Sample Collection, Kanuti, Alaska

USGS researcher collecting samples in Kanuti, Alaska. The samples collected in this location were more resistant to weathering than the surrounding rock indicating a change in lithology. Lithology is the physical character of a rock, generally as determined at the microscopic level, or with the aid of a low-power magnifier; the microscopic study and description of rocks. The Kanuti ophiolite is a mafic-ultramafic thrust sheet of probable Jurassic age, formerly considered to be the upper part of the Yukon-Koyukuk ophiolite (Angayucham terrane). It is here called the Kanuti ophiolite after the Kanuti River region on the southeastern flank of the Yukon-Koyukuk Basin.