Cenozoic tectonism in the central Basin and Range; magnitude, rate, and distribution of upper crustal strain

Snow, J. Kent; Wernicke, Brian P.

doi:10.2475/ajs.300.9.659

Cited by 159 publications

(276 citation statements)

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“…fig. 3 of Snow & Wernicke 2000). To the extent that there is no way independently to verify what the configuration was, particularly for crustal blocks no more than a few kilometres across, the problem becomes intractable in the absence of an independent constraint.…”

Section: Eagle Mountain Formationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Armstrong 1972;Crittenden et al 1980;Wernicke 1981Wernicke , 1985Allmendinger et al 1983;Davis 1983;Miller et al 1983;Spencer 1984;Lister & Davis 1989;Spencer & Chase 1989;Axen et al 1990Axen et al , 1993John & Foster 1993;Livaccari et al 1993;Axen & Bartley 1997;Brady et al 2000a;Snow & Wernicke 2000;Livaccari & Geissman 2001;Axen 2004;Carney & Janecke 2005). The detachment concept is now widely applied in extensional and passive margin settings (e.g.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Beginning in the early 1990s, we became interested in Basin and Range examples for which evidence was regarded by the structural geological community to be the most compelling for slip at dips of appreciably less than 308 -the lowest plausible frictional lock-up angle for crustally rooted normal faults in the absence of unusual materials (m , 0.6, where m is the coefficient of friction) (Sibson 1985;Collettini & Sibson 2001) -and for the very large extensional strains with which low-angle normal faults are commonly associated Levy & ChristieBlick 1989;Snow & Wernicke 2000). We reasoned that if progress was to be made in developing a better theoretical understanding, it would be useful to focus on geological examples providing the firmest constraints.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Observations from the Basin and Range Province (western United States) pertinent to the interpretation of regional detachment faults

Christie‐Blick

Anders

Wills

et al. 2007

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This paper summarizes the results of completed and ongoing research in three areas of the Basin and Range Province of the western United States that casts doubt on the interpretation of specific regional detachment faults and the large extensional strains with which such faults are commonly associated. Given that these examples were influential in the development of ideas about low-angle normal faults, and particularly in making the case for frictional slip at dips of appreciably less than the 308 lock-up angle for m 0.6 (where m is the coefficient of friction), we advocate a critical re-examination of interpreted detachments elsewhere in the Basin and Range Province and in other extensional and passive margin settings.The Sevier Desert 'detachment' of west-central Utah is reinterpreted as a Palaeogene unconformity that has been traced to depth west of the northern Sevier Desert basin along an unrelated seismic reflection (most probably a splay of the Cretaceous-age Pavant thrust). The absence of evidence in well cuttings and cores for either brittle deformation (above) or ductile deformation (below) is inconsistent with the existence of a fault with as much as 40 km of displacement. The Pavant thrust and the structurally higher Canyon Range thrust are erosionally truncated at the western margin of the southern Sevier Desert basin, and are not offset by the 'detachment' in the manner assumed by those inferring large extension across the basin.The Mormon Peak detachment of SE Nevada is reinterpreted as a series of slide blocks on the basis of detachment characteristics and spatially variable kinematic indicators that are more closely aligned with the modern dip direction than the inferred regional extension direction. A particularly distinctive feature of the detachment is a basal layer of up to several tens of centimetres of polymictic conglomerate that was demonstrably involved in the deformation, with clastic dykes of the same material extending for several metres into overlying rocks in a manner remarkably similar to that observed at rapidly emplaced slide blocks. The Castle Cliff detachment in the nearby Beaver Dam Mountains of SW Utah is similarly regarded as a surficial feature, as originally interpreted, and consistent with its conspicuous absence in seismic reflection profiles from the adjacent sedimentary basin.The middle Miocene Eagle Mountain Formation of eastern California, interpreted on the basis of facies evidence and distinctive clast provenance to have been moved tectonically more than 80 km ESE from a location close to the Jurassic-age Hunter Mountain batholith of the Cottonwood Mountains, is reinterpreted as having accumulated in a fluvial-lacustrine rather than alluvial fanlacustrine setting, with no bearing on either the amount or direction of tectonic transport. The conglomeratic rocks upon which the provenance argument was based are pervasively channelized, with erosional relief of less than 1 m to as much as 15 m, fining-upwards successions at the same scale and abundant trough ...

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Section: Eagle Mountain Formationmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Observations from the Basin and Range Province (western United States) pertinent to the interpretation of regional detachment faults

Christie‐Blick

Anders

Wills

et al. 2007

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“…The intervening Basin and Range ultimately developed into a patchwork of relatively undeformed crustal blocks separated by regions strongly deformed by extension, strike-slip and shortening, with an overall east-west constrictional strain field Mancktelow and Pavlis, 1994]. Quantitative reconstruction of the strain pattern suggests that in regions of large-magnitude extension such as Death Valley and environs, the upper 12 -15 km of the crust have been almost completely removed [Snow and Wernicke, 2000]. Active deformation as revealed by spacegeodetic measurements is predominantly right-lateral simple shear oriented N20°W, at about 9 mm/yr, somewhat slower than the post-8 Ma average deformation rate [Bennett et al, 1999[Bennett et al, , 2003.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some authors have suggested that the present-day pattern of right-lateral shear is representative of the entire deformational history of the region [e.g., Serpa and Pavlis, 1996]. Others have suggested a transition occurred in late Miocene time from a predominantly extensional strain field, with its attendant lateral flow exposing metamorphic core complexes [e.g., Holm and Dokka, 1993;Hoisch and Simpson, 1993;Hoisch et al, 1997], to the strike-slip one that dominates today [e.g., Snow and Wernicke, 2000]. TECTONICS, VOL.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrical conductivity images of Quaternary faults and Tertiary detachments in the California Basin and Range

Park

Wernicke

2003

Tectonics

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Comparison of an electrical resistivity section derived from magnetotelluric (MT) data to a geologic section extending eastward from the Sierra Nevada near latitude 36°20′N shows that the crust is dominated by steeply dipping conductive features that correlate with active strike‐slip faults. While there is a subhorizontal conductor at a depth ∼20 km beneath some of the profile, it is broken by vertical structures associated with the active strike‐slip faults. The continuous subhorizontal anomalies in the lower crust typically observed in extensional regions are therefore absent in the resistivity section. The present‐day strike‐slip tectonic regime as indicated by geodetic data in this part of the Basin and Range is not producing features that could be inferred to indicate subhorizontal shear zones resulting from lateral crustal flow during extension. Because the Miocene tectonic regime resulted in the formation of metamorphic core complexes and thus was accompanied by such flow, the present regime appears to represent a fundamental transition in the mode of crustal deformation in the region. A serendipitous result of our study was the identification on resistivity sections of carbonate aquifers in the upper crust. Comparison of resistivities from the MT section to measured fluid resistivities from springs and boreholes suggests that the aquifers must be heterogeneous, with more saline brines occupying the deepest portions of the carbonates.

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Insights from low-temperature thermochronometry into transpressional deformation and crustal exhumation along the San Andreas fault in the western Transverse Ranges, California

et al. 2013

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The San Emigdio Mountains are an example of an archetypical, transpressional structural system, bounded to the south by the San Andreas strike‐slip fault, and to the north by the active Wheeler Ridge thrust. Apatite (U‐Th)/He and apatite and zircon fission track ages were obtained along transects across the range and from wells in and to the north of the range. Apatite (U‐Th)/He ages are 4–6 Ma adjacent to the San Andreas fault, and both (U‐Th)/He and fission track ages grow older with distance to the north from the San Andreas. The young ages north of the San Andreas fault contrast with early Miocene (U‐Th)/He ages from Mount Pinos on the south side of the fault. Restoration of sample paleodepths in the San Emigdio Mountains using a regional unconformity at the base of the Eocene Tejon Formation indicates that the San Emigdio Mountains represent a crustal fragment that has been exhumed more than 5 km along the San Andreas fault since late Miocene time. Marked differences in the timing and rate of exhumation between the northern and southern sides of the San Andreas fault are difficult to reconcile with existing structural models of the western Transverse Ranges as a thin‐skinned thrust system. Instead, these results suggest that rheologic heterogeneities may play a role in localizing deformation along the Big Bend of the San Andreas fault as the San Emigdio Mountains are compressed between the crystalline basement of Mount Pinos and oceanic crust that underlies the southern San Joaquin Valley.

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Cenozoic tectonism in the central Basin and Range; magnitude, rate, and distribution of upper crustal strain

Cited by 159 publications

References 0 publications

Observations from the Basin and Range Province (western United States) pertinent to the interpretation of regional detachment faults

Observations from the Basin and Range Province (western United States) pertinent to the interpretation of regional detachment faults

Electrical conductivity images of Quaternary faults and Tertiary detachments in the California Basin and Range

Insights from low-temperature thermochronometry into transpressional deformation and crustal exhumation along the San Andreas fault in the western Transverse Ranges, California

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