Western Slave Study (Project Leader: Valerie Jackson)

A study of the lower crust/lithospheric mantle beneath the western Slave Province and eastern Wopmay Orogen was initiated in the fall of 2002. This is a collaborative study involving geoscientists from the Geological Survey of Canada, the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, and the Northwest Territories Geoscience Office. A total of four teleseismic instruments have been deployed; two in 2002, at Grizzle Bear and Indin lakes, and two in 2004, northwest of Ingray Lake (Castor Lake) and at the community of Gameti (see maps on NTGO’s Southern Wopmay Orogen page). These instruments will be used to image layers in the lithosphere over the next few years.

An approximately 300 km long magnetotelluric transect, spanning the southwestern Slave Province and the southern Wopmay Orogen, was completed in 2004. The data, collected from 21 stations, is currently being processed (see image below and Spratt, J. et al. 2004 GSF abstract). Although data is missing from one station due to recurrent bear problems, the completed magnetotelluric profile will complement existing data acquired under the Lithoprobe SNORCLE transect, and the collaborative POLARIS program.