Arc abandonment as a cause for passive continental rifting: Comparison of the Jurassic Mexican Borderland rift and the Cenozoic Rio Grande rift

Lawton, Timothy F.; McMillan, Nancy J.

doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1999)027<0779:aaaacf>2.3.co;2

Cited by 116 publications

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“…1; Lawton and McMillan, 1999). Although these basins lack Jurassic salt, several of them contain mafic intrusions, lava flows, and pillow lavas, intercalated with Kimmeridgian marine shale, that are compositionally similar to the igneous rocks described here (Fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 56%

U-Pb ages of igneous xenoliths in a salt diapir, La Popa basin: Implications for salt age in onshore Mexico salt basins

Lawton

Amato

2017

Lithosphere

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Ar cooling ages from a nearby diapir, which are younger than Upper Jurassic strata overlying the salt, combine to suggest that these samples were intruded into salt and exhumed during diapirism. A porphyritic mafic rock with a U-Pb zircon age of 150 Ma (Tithonian) has a crystallization age coeval with marine strata overlying the salt. It is interpreted as a shallow intrusion into salt emplaced after the onset of salt diapirism. Magmatism thus took place from 158 to 150 Ma.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 56%

U-Pb ages of igneous xenoliths in a salt diapir, La Popa basin: Implications for salt age in onshore Mexico salt basins

Lawton

Amato

2017

Lithosphere

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“…It has long been recognized that arcs have evolved into rifts in a wide variety of crustal settings (e.g., Yamaji, 1990;Murphy et al, 1990;Lawton and McMillan, 1999;Martín-Barajas et al, 1995;Busby et al, 2006;Centeno-Garcia et al, 2011). This is due to localization of extension or transtension in the thermally weakened arc axis, where rifting succeeds much more rapidly (in millions of years) than it does in intracontinental rifts (which take tens of millions of years; Umhoefer, 2011).…”

Section: Exploitation Of Arc Axis By Transtensional Riftingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A tale of two Walker Lane pull-apart basins in the ancestral Cascades arc, central Sierra Nevada, California

et al. 2018

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We integrate new geochronological, petrographic, and geochemical data with previously published (Sierra Crest-Little Walker volcanic center) and new (Ebbetts Pass volcanic center) structural and stratigraphic data to describe two deeply dissected, spectacularly well-exposed Walker Lane pull-apart basins in the ancestral Cascades arc. The Miocene (ca. 12-5 Ma) Sierra Crest-Little Walker arc volcanic center and the Miocene-Pliocene (ca. 6-4.6 Ma) Ebbetts Pass arc volcanic center formed in pull-apart basins in the Walker Lane, a NNW-trending zone of dextral strike-slip and oblique normal faults at the western edge of the Basin and Range Province. The Sierra Crest-Little Walker arc volcanic center is a transtensional arc volcanic field that is as areally extensive (~4000 km Volcano-tectonic activity continued for a longer period (ca. 12-6 Ma) in the northern half of the Sierra Crest-Little Walker volcanic center than it did in the southern half (ca. 12-9 Ma), overlapping for ~1 m.y. with the onset of volcano-tectonic activity at the Ebbetts Pass volcanic center to the north. This provides local-scale confirmation of the regional-scale interpretation that a transtensional rift tip propagated northward with time within the arc axis, in concert with northward migration of the Mendocino triple junction. Transtensional rift magmatism followed in its wake and continues today at various points along the length of the Walker Lane. "Tectono-stratigraphic recycling" was a key geologic process throughout the development of these ancestral Cascades arc pull-apart basins, and it consisted of the transfer of megaslide slabs, up to 2 km long and tens to hundreds of meters thick, from footwall to hanging-wall blocks in the transtensional rift. A time-slice series of block diagrams is used to illustrate the structural controls on arc volcanism in the early stages of Walker Lane transtensional faulting (ca. 12-4.6 Ma).

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“…Therefore, we entertain a model of arc rifting to separate the arc terrane from the western margin of the Cordilleran Ribbon Continent during the Jurassic. Others have noted the presence of Jurassic arc rocks beneath the rifted margin on the ribbon continent (Lawton and McMillan 1999), and Dickinson and Lawton (2001b) called upon slab rollback to create the extension leading to the Bisbee basin.…”

Section: Ta M P Ic O -M Is a N Tl A B A S I N V A L L E S -S A N L U mentioning

confidence: 99%

Arc and Slab-Failure Magmatism in Cordilleran Batholiths II – The Cretaceous Peninsular Ranges Batholith of Southern and Baja California

Hildebrand

Whalen

2014

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Ever since the late 1960s when Warren Hamilton proposed that the great Cordilleran batholiths of the western Americas are the roots of volcanic arcs like the Andes and were generated by longstanding eastward subduction, most geologists have followed suit, despite the evergrowing recognition that many Cordilleran batholiths are complex, composite bodies that developed with intervals of intense shortening and exhumation between and during periods of magmatism. The Peninsular Ranges batholith of Southern and Baja California provides a superb place to unravel the complexities because there is a lot of data and because it is longitudinally composed of two parts: an older western portion of weakly to moderately deformed, low-grade volcanic and epizonal plutonic rocks ranging in age from ~128–100 Ma; and a more easterly sector of deformed amphibolite grade rocks cut by compositionally zoned, mesozonal plutonic complexes of the La Posta suite, emplaced from 99–86 Ma. While plutons of the La Posta suite are generally considered to be the product of continued eastward subduction, they are enigmatic, because they and their wall rocks were rapidly exhumed from as deep as 23 km and eroded during, and just after, their emplacement, unlike plutons in magmatic arcs, which are generally emplaced in zones of subsidence. Here we resolve the enigma with a model where westward-dipping subduction led to arc magmatism of the western sector, the Santiago Peak–Alisitos composite arc, during the period ~128–100 Ma. Arc magmatism shut down when the arc collided with a west-facing Early Cretaceous passive margin at about 100 Ma. During the collision the buoyancy contrast between the continental crust of the eastern block and its attached oceanic lithosphere led to failure of the subducting slab. The break-off allowed subjacent asthenosphere to upwell, adiabatically melt, and rise into the upper plate to create the large zoned tonalite–granodiorite–granite complexes of the La Posta suite. While compositionally similar to arc plutons in many respects, the examples from the Southern California and Baja segments of the batholith have geochemistry that indicates they were derived from partial melting of asthenosphere at deeper levels in the mantle than typical arc magmas, and within the garnet stability field. This is consistent with asthenosphere upwelling through the torn lower-plate slab. We identify kindred rocks with similar geological relations in other Cordilleran batholiths of the Americas, such as the Sierra Nevada, which lead us to suggest that slab failure magmatism is common, both spatially and temporally.SOMMAIREDepuis la fin des années 1960, Warren Hamilton a proposé que les grands batholites de la Cordillère de l'ouest des Amériques sont les racines d’arcs volcaniques andéens issus de la subduction vers l'est de longue durée, et depuis la plupart des géologues ont emboîté le pas, bien qu’un nombre croissant d’indications montrent que de nombreux batholites de la Cordillère sont des entités composites complexes qui se sont développés lors d’intervalles intenses de contraction et d’exhumation, durant et entre les périodes de magmatisme. Le batholite Peninsular Ranges du Sud de la Californie et de Baja California est un excellent endroit permettant de démêler les choses parce qu'il y a beaucoup de données et parce qu'il est composé longitudinalement de deux parties: une partie occidentale plus ancienne, faiblement à modérément déformée, de roches volcaniques de faible métamorphisme et de roches plutoniques épizonales âgées d’environ 128 Ma à 100 Ma; et, d’un segment plus à l'est de roches amphiboliques déformées recoupées par des roches de composition zonée des complexes mésozonaux plutoniques de la suite de la Posta, mises en place entre 99 Ma et 86 Ma. Bien que les plutons de la suite La Posta sont généralement considérés comme le produit d’une subduction soutenue vers l’est, ils posent problème, parce qu'avec leurs roches encaissantes, ils ont été rapidement exhumés de profondeurs aussi grandes que 23 km, et érodées durant et juste après leur mise en place, contrairement aux plutons des arcs magmatiques, qui sont généralement mis en place dans les zones de subsidence. Dans le présent article, nous proposons une solution à ce problème, avec un modèle de subduction vers l'ouest qui conduit à un magmatisme d'arc du secteur ouest, l'arc composite de Santiago Peak-Alisitos, durant la période d’environ 128 Ma à 100 Ma. Le magmatisme d’arc s’est arrêté lorsque l'arc est entré en collision avec une marge passive à pendage ouest du début du Crétacé, il y a environ 100 Ma. Lors de la collision, le contraste de flottabilité entre la croûte continentale du bloc de est et la lithosphère océanique qui y est rattachée a conduit à l'avortement de la plaque plongeante. La cassure a entrainé la remontée de l’asthénosphère sous-jacente, sa fusion adiabatique, et sa remontée dans la plaque supérieure pour former les grands complexes zonés de tonalite-granodiorite-granite de La Posta. Bien que de composition similaire aux plutons d'arc à bien des égards, les exemples des segments de batholites de Californie du Sud et de Baja ont une géochimie qui indique qu'ils proviennent de la fusion partielle de l’asthénosphère à des niveaux plus profonds dans le manteau que les magmas d'arc typiques, à l’intérieur du domaine de stabilité du grenat. Ce qui correspond à une remontée d’asthénosphère à travers une dalle de plaque inférieure cassée. Nous connaissons des roches semblables avec les relations géologiques similaires dans d'autres batholites de la Cordillère des Amériques, tel celles de la Sierra Nevada, ce qui nous amène à penser que le magmatisme de cassure de plaque est commun, tant spatialement et temporellement.

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Arc abandonment as a cause for passive continental rifting: Comparison of the Jurassic Mexican Borderland rift and the Cenozoic Rio Grande rift

Cited by 116 publications

References 0 publications

U-Pb ages of igneous xenoliths in a salt diapir, La Popa basin: Implications for salt age in onshore Mexico salt basins

U-Pb ages of igneous xenoliths in a salt diapir, La Popa basin: Implications for salt age in onshore Mexico salt basins

A tale of two Walker Lane pull-apart basins in the ancestral Cascades arc, central Sierra Nevada, California

Arc and Slab-Failure Magmatism in Cordilleran Batholiths II – The Cretaceous Peninsular Ranges Batholith of Southern and Baja California

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