Eocene and Miocene extension, meteoric fluid infiltration, and core complex formation in the Great Basin (Raft River Mountains, Utah)

Metamorphic core complexes (MCCs) in the North American Cordillera reflect the effects of lithospheric extension and contribute to crustal adjustments both during and after a protracted subduction history along the Pacific plate margin. While the Miocene-to-recent history of most MCCs in the Great Basin, including the Raft River-Albion-Grouse Creek MCC, is well documented, early Cenozoic tectonic fabrics are commonly severely overprinted. We present stable isotope, geochronological (40Ar/39Ar), and microstructural data from the Raft River detachment shear zone. Hydrogen isotope ratios of syntectonic white mica (δ2Hms) from mylonitic quartzite within the shear zone are very low (-90‰ to -154‰, Vienna SMOW) and result from multiphase synkinematic interaction with surface-derived fluids. 40Ar/39Ar geochronology reveals Eocene (re)crystallization of white mica with δ2Hms ≥ -154‰ in quartzite mylonite of the western segment of the detachment system. These δ2Hms values are distinctively lower than in localities farther east (δ2Hms ≥ -125‰), where 40Ar/39Ar geochronological data indicate Miocene (18-15 Ma) extensional shearing and mylonitic fabric formation. These data indicate that very low δ2H surface-derived fluids penetrated the brittle-ductile transition as early as the mid-Eocene during a first phase of exhumation along a detachment rooted to the east. In the eastern part of the core complex, prominent top-to-the-east ductile shearing, mid-Miocene 40Ar/39Ar ages, and higher δ2H values of recrystallized white mica, indicate Miocene structural and isotopic overprinting of Eocene fabrics

Early Inception of the Laramide Orogeny in Southwestern Montana and Northern Wyoming: Implications for Models of Flat‐Slab Subduction

Timing and distribution of magmatism, deformation, exhumation, and basin development have been used to reconstruct the history of Laramide flat-slab subduction under North America during Late Cretaceous-early Cenozoic time. Existing geodynamic models, however, ignore a large (40,000-km(2)) sector of the Laramide foreland in southwestern Montana. The Montana Laramide ranges consist of Archean basement arches (fault-propagation folds) that were elevated by thrust and reverse faults. We present new thermochronological and geochronological data from six Laramide ranges in southwestern Montana (the Beartooth, Gravelly, Ruby and Madison Ranges, and the Tobacco Root and Highland Mountains) that show significant cooling and exhumation during the Early to mid-Cretaceous, much earlier than the record of Laramide exhumation in Wyoming. These data suggest that Laramide-style deformation-driven exhumation slightly predates the eastward sweep of magmatism in western Montana, consistent with geodynamic models involving initial strain propagation into North American cratonic rocks due to stresses associated with a northeastward expanding region of flat-slab subduction. Our results also indicate various degrees of Cenozoic heating and cooling possibly associated with westward rollback of the subducting Farallon slab, followed by Basin-and-Range extension. Plain Language Summary The Laramide region in the western U.S. is characterized by some of the highest topography in North America including the Wind River Range in WY and the Beartooth Range of WY and Montana. These ranges have fed detritus to surrounding basins for millions of years and contributed to modern ecosystems. These high topographic features and basins have significantly impacted paleoenvironmental conditions over geological time. The formation of these high-relief ranges has been linked to deep Earth, geodynamic, processes involving subduction of a flat slab under the North American Plate. Models of flat-slab subduction rely on the timing and pattern of deformation and exhumation of Laramide ranges, which remains poorly understood. Our study provides new data on the timing of deformation and exhumation of Laramide ranges in SW Montana and northern WY capable of testing current models of flat-slab subduction.NSF-Tectonics [EAR-1524151]6 month embargo; published online: 9 January 2019This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Extensional tectonics of the Cordilleran foreland fold and thrust belt and the Jurassic-Cretaceous Great Valley forearc basin

Following cessation of contractional deformation, the Sevier orogenic belt collapsed and spread west during a middle Eocene to middle Miocene (∼48-20 Ma) episode of crustal extension coeval with formation of metamorphic core complexes and regional magmatism. The sedimentary and structural record of this event is a network of half-grabens that extends from southern Canada to at least central Utah. Extensional structures superposed on this fold-thrust belt are rooted in the physical stratigraphy, structural relief and sole faults of preexisting thrust-fold structures. Commonly, the same detachment surfaces were used to accommodate both contractional and extensional deformation. Foreland and hinterland extensional elements of the Cordillera that are normally widely separated are uniquely collocated in central Utah where the thrust belt straddles the Archean-Proterozoic Cheyenne belt crustal suture. Here, the Charleston-Nebo allochthon, an immense leading-edge structural element of the Sevier belt collapsed during late Eocene-middle Miocene time when the sole thrust was extensionally reactivated by faults of the Deer Creek detachment fault system and the allochthon was transported at least 5-7 km back to the west. Concurrently, the north margin of the allochthon was warped by flexural-isostatic rise of a Cheyenne belt crustal welt and its footwall was intruded by crustal melts of the Wasatch igneous belt. Collectively, these elements comprise the Cottonwood metamorphic core complex. Extensional processes were also important in the formation of the Jurassic-Cretaceous Great Valley forearc basin. Advocates of a thrust-wedge hypothesis argued that this forearc experienced prolonged Jurassic-Cretaceous contraction and proposed that northwest-southeast-striking fault systems were evidence of a west-dipping blind Great Valley-Franciscan sole thrust and related backthrusts. Based on interpretation of seismic reflection, borehole, map and stratographic data, I propose that these faults and associated bedding geometries are folded synsedimentary normal faults and half-grabens. Thus, late-stage diastrophic mechanisms are not required to interpret a forearc that owes much of its present-day bedding architecture to extensional processes coeval with deposition

Reconnaissance study of mylonitic fabrics in the Bellota Ranch area, eastern Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona

The Santa Catalina Mountains in southeastern Arizona include extensive mylonitic fabrics developed within granitic and gneissic rocks that make up most of the range. These fabrics are strongest at the southern foot of the range where they dip south and project beneath the rangebounding Catalina – San Pedro detachment fault. Shear sense in the mylonitic rocks is primarily top-southwest, consistent with shearing down-dip from the detachment fault during early normal faulting and exhumation to form the metamorphic core complex. Two to three kilometers north of the foot of the Santa Catalina Mountains the mylonitic foliation is horizontal and farther north it dips to the north. The mylonitic fabrics thus dip outward from the axis of the Forerange arch with primarily top-northeast shear-sense indicators on the north side of the arch. This dominantly topnortheast fabric forms the Molino Basin shear zone, which continues eastward toward the Bellota Ranch area that is the subject of this study. We found that mylonitic fabrics in the Bellota Ranch area are generally subhorizontal, weak, and without clear shear-sense indicators in by far ost outcrops. Four days of field study yielded clear shear-sense indicators at only eight outcrops, with six of them indicating top-southwest shear sense. We were not able to divide mylonitic rocks into top-southwest and top-northeast zones as in a previous study by Bykerk-Kauffman (2008). Lineation trend gradually changes laterally from more northeasterly in the Molino Basin area to more northerly in the Bellota Ranch area. As with the Molino Basin area, lineations associated with top-northeast shearing generally trend more northerly than lineations associated with top-southwest shearing. We conclude that mylonitic lineation in the Bellota anch area is not a simple continuation of the Molino Basin shear zone as it is dominated by top-southwest shear-sense indicators rather than top-northeast as with the Molino Basin shear zone.Documents in the AZGS Documents Repository collection are made available by the Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS) and the University Libraries at the University of Arizona. For more information about items in this collection, please contact [email protected]

Late Eocene-Oligocene nonmarine mollusks of the northern Kishenehn Basin, Montana and British Columbia

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Structural-Geologic Map Relationships in the Salcito Ranch Area, Rincon Mountains, Southern Arizona

Formerly known as the Martinez Ranch area (e.g., see Davis, 1975; Davis and others, 2004), the Salcito Ranch area is located at the southeastern-most corner of the Rincon Mountains (Figure 1) and contains a magnificent display of the structural characteristics of the Catalina-Rincon metamorphic core complex and superposed Basin and Range faulting. We carried out large-scale mapping of the geology of a part of this area in the mid-1990s. This mapping, which was initiated as a class project, expanded to become part of a larger study of geologic structures associated with extensional tectonics in a region centered on the Catalina and Rincon Mountains. Observations and conclusions based on this larger work were published in the Geological Society of America (GSA) Bulletin (Davis and others, 2004). The GSA Bulletin journal article contains a simplified, generalized version of the more detailed geological map of the Salcito Ranch area. Furthermore, practical page limits for the article prevented an elaboration on certain descriptive details that may be of interest. Thus we take this opportunity to release this more comprehensive accounting of our findings as an Arizona Geological Survey Contributed Report, with the expectation that the map (Plate 1) and this text will be useful to others.Documents in the AZGS Document Repository collection are made available by the Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS) and the University Libraries at the University of Arizona. For more information about items in this collection, please contact [email protected]

Evidence of a lacustrine origin for laminated marl of the Pliocene Bouse Formation, Milpitas Wash, Blythe Basin, lower Colorado River valley

The Pliocene Bouse Formation in the lower Colorado River trough locally contains laminated marl and claystone interpreted by O’Connell et al. (2017) to represent the spring-neap tide cycle during sediment deposition in an estuary. Tidal cycles, if present, should be detectable by Fourier spectral analysis of lamination thicknesses in continuous sequences of laminated sediments. To evaluate the tidal interpretation, we attempted to photograph several laminated sequences in the southern Bouse Formation (south of Blythe, California) so that thicknesses could be measured from the photographs. Only one sequence, in lower Milpitas Wash (California), was identified where thicknesses could be determined with adequate precision from field photography. Fourier analysis of that sequence failed to identify evidence of tides. Furthermore, electron-microprobe analysis determined that laminations consist of alternating claystone and marl, which is consistent with annual changes in lake chemistry and sediment sources rather than physical changes in sediment sorting and transport during tidal cycles. Fourier analysis of data presented by O’Connell et al. (2017) of two nearby laminated Bouse sequences interpreted as tidal rhythmites also failed to identify statistically significant evidence of tides.Documents in the AZGS Documents Repository collection are made available by the Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS) and the University Libraries at the University of Arizona. For more information about items in this collection, please contact [email protected]