The Hinterland Belt of the Canadian Cordillera: new data from northern and central British Columbia

Abstract

The Omineca Crystalline Belt of the Canadian Cordillera is flanked on the west by the Hinterland Belt, characterized by folds and faults that show predominant westward directed tectonic transport. Rocks involved in northern and central British Columbia comprise the Cache Creek Group and, to the west, various Permian, Triassic and Jurassic units. The structures in this belt record three major episodes of deformation. Earliest folds in the Cache Creek Group probably reflect latest Triassic deformation and cannot be related to the Hinterland Belt for they trend obliquely to it. In northern and central British Columbia the Hinterland Belt as a structural entity was produced by probable latest Jurassic or earliest Cretaceous deformation. Major east-dipping thrust and reverse faults, associated locally with folds and schist terranes, bring Cache Creek strata over and against coeval and younger rocks to the west. This belt was later disrupted by strike-slip faults in Late Cretaceous – Early Tertiary time.