Summary
Miocene and younger basalts (e.g., Chilcotin) as well as Eocene and Jurassic to Cretaceous age volcanic and sedimentary rocks (e.g., Endako Group, Ootsa Lake Group, Taylor Creek Group) underlie significant portions of the Interior Plateau and Nechako Basin of central British Columbia. There is potential for unexploited hydrocarbon and base metal resources underlying these younger volcanic and sedimentary successions and hence this area is of economic interest. Geophysical surveys (both seismic reflection and magnetotellurics), funded by GeoscienceBC and the Geological Survey of Canada, have concentrated on:
- Portions of the Nechako Basin for hydrocarbon potential within mostly Jurassic and Cretaceous sedimentary rocks (Ferri & Riddell; 2006; Riddell, 2006, Riddell et. al 2007), and
- Portions of the Interior Plateau to facilitate exploration for base metal exploration.
To help interpret variations in geophysical signals, we have measured the geophysical properties (density, porosity, magnetic susceptibility and remanence, electrical resistivity and chargeability, and seismic velocity) for 107 samples of the key lithologies of the Nechako Basin. This report was funded by Geoscience BC to aid in processing raw seismic and magnetotelluric data with the intention of extracting more accurate geophysical images of the subsurface and delineation of exploration targets.
This project is directly relevant to the Geoscience BC mandate because our proposed dataset would aid in processing of raw seismic and magnetotelluric data and result in more accurate geophysical images (seismograms) of the subsurface and delineation of exploration targets.