Quaternary geology of Howard’s Pass and applications to drift prospecting

The Quaternary geology of Howard’s Pass was studied by creating a 1:50 000- scale terrain inventory map of the area and examining the ice-flow history of the region. Four stages of ice flow occurred in Howard’s Pass during the late Wisconsinan McConnell glaciation. The first stage is marked by ice growth from local cirques. During the second stage, an ice divide developed east of the Nahanni River, with ice flowing southwest across Howard’s Pass. During continued ice sheet growth in stage 3, the ice divide either migrated or a second divide grew to the southwest in the Logan Mountains and ice flowed northward across the study area. Stage 4 is marked by deglaciation and topographically controlled ice-flow. This last phase of ice-flow is the most important for drift prospecting in the valley bottoms. Conversely, drift transport directions at higher elevation are likely remnant from earlier stages of ice-flow. To investigate the potential of till and mobile-metal-ion geochemistry for drift prospecting in Howard’s Pass, a survey was conducted over a known deposit. The promising results from this survey suggest that these are possible tools for future exploration in other drift-covered areas of Howard’s Pass.