Since many people (like myself) read this forum to gain an understanding of rock I would like a bit of clarification. You state this is from mineral sediments in the ocean but now I see you state "ocean basaltic flow material " for formation of this jasper. I know of materials like this that were formed with ocean sediments that were then shoved deep in the earth and mixed with volcanic materials and underwent massive transformation. These deposits were then forced to the surface after subduction and called Plutonic material.
So, I am wondering do you feel these are ocean deposits or basaltic flow material. It is quite pretty and unique. Excellent discovery wherever it comes from.
as a lead in this will give you some idea of the complicated geography of BC; from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_British_ColumbiaThere are five morphogeological belts that define the geology of British Columbia from east to west: the Foreland, Omineca, Intermontane, Coast and Insular Belt. Each has a separate geology, including different metamorphic, physiographic, metallogenic and tectonic histories.
The Foreland Belt is composed of weakly metamorphosed sedimentary rocks which are 1.4 billion to 33 million years old, and the belt represents a rift sequence followed by a passive margin that was turned into a retro arc fold and thrust belt with synorogenic sedimentation. The region is very rugged except in the northeast of the province where the earth flattens out to a wide plain.
The Omineca Belt is composed of highly metamorphosed, pericratonic (near craton) terranes and fragments of North America that are 2 billion to 180 million years old. Terranes in the belt include the Slide Mountain Terrane, the Yukon-Tanana Terrane and the Cassiar Terrane. This belt goes from low hills to high mountains across its length, with the majority of the region being extremely rugged.
The Intermontane Belt is a flatter, more rounded region composed of three terranes, Stikinia, Quesnellia and the Cache Creek Terrane. The belt has a lower metamorphic grade than the Omineca Belt and ranges from 400 million to within 10,000 years old. Volcanic activity has been recorded as occurring in the past 10,000 years, including at Nazko Cone and in the Satah Mountain volcanic field.
The Coast Belt is the single largest outpouring of granite and granodiorite in the phanerozoic, it contains heavily metamorphosed fragments of both the terranes of the Insular Belt and the Intermontane Belt. In the southeast there is a series of small terranes of both oceanic (Bridge River and Chilliwack) and continental affinity (Jack Konat Mountain, Ladner). The hard-weathering granite is extensively rugged throughout the belt.
The Insular Belt is composed of the outboard terrain with no connection to North America before accretion. There are two main terranes—Wrangellia and the Alexander—and a few smaller ones such as the Pacific Rim terrane. Because the Insular Belt is the most tectonically active of the belts, it has the greatest relief differences from the depths of the Queen Charlotte sound to the heights of the Wrangell–St. Elias mountains. The ages are from 600 million years to recent, with metamorphic grades depending on the age and host of the rock type.
as the islands and seabed that form the west of NA from CA to AK were accreting; BC didn't exist until this happened as everything west of AB was added on in this way, a lot of material from many different sources was mixed due to tectonic, volcanic, and weathering activity. The cliffs in this area tell a lot of the story of how jumbled this transformation was.
The short answer would be to me that this material is in a heavily mineralized sea sediment mixed with ungraded eroded rocks and pebbles up to 400# topped by a pyroclastic flow buried under: now after erosion and several glaciations, 300 ft. of various other stratifications of complicated continent building, erosionary, and volcanic accrual. I think I'd have to write a book to give you a long answer :-)
