Multidisciplinary fusion: structural geology, remote sensing and geotechnical analysis for geothermal exploration and natural hazard assessment in southwestern British Columbia, Canada

Southwestern British Columbia is characterized by notable geologic and physiographic features, including the Jurassic-Tertiary Coast Mountain batholith (Coast Plutonic Complex) and the Quaternary Garibaldi Volcanic Belt (GVB). This volcanic belt stretches from northwestern Washington to southern British Columbia and concludes at the Nootka fault. The region's young and complex geology and challenging climate present opportunities for resource exploration, such as geothermal energy, alongside natural hazard risks like landslides and volcanic activity. To balance these opportunities and challenges, existing technologies and innovative workflows are necessary for effective resource utilization and hazard mitigation. This thesis combines structural geology, remote sensing, and geotechnical analysis to identify challenges, opportunities, and solutions for geothermal exploration as well as monitoring and mitigating landslides in southwestern British Columbia, particularly at the Mount Meager Volcanic Complex (MMVC) and Mount Currie escarpment. At MMVC, detailed surface structural geology mapping, paleomagnetic analysis, and radiometric dating were used to investigate the volcanic rocks' kinematic history and structural features including faults and folds. The study also established the relationships between various deformation stages and proposed a structural model explaining deformation of the MMVC over the past 5 million years. The research identified potential sites for geothermal exploration and highlighted geological structures that could trigger earthquakes, landslides, or volcanic activity. At Mount Currie, the study revealed that the escarpment, which extends east-northeast to west-southwest, likely formed as a gravitational collapse fault due to compression at the mountain crest. This faulting is shaped more by local stress patterns than direct seismic activity and is influenced by the surrounding thrust faults, Owl Creek, and Miller Creek, as well as crustal rebound caused by glacial unloading. A critical block on the NE-3 peak of the Mount Currie ridge was identified as particularly vulnerable, with an estimated 14.4 million cubic meters of bedrock potentially at risk of displacement should it fail. Finally, this study introduced cutting-edge optical flow algorithm workflows, presented as the open-source Python package AkhDefo, enabling the processing of various datasets, including live-streamed webcam footage, satellite optical, and radar backscatter imagery. In summary, this study provides valuable insights into the geology and geohazards of southwestern British Columbia and offers new approaches to resource exploration and natural hazard management.