinders and bombs. Rock locally contains sparse small (0.5 mm) phenocrysts of plagioclase and small prisms (to 1.0 mm ) of hypersthene set in a groundmass of randomly oriented plagioclase microlites and glass. Leonard and Marvin (in press) report K-Ar ages of 41.0 to 43.4 + 1.4 m.y. Thickness 0-50 m Tqp QUARTZ PORPHYRY INTRUSIVE MASSES For description see Yellowjacket area Tir RHYOLITE INTRUSIVE MASSES For description see Yellowjacket area Tds DEWEY BEDS Cauldron-filling sedimentary rocks and bedded, reworked air-fall tuff. Includes siltstone in varved lake beds and coarse volcaniclastic conglomerate with intercalated landslide debris and talus; carbonacaeous in part. Thickness 0-50 m Tmi MAFIC INTRUSIVES see description for Yellowjacket area SUNNYSIDE RHYOLITE TUFFS AND RELATED ROCKS Tsu Upper Sunnyside Tuff Red and red-brown weathering, densely welded, devitrified rhyolite tuff; multiple-flow compound cooling unit that contains numerous small volcanic fragments and fairly obvious well-flattened pumice lapilli from base to top. Base is marked by a lithic fragment-rich black vitrophyre 3-10 m thick. Extremely sparse biotite flakes are the only visible mafic minerals in the devitrified rock; pyroxene and hornblende are the only visible mafic minerals in the vitrophyre. Phenocrysts 12-31: q 15-60, af 40-75, b 0-1, hb trace (as many as 4 grains per thin section in basal vitrophyre only), cpx 'trace (as many as 8 grains pigeonite per thin section in basal vitrophyre only). Allanite is a common accessory in basal vitrophyre only. Thickness 0-300 m Tmx Megabreccia Varicolored breccia consisting of fragments of Tsl (see below), a few cm to several m in diameter, in a matrix of Tsu. The megabreccia is confined to the western part of the innermost subsided zone, the "Thunder Mountain Caldera" of Leonard and Marvin (in press). The fragments presumably slid into the caldera from the outer rims while eruptions of Tsu were still in progress. Thickness 0-100 m Tslu Uppermost Cooling Unit of Lower Mineralogy Reddish-gray, simple cooling unit of densely welded rhyolite tuff. Distinguished from Tsu by more abundant plagioclase and biotite; separated from Tsu by a few meters of bedded tuff. Phenocrysts 26: q 40, af 56, pf 12, b 2-3, altered mafic 1. Thickness 0-40 m Tsrl Rhyolite Lava Red flow-layered lava or extremely hot ash-flow tuff; occurrence of several black vitrophyres within the rhyolite suggests the presence of two or more cooling units; east of Marble Creek a thin flow of black vesicular latite is intercalated within the unit. Although the rock in all localities looks very similar in outcrop, the rock east of Marble Creek contains more plagioclase than alkali feldspar, and the rock exposed north of Dynamite Creek contains more alkali feldspar than plagioclase. The rock in both localities contains 5-10 percent phenocrysts consisting of varying proportions of alkali feldspar and plagioclase, both 0.5-5 mm in size. Thickness 0-100 + m Tsl Lower Sunnyside Tuff At least three cooling units, all of which grade upward from white to pink, non-welded to slightly welded rhyolite at base to gray, densely welded quartz latite at top. The upper and middle cooling units commonly display vertical sheeting and contain very little recognizable pumice, whereas the lower unit contains abundant pumice. Upper unit along Marble Creek contains 28 to 49 percent phenocrysts: q 9-45, af 32-51, pf 16-33, b 2-11; hb 0-3, zircon trace. The middle unit along Little Cottonwood Creek contains 15 to 34 percent phenocrysts: q 26-51, af 23-39, pf 2-26, b 4-13, hb trace. The quartz latite upper part of this cooling unit contains sanidine phenocrysts as long as 8 mm. The lower cooling unit, same locality, contains 18 to 28 percent phenocrysts: q 6-51, af 11-38, pf 12-62, b 9-21 in books, zircon trace. Phenocrysts in lower parts of all three cooling units rarely exceed 2 mm. Cauldron-wide hydrothermal alteration (mostly propylitization) has led to perthitic replacement of sanidine. K-Ar ages range from 47.1 to 50.8 +1.7 m.y. (Leonard and Marvin, in press). Thickness 0-500 m Tpl PERLITIC RHYOLITE Three rhyolite cooling units separated by green epiclastic sediments. All units have black vitrophyres at the base, grading upward to densely welded, lavender to salmon flow-layered lavas or high-temperature welded tuffs. The upper cooling unit has a non-welded top. Upper unit vitrophyre in the headwaters of Rush Creek contains 14 percent phenocrysts: pf 82, af 11, hb 7, cpx trace. Lower unit, same locality, contains 3 to 5 percent phenocrysts: pf 31-76, af 24-69, hb 0- 2, cpx trace. Phenocrysts rarely exceed 2 mm in size. Thickness 0-300 + m Tdq DIME AND QUARTER TUFF A complex sequence of mostly densely welded ash-flow tuffs, commonly separated by tuffaceous sandstones and siltstones and locally by thin black latite lavas. The eruption of these tuffs caused the initial collapse of the Thunder Mountain cauldron complex. They are the Thunder Mountain analogue of the Camas-Black Mountain tuffs in the Van Horn Peak cauldron complex. Most are densely welded with collapsed pumice lapilli that in plan view are mostly about the size of dimes and quarters; locally they are larger. The lapilli are mostly dark green or brownish green and contrast with the lighter colored green-gray or buff matrix. The tuffs are pervasively propylitized and mafic minerals are altered to chlorite, calcite, and iron oxide. In contrast to the overlying Tsl, the Tdq is chiefly pyroxene-bearing. If a single fresh rock from Indian Creek is representative, the pyroxene is principally clinopyroxene. Phenocrysts generally are less abundant and smaller than those in Tsl and most of the tuffs are quartz poor. Phenocrysts 9-16: q trace-5, af 2-8, pf 70-83, b trace-2, hb 0-4, cpx (mostly altered) trace-16. Some crystal-poor, quartz-free, flow-layered tuffs occur near the head of Prospect Creek east of Marble Creek that contain more alkali feldspar than plagioclase.