Summary of the stratigraphy, sedimentology and hydrocarbon potential of the Laberge Group (Lower-Middle Jurassic), Whitehorse trough, Yukon.

Whitehorse trough is a northwestward-tapering belt of Upper Triassic to Lower Cretaceous volcanic and sedimentary rocks extending ~650 km from the British Columbia–Yukon border, north to the vicinity of Carmacks in south-central Yukon. It consists of three main stratigraphic units (i.e., the Lewes River Group, Laberge Group and Tantalus Formation) representing three sedimentary basins, partially overlapping in space and time. The Laberge Group (Lower-Middle Jurassic), informally subdivided into the Richthofen, Tanglefoot and Nordenskiold formations, was deposited in the Laberge basin, a collapsing fore-arc basin in which the arc was undergoing uplift and erosion. The Richthofen formation consists of conglomerate, massive sandstone, sandstone-mudstone couplets, volcaniclastic rocks and minor limestone interpreted as submarine fan systems. The Tanglefoot formation consists of coal-bearing sandstone, mudstone, conglomerate, volcaniclastic rocks and minor limestone interpreted as delta systems and shallow marine deposits. The Richthofen and Tanglefoot formations are the same age (i.e., Sinemurian to Bajocian), but the Richthofen formation is restricted to the southern half of the…

Publisher

Government of Yukon

Resources

3

Catalogue metadata updated

2026-08-26