Birth of a plate boundary at ca. 12 Ma in the Ancestral Cascades arc, Walker Lane belt of California and Nevada

Abstract

The Walker Lane belt of eastern California and western Nevada is the northernmost extension of the Gulf of California transtensional rift, where the process of continental rupture has not yet been completed, and rift initiation can be studied on land. GPS and earthquake focal mechanism studies demonstrate that the Walker Lane belt currently accommodates NW-SE-directed movement between the Sierra Nevada microplate and the North American plate, but the timing and nature of rift initiation remains unclear. I present a model for plate-margin-scale initiation of the Gulf of California and Walker Lane transtensional rifts at ca. 12 Ma; localization of rifting in both was initiated by thermal weakening in the axis of a subduction-related arc undergoing extension due to slab rollback, and thermal weakening in the arc was enhanced by stalling of the trenchward-migrating precursor arc against a thick Cretaceous batholithic lithospheric profi le on its western margin. Rifting succeeded very quickly in the Gulf of California, due to stalling of Farallon slabs, but the Walker Lane transtensional rift has been unzipping northward along the axis of the Cascades arc, following the Mendocino triple junction. I infer that plate-margin-scale Walker Lane transtension was signaled by the development of an unusually large and voluminous transtensional arc volcanic center, the ca. 11.5-9 Ma Sierra Crest-Little Walker arc volcanic center. I show that the style of faulting in this large Miocene arc volcanic center closely matches that of Quaternary transtensional structures in the central Walker Lane, where it lies, and that it differs from southern and northern Walker Lane structures. This indicates that the temporal transition from E-W Basin and Range extension to NW-SEWalker Lane transtension occurred earlier than most workers have inferred. I also summarize new data which show that the central Sierra Nevada range front (from Long Valley to the Tahoe Basin) lies squarely within the Walker Lane belt, not to the west of it as previous workers have inferred.The leading tip of Walker Lane transtension is marked by large arc volcanic centers sited in transtensional stepovers; these include the ca. 11.5-9 Ma Sierra Crest-Little Walker volcanic center; north of that, the ca. 6.3-4.8 Ma Ebbetts Pass volcanic center; and north of that, the active Lassen volcanic center. In its wake, large rift volcanic centers are sited on transtensional stepovers or bends; these include the Long Valley and Coso volcanic fi elds. I predict that any <12 Ma large volcanic centers identifi ed by future workers in the Sierra Nevada-Walker Lane region, or in the Gulf of California, will prove to be sited at major releasing bends or stepovers.

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

“…The Sierra Crest-Little Walker volcanic center also forms the largest volcanic center recognized to date in the ancestral Cascades arc, and it records the birth of the Walker Lane "future plate boundary" within the arc at ca. 12-9 Ma (Busby, 2013). The Ebbetts Pass volcanic center is the next major ancestral Cascades arc volcanic center to the north, and we show herein that it formed within a smaller Walker Lane pull-apart basin in Miocene to Pliocene time.…”

“…The steep eastern range front was previously interpreted to be the result of Basin and Range extension (Bateman and Wahraftig, 1966;Slemmons, 1953Slemmons, , 1966. However, it is now known to form the western boundary of the Walker Lane, an ~100-km-wide, NNW-trending zone of dextral strike-slip and oblique normal faults that lies along the western edge of the Basin and Range Province (e.g., Faulds and Henry, 2008;Jayko and Bursik, 2012;Busby, 2013). The Walker Lane accommodates ~20%-30% of the right-lateral motion between the Pacific and North American plates (Argus and Gordon, 1991;Dixon et al, 2000;Oldow, 2003;Unruh et al, 2003;John et al, 2012).…”

“…The Walker Lane accommodates ~20%-30% of the right-lateral motion between the Pacific and North American plates (Argus and Gordon, 1991;Dixon et al, 2000;Oldow, 2003;Unruh et al, 2003;John et al, 2012). This region has been described as the northernmost extension of the Gulf of California transtensional rift, where the process of continental rupture has not yet been completed, and rift initiation can be studied on land (Faulds and Henry, 2008;Jayko and Bursik, 2012;Busby, 2013). The northern and southern segments of the Walker Lane are dominated by translation along long NNW-trending dextral strike-slip faults (Faulds and Henry, 2008;Jayko and Bursik, 2012;Busby, 2013).…”

“…This region has been described as the northernmost extension of the Gulf of California transtensional rift, where the process of continental rupture has not yet been completed, and rift initiation can be studied on land (Faulds and Henry, 2008;Jayko and Bursik, 2012;Busby, 2013). The northern and southern segments of the Walker Lane are dominated by translation along long NNW-trending dextral strike-slip faults (Faulds and Henry, 2008;Jayko and Bursik, 2012;Busby, 2013). In contrast, the central Walker Lane (Fig.…”

“…1) has more abundant Cenozoic volcanic rocks than the northern and southern Walker Lane, probably because it lies at a higher rift angle relative to the overall plate margin (Busby, 2013). The abundant volcanic rocks make the central Walker Lane ideal for detailed reconstructions of transtensional rifting and magmatism in a continental setting, because the volcanic strata are dateable by the 40 Ar/ 39 Ar method (e.g., Busby et al, 2008aBusby et al, , 2008bBusby et al, , 2013aBusby et al, , 2013bBusby et al, , 2016Hagan et al, 2009;Nagorsen-Rinke et al, 2013;Fleck et al, 2015).…”