Structural evolution of the Port Wells gold mining district,Prince William Sound,south central Alaska: Implications for the origin of the gold lodes

Data collected in the Port Wells gold mining district, Alaska, indicate several stages in the structural history of the district. The first stage was the accretion and associated deformation of the Valdez group flysch sequence at the end of the Cretaceous. The deformation of the semilithified rocks included two folding phases forming isoclinal NE-SW-striking and SE-vergent folds during a D₁ phase, and minor open warps in NW-SE direction during a D₂ phase. Intrusion of early Oligocene (36 Ma) calc-alkaline granitoids followed deformation and was terminated by the emplacement of aplitic dikes. The major fracturing processes in both the granitoids and the country rocks occurred subsequently, probably during the uplift of the Chugach mountains in the late Tertiary. Several generations of epigenetic gold-bearing quartz veins were emplaced along the fractures at a later stage. Due to the significant time gap between peak metamorphism and mineralization, the metamorphic secretion model proposed for the vein formation is reconsidered.