Early Mesozoic tectonic evolution of the western U.S. Cordillera

Saleeby, Jason B.; Busby-Spera, Cathy J.; Oldow, John S.; Dunne, George C.; Wright, James E.; Cowan, Darrel S.; Walker, Nicholas W.; Allmendinger, Richard W.

doi:10.1130/dnag-gna-g3.107

Cited by 110 publications

(167 citation statements)

References 141 publications

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“…of Mesozoic time, beginning sometime between deposition of early Middle Triassic strata and emplacement of early Middle Jurassic plutons. Although similar contractional structures on strike to the north are as old as Late Triassic, our data permit the interpretation that most contraction in the ESTS occurred between late Early and Late Jurassic time, consistent with observations throughout the SierranKlamath magmatic arc and its host rocks [Saleeby and Busby-Spera, 1992].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 72%

“…The Nevadan event was once considered to have been a brief but intense contractional event centered in the northern Sierra Nevada [Schweickert et al, 1984] at $152 Ma. Subsequent studies, however, revealed that (1) important contractional events of Nevadan character begun as early as $177 Ma in the Klamath Mountains and Sierra Foothills [Saleeby and Busby-Spera, 1992] and (2) both contraction and left-lateral transpressive structures continued to evolve until at least 114 Ma in the Sierran foothills [Wolf and Saleeby, 1995]. Post-Nevadan contractional and right-transpressive structures developed in Sierran roof pendants during the span $90 Ma to $80 Ma Sharp et al, 2000].…”

Section: Relations Between Ests and Regional Deformation Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Possible factors that may have contributed to these differences include (1) speculatively, a more northerly or northeasterly orientation of the plate margin at the latitude of northern Nevada, thus creating a local restraining bend within the predominantly left-oblique convergence regime that is inferred to have existed during much of the Jurassic [Saleeby and Busby-Spera, 1992]; and (2) the distinctive orientation, geometry, and mechanical character of the sedimentary basin fill and basin margin system out of which the LFB evolved [cf. Elison and Speed, 1989]; these latter characteristics were very different from the geologic setting in which the ESTS evolved.…”

Section: Correlative Structures To North and Southmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Structure and evolution of the East Sierran thrust system, east central California

Dunne

Walker

2004

Tectonics

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A belt of arc‐parallel, northeast vergent contractional deformation, the East Sierran thrust system (ESTS), crops out for ∼150 km along the east side of the Sierran continental margin arc. The ESTS is nowhere wider than ∼20 km, and it accommodated an estimated minimum of ∼9.3 km of horizontal shortening. Remarkably, it experienced repeated episodes of broadly coaxial and coaxial‐planar contractional deformation beginning prior to 188 Ma and continuing past 140 Ma. We postulate that the ESTS resulted primarily from episodic underthrusting of the back arc lithosphere beneath the east edge of the Sierran arc, facilitated by a buttressing effect of the arc. As a result of this process, rocks along the east flank of the batholith, including the ESTS, were episodically shortened against the arc buttress. The ESTS experienced significant deformation during the Nevadan orogeny, indicating that contractional to transpressive deformation affiliated with this event affected the eastern wall rocks of the arc as well as its western wall rocks.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 72%

Section: Relations Between Ests and Regional Deformation Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Correlative Structures To North and Southmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Structure and evolution of the East Sierran thrust system, east central California

Dunne

Walker

2004

Tectonics

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“…The intrusion of $170 Ma granitoid bodies in the westernmost Klamaths and restricted occurrences of younger plutons to progressively more easterly belts [Hacker et al, 1995;Irwin and Wooden, 1999;Irwin, 2003] suggest that the left-lateral offset of the Klamath salient took place over the interval $150-140 Ma as the crustal assembly of oceanic terranes and superjacent strata gradually migrated westward off the subducting plate's deep-seated magmagenic zone. This seaward transport of the Klamath Province apparently occurred during a relatively brief period characterized by sinistral slip along the western margin of the continent [Saleeby, 1992;Saleeby et al, 1992], and terminated at the time of development of the KimmeridgianTithonian cusp in the North and South American apparent polar wander paths [May and Butler, 1986;Schettino and Scotese, 2005]. The Guadalupe Igneous Complex itself exhibits the effects of sinistral shear.…”

Section: Plate Tectonic Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Guadalupe pluton–Mariposa Formation age relationships in the southern Sierran Foothills: Onset of Mesozoic subduction in northern California?

Ernst

Saleeby

Snow³

2009

J. Geophys. Res.

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[1] We report a new 153 ± 2 Ma SIMS U-Pb date for zircons from the hypabyssal Guadalupe pluton which crosscuts and contact metamorphoses upper crustal Mariposa slates in the southern Sierra. A $950 m thick section of dark metashales lies below sandstones from which clastic zircons were analyzed at 152 ± 2 Ma. Assuming a compacted depositional rate of $120 m/Myr, accumulation of Mariposa volcanogenic sediments, which overlie previously stranded Middle Jurassic and older ophiolite + chertargillite belts in the Sierran Foothills, began no later than $160 Ma. Correlative Oxfordian-Kimmeridgian strata of the Galice Formation occupy a similar position in the Klamath Mountains. We speculate that the Late Jurassic was a time of transition from (1) a mid-Paleozoic-Middle Jurassic interval of mainly but not exclusively strike-slip and episodic docking of oceanic terranes; (2) to transpressive plate underflow, producing calcalkaline igneous arc rocks ± outboard blueschists at $170-150 Ma, whose erosion promoted accumulation of the Mariposa-Galice overlap strata; (3) continued transpressive underflow attending $200 km left-lateral displacement of the Klamath salient relative to the Sierran arc at $150-140 Ma and development of the apparent polar wander path cusps for North and South America; and (4) then nearly orthogonal mid and Late Cretaceous convergence commencing at $125-120 Ma, during reversal in tangential motion of the Pacific plate. After $120 Ma, nearly head-on subduction involving minor dextral transpression gave rise to voluminous continent-building juvenile and recycled magmas of the Sierran arc, providing the erosional debris to the Great Valley fore arc and Franciscan trench.

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“…The Klamath Mountains consist of a series of terranes representing a Permian-Triassic subduction complex that developed west of a Permian-Triassic arc system (e.g., Irwin, 1981;Saleeby et al, 1992). These terranes were structurally imbricated by a major east-dipping thrust system and overprinted by arc-related magmatism (Burchfiel et al, 1992;Saleeby et al, 1992 Hacker et al, 1995;Irwin and Wooden, 1999, and references therein).…”

Section: Potential Source Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lithofacies control in detrital zircon provenance studies: Insights from the Cretaceous Methow basin, southern Canadian Cordillera

Surpless

Mahoney

Wooden

et al. 2003

Geological Society of America Bulletin

132

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High-frequency sampling for detrital zircon analysis can provide a detailed record of fine-scale basin evolution by revealing the temporal and spatial variability of detrital zircon ages within clastic sedimentary successions. This investigation employed detailed sampling of two sedimentary successions in the Methow/Methow-Tyaughton basin of the southern Canadian Cordillera to characterize the heterogeneity of detrital zircon signatures within single lithofacies and assess the applicability of detrital zircon analysis in distinguishing fine-scale provenance changes not apparent in lithologic analysis of the strata. The Methow/ Methow-Tyaughton basin contains two distinct stratigraphic sequences of middle Albian to Santonian clastic sedimentary rocks: submarine-fan deposits of the Harts Pass Formation/Jackass Mountain Group and fluvial deposits of the Winthrop Formation. Although both stratigraphic sequences displayed consistent ranges in detrital zircon ages on a broad scale, detailed sampling within each succession revealed heterogeneity in the detrital zircon age distributions that was systematic and predictable in the turbidite succession but unpredictable in the fluvial succession. These results suggest that a high-density sampling approach permits interpretation of finescale changes within a lithologically uniform turbiditic sedimentary succession, but † E-mail: ksurpless@stanford.edu. heterogeneity within fluvial systems may be too large and unpredictable to permit accurate fine-scale characterization of the evolution of source regions. The robust composite detrital zircon age signature developed for these two successions permits comparison of the Methow/MethowTyaughton basin age signature with known plutonic source-rock ages from major plutonic belts throughout the Cretaceous North American margin. The Methow/ Methow-Tyaughton basin detrital zircon age signature matches best with source regions in the southern Canadian Cordillera, requiring that the basin developed in close proximity to the southern Canadian Cordillera and providing evidence against large-scale dextral translation of the Methow terrane.

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Early Mesozoic tectonic evolution of the western U.S. Cordillera

Cited by 110 publications

References 141 publications

Structure and evolution of the East Sierran thrust system, east central California

Structure and evolution of the East Sierran thrust system, east central California

Guadalupe pluton–Mariposa Formation age relationships in the southern Sierran Foothills: Onset of Mesozoic subduction in northern California?

Lithofacies control in detrital zircon provenance studies: Insights from the Cretaceous Methow basin, southern Canadian Cordillera

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