| Title | Mineral resource assessment of the Pacific Margin sponge reef areas of interest |
| Download | Downloads |
| |
| Licence | Please note the adoption of the Open Government Licence - Canada
supersedes any previous licences. |
| Author | Barrie, J V |
| Source | Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 6915, 2012, 18 pages, https://doi.org/10.4095/291498  Open Access |
| Image |  |
| Year | 2012 |
| Publisher | Natural Resources Canada |
| Document | open file |
| Lang. | English |
| Media | on-line; digital |
| Related | This publication is related to Petroleum resource potential
of the Hecate Strait / Queen Charlotte Sound Glass Sponge Reef
areas of interest, Pacific Margin of Canada |
| File format | pdf |
| Province | Western offshore region |
| Area | Hecate Strait; Queen Charlotte Sound; Pacific Margin |
| Lat/Long WENS | -131.5000 -128.0000 53.5000 51.0000 |
| Subjects | fossil fuels; paleontology; marine geology; economic geology; petroleum resources; petroleum exploration; hydrocarbon potential; source rocks; sedimentary basins; oil; gas; basin analyses; reefs; reef
deposits; sea level changes; sea level fluctuations; oceanography; marine organisms; marine environments; marine deposits; aggregates; carbonates; Hecate Basin; Queen Charlotte Basin; Sponges; Cenozoic; Quaternary |
| Illustrations | location maps; photographs; tables |
| Program | Mineral and Energy Resource Assessment
(MERA) |
| Released | 2012 08 17 (13:00) |
| Abstract | Glass sponge reefs (Hexactinellida, Hexactinosida) off the Pacific Margin of Canada are both geologically and ecologically unique and represent the only global occurrence. In order to provide protection
to these unique living cold-water reefs, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans under the Oceans Act have made the four large reefs within the Pacific North Coast Integrated Management Area (PNCIMA) designates for protection as Marine Protected Areas
(MPA). The federal government's process for evaluation of a MPA of Interest requires an assessment of the non-renewable resource potential, including marine minerals. Based on the limited knowledge of the offshore British Columbia surficial mineral
potential, two settings that may contain mineral placers of gold and titanium include drowned beach and reworked shelf deposits at water depths of 150 m to the modern beach. In addition, extensive areas of construction aggregate and calcium carbonate
occur on the shelf. The deep water sponge reefs within the Areas of Interest occur in depths below 150 m within glacial sediments and, therefore, outside the potential setting for mineral placers or industrial minerals. Consequently, the enactment of
the sponge reef Marine Protected Areas will not include any surficial mineral deposits of economic potential. |
| GEOSCAN ID | 291498 |
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