Ar/ 39 Ar dates on basalts of Grand Canyon provide one of the best records in the world of the interplay among volcanism, differential canyon incision, and neotectonic faulting. Earlier 40 K/ 40 Ar dates indicated that Grand Canyon had been carved to essentially its present depth before 1.2 Ma. But new 40 Ar/ 39 Ar data cut this time frame approximately in half; new ages are all <723 ka, with age probability peaks at 606, 534, 348, 192, and 102 ka. Strategic sampling of basalts provides a semicontinuous record for deciphering late Quaternary incision and faultslip rates and indicates that basalts fl owed into and preserved a record of a progressively deepening bedrock canyon. The Eastern Grand Canyon block (east of Toroweap fault) has bedrock incision rates of 150-175 m/Ma over approximately the last 500 ka; western Grand Canyon block (west of Hurricane fault) has bedrock incision rates of 50-75 m/Ma over approximately the last 720 ka. Fault displacement rates are 97-106 m/Ma on the Toroweap fault (last 500-600 ka) and 70-100 m/Ma on the Hurricane fault (last 200-300 ka). As the river crosses each fault, the apparent incision rate is lowest in the immediate hanging wall, and this rate, plus the displacement rate, is subequal to the incision rate in the footwall. At the reach scale, variation in apparent incision rates delineates ~100 m/Ma of cumulative relative vertical lowering of the western Grand Canyon block relative to the eastern block and 70-100 m of slip accommodated by formation of a hanging-wall anticline. Data from the Lake Mead region indicate that our refi ned fault-dampened incision model has operated over the last 6 Ma. Bedrock incision rate has been 20-30 m/Ma in the lower Colorado River block in the last 5.5 Ma, and displacement on the Wheeler fault has resulted in both lowering of the Lower Colorado River block and formation of a hanging-wall anticline of the 6-Ma Hualapai Limestone. In modeling long-term incision history, extrapolation of Quaternary fault displacement and incision rates linearly back 6 Ma only accounts for approximately two-thirds of eastern and approximately onethird of western Grand Canyon incision. This "incision discrepancy" for carving Grand Canyon is best explained by higher rates during early (5-to 6-Ma) incision in eastern Grand Canyon and the existence of Miocene paleocanyons in western Grand Canyon. Differential incision data provide evidence for relative vertical displacement across Neogene faults of the Colorado Plateau-Basin and Range transition, a key data set for evaluating uplift and incision models. Our data indicate that the Lower Colorado River block has lowered 25-50 m/Ma (150-300 m) relative to the western Grand Canyon block and 125-150 m/Ma (750-900 m) relative to the eastern Grand Canyon block in 6 Ma. The best model explaining the constrained reconstruction of the 5-to 6-Ma Colorado River paleoprofi le, and other geologic data, is that most of the 750-900 m of relative vertical block motion that accompanied canyon 40
We compiled geochronology data from 87 published studies within the Anatolia orogen (32.5°E-44°E) to investigate the spatial and temporal patterns of continental magmatism during the final stages of Neotethys Ocean closure. The number and diversity of studies compiled here collectively provide a thorough characterization of magmatism (>700 ages) in the Anatolia orogen since the Late Cretaceous (ca. 100 Ma). Our new compilation reveals that magmatism was episodic and occurred in three distinct magmatic episodes punctuated by two orogen-wide magmatic lulls. We used regional-scale insights into the timing, location, composition, and evolution of magmatism revealed by our compilation to evaluate the tectonic and geodynamic processes responsible for each widespread magmatic lull, and to test and refine existing geodynamic models for Anatolia. We interpret the first orogen-wide magmatic lull (ca. 72-58 Ma) to have been the result of Maastrichtian to Paleocene collision of the Kırşehir and Anatolide-Tauride blocks with the Pontides arc along the Izmir-Ankara-Erzincan suture zone and synchronous collision of the Bitlis-Pütürge massif with the southern-margin of the Anatolide-Tauride blocks along the Bitlis suture zone. Magmatic quiescence during the second magmatic lull (ca. 40-20 Ma) was variably related to terminal subduction and Arabia slab break off along the Bitlis suture zone in the east, and Cyprus slab flattening due to postcollisional southward retreat of the Cyprus trench in the west, each triggered by middle to late Eocene Arabia collision. Postcollisional Neogene-Quaternary magmatism was most likely caused by lithospheric delamination and slab tearing/rollback in the Eastern and Central Anatolia volcanic provinces, respectively.
Modeled and measured velocities at coastal sites in Baja California south of the Agua Blanca fault, a region that most previous models consider Pacific plate, differ by 3-8 mm/yr, with coastal sites moving slower that the Pacific plate. We interpret these discrepancies in terms of strain accumulation on known on-shore faults, combined with right lateral slip at a rate of 3-4 mm/yr on additional faults offshore peninsular Baja California in the Pacific. Offshore seismicity, offset Quaternary features along the west coast of Baja California, and a discrepancy between the magnetically determined spreading rate in the Gulf Rise and the total plate rate from a geological model provide independent evidence for a "Baja California shear zone."
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