Range-front fault scarps of the Sierra El Mayor, Baja California: Formed above an active low-angle normal fault?

Axen, Gary J.; Fletcher, J. M.; Cowgill, Eric; Murphy, M. Dianne; Kapp, Paul; MacMillan, Ian; Ramos-Velázquez, Ernesto; Aranda-Gómez, Jorge

doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1999)027<0247:rffsot>2.3.co;2

Cited by 65 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Low-angle normal faults have been described in different geological situations including post-orogenic extension, exhumation of HP-LT metamorphic rocks and even intraoceanic rifting (Wernicke, 1981;1995;Lister et al, 1984;Avigad and Garfunkel, 1989;Abers et al, 1997;Axen et al, 1999;Hayman et al, 2003;Collettini and Holdsworth, 2004;Garcès and Gee, 2007). Such low-angle normal faults are often referred to as detachments.…”

Section: Crustal-scale Extension: Normal Faults Versus Post-orogenic mentioning

confidence: 99%

Rifting and shallow-dipping detachments, clues from the Corinth Rift and the Aegean

et al. 2010

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: The Corinth Rift is superimposed on the Hellenic nappe stack that formed at the expense of the Apulian continental crust above the subducting African slab. Extension started in the Pliocene and the major steep normal faults that control the geometry of the present-day rift were born very recently, some 600 Kyrs ago only. They root into a shallowdipping zone of microseismicity recorded near the base of the upper crust. The significance of this seismogenic zone is debated. Considering the northward dip of the zone of microseismicity, the depth of microearthquakes and their focal mechanisms, we observe a strong similarity with the northern Cycladic detachments in terms of expected pressure, temperature conditions and kinematics. We herein show (1) that the formation of the Corinth Rift can be considered a part of a continuum of extension that started some 30-35 Ma in the Aegean and that was recently localised in a more restricted area, (2) that the present-day structure and kinematics of the Corinth Rift can be explained with a series of decollements relayed by steeper ramps that altogether formed a mechanically weak, crustal-scale detachment, and (3) that the deformation, fluid behaviour and metamorphic features seen in the northern Cycladic metamorphic core complexes can be good analogues of the processes at work below the Corinth Rift. 2Introduction.

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Section: Crustal-scale Extension: Normal Faults Versus Post-orogenic mentioning

confidence: 99%

Rifting and shallow-dipping detachments, clues from the Corinth Rift and the Aegean

et al. 2010

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“…Geodetic studies (Savage et al, 1994) and geologic studies (Mueller and Rockwell, 1995;Axen et al, 1999;Dorsey and Martin-Barajas, 1999;Axen et al, 2000;Spelz et al, 2008;Fletcher and Spelz, 2009) show that the range has experienced rapid extension and uplift during the Quaternary. All of these geologic studies focused on faults and other geologic features on the west side of the range where Quaternary deposits are cut by numerous faults of the Laguna Salada, Cañon Rojo, and Cañada David detachment fault systems (Fig.…”

Section: Geologic Settingmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…The Sierra El Mayor-Sierra Cucapá are located at the highlydeformed and active structural transition from the northern Gulf Extensional Province to the San Andreas system (e.g., Siem and Gastil, 1994;Mueller and Rockwell, 1995;Axen et al, 1999). Geodetic studies across the Laguna Salada region suggest extension rates of 2-4 mm/yr (Savage et al, 1994).…”

Section: Uplift Of the Sierra El Majormentioning

confidence: 98%

“…An extensive array of faults that cut Quaternary alluvial fan surfaces is present along the entire length of the western Sierra El Mayor mountain front and in the hanging wall of the Cañada David detachment fault. These faults are thought to represent surface ruptures related to slip on the low-angle Cañada David detachment (Axen et al, 1999;Fletcher and Spelz, 2009). The Cañada David detachment fault ends at the near-vertical normaldextral Laguna Salada fault to the north (Fig.…”

Section: Geologic Settingmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…The Cerro Prieto fault, a major transform fault, and the Mexicali seismic zone outline a spreading center (Frez and González, 1991) that accommodates most of the North American-Pacific Plate relative motion at this location (Bennett et al, 1996). Geodetic studies across the Laguna Salada-Sierra El Mayor area suggest extension rates of 2-4 mm/yr (Savage et al, 1994), but only about 40% of this strain can be accounted for at 10 4 -10 6 year timescales (Axen et al, 1999(Axen et al, , 2000. Much of the evidence of this strain deficit may be obscured by the Colorado River delta deposits on the east side of the Sierra El Mayor and Sierra Cucapá mountain system.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Timing and controls on late Quaternary landscape development along the eastern Sierra El Mayor range front in northern Baja California, Mexico

et al. 2010

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Implications of transient deformation in the northern Basin and Range, western United States

2014

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Transient deformation events observed in Global Positioning System (GPS) data from the Basin and Range extensional province may illuminate qualitatively similar transient events observed in subduction zones and other tectonic environments. We model GPS time series at 22 sites using a combination of hyperbolic tangent function analysis and elastic load deformation estimated from climatological data. We identify two transient events,~2000.4 and~2004.4, with roughly similar timing and displacement to those described previously by other researchers. The first few years of GPS observations, adopted as a reference state in earlier studies, are found to be anomalous. Our results differ from previous studies in two respects. First, a significant component of northward transient motion occurs during both events, despite a reversal of sign in east component motion. Second, sites move coherently in the eastern as well as the western Basin and Range. Surface mass loading, the largest source of transient stress forcing in the region, exhibits no evidence of a simple relationship to the deformation transients. Prior studies inferred slip on a single megadetachment at the Moho, but that hypothesis assumes negligible ductile deformation of the lower crust and a dry olivine rheology for the uppermost mantle. Recent measurements of crustal quartz abundance and effective elastic thickness suggest both assumptions are unlikely. Basin and Range transients can be reconciled with the frictional slip mechanism widely accepted for subduction zone transients provided that slip is occurring on discontiguous detachment surfaces at midcrustal depths.

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Range-front fault scarps of the Sierra El Mayor, Baja California: Formed above an active low-angle normal fault?

Cited by 65 publications

References 21 publications

Rifting and shallow-dipping detachments, clues from the Corinth Rift and the Aegean

Rifting and shallow-dipping detachments, clues from the Corinth Rift and the Aegean

Timing and controls on late Quaternary landscape development along the eastern Sierra El Mayor range front in northern Baja California, Mexico

Implications of transient deformation in the northern Basin and Range, western United States

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