The ancestral Cascades arc: Cenozoic evolution of the central Sierra Nevada (California) and the birth of the new plate boundary

Busby, Cathy J.; Hagan, Jeanette C.; Putirka, Keith; Pluhar, C. J.; Gans, Phillip B.; Wagner, David L.; Rood, Dylan H.; DeOreo, Steve B; Skilling, I. P.

doi:10.1130/2008.2438(12)

Cited by 39 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 84 publications

(144 reference statements)

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“…2A and 2B). Detailed volcanic lithofacies mapping was required to demonstrate synvolcanic faulting on the basis of stratal relations, such as abrupt thinning of strata onto footwalls, fanning dips, and lateral offsets across piercing points that die out up section (Busby et al, 2008a(Busby et al, , 2013a(Busby et al, , 2013b. In addition, Slemmons (1953, and unpublished mapping) inferred that straight canyons trending approximately N-S or NE-SW were also fault-controlled, even if they only occurred in basement rocks and were not constrained by offsets in volcanic strata.…”

Section: Structural Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous papers have presented small geochemical data sets in stratigraphic context (Ransome, 1898;Noble et al, 1976;Putirka and Busby, 2007; , 2008a, 2013bKoerner et al, 2009), or used those data sets as part of a regional-scale analysis du Bray et al, 2014). However, this is the first paper to present a large geochemical data set in stratigraphic and intrusive context (Table 1), plotted on maps (Fig.…”

Section: Field and Petrographic Characteristics And Newmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2) and located by global positioning system (GPS; see Supplemental Table S1 1 ). Although abundant field photographs and descriptions have been previously published (Slemmons, 1953(Slemmons, , 1966Noble et al, 1974;Busby et al, 2008a;Busby and Putirka, 2009;Gorny et al, 2009;Busby et al, 2013aBusby et al, , 2013bBusby et al, , 2016, this is the first paper to link outcrop photos (Figs. 6 and 10) with photomicrographs (Figs.…”

Section: Field and Petrographic Characteristics And Newmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…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). Our studies have focused on the western margin of the central Walker Lane along the central Sierra Nevada range front and range crest (Fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The main difference between the Miocene to Pliocene volcanic fields described herein and the more well-studied, active volcanic fields of the Walker Lane is that the Miocene to Pliocene volcanic fields are dissected to the ideal level for viewing the structural controls on volcanism and sedimentation over a period of ~8 m.y. Hawthorne Hawthorne Busby et al, 2008a;Hagan et al, 2009Busby et al, 2008aHagan et al, 2009 Markleeville Markleeville For the first time, this paper presents photomicrographs and modal analyses on rocks of the Sierra Crest-Little Walker volcanic center and integrates these with whole-rock geochemical data. We also present a new map, and new structural, stratigraphic, petrographic, and geochronologic data on the Ebbetts Pass volcanic center.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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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Section: Structural Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Field and Petrographic Characteristics And Newmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Field and Petrographic Characteristics And Newmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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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Uplift, rupture, and rollback of the Farallon slab reflected in volcanic perturbations along the Yellowstone adakite hot spot track

et al. 2017

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Field, geochemical, and geochronological data show that the southern segment of the ancestral Cascades arc advanced into the Oregon back‐arc region from 30 to 20 Ma. We attribute this event to thermal uplift of the Farallon slab by the Yellowstone mantle plume, with heat diffusion, decompression, and the release of volatiles promoting high‐K calc‐alkaline volcanism throughout the back‐arc region. The greatest degree of heating is expressed at the surface by a broad ENE‐trending zone of adakites and related rocks generated by melting of oceanic crust from the Farallon slab. A hiatus in eruptive activity began at ca. 22–20 Ma but ended abruptly at 16.7 Ma with renewed volcanism from slab rupture occurring in two separate regions. The eastern rupture resulted in the extrusion of Steens Basalt during the ascent and melting of a dry mantle (plume) source contaminated with depleted mantle. The contemporaneous western rupture resulted in renewed subduction, melting of a wet mantle source, and the rejuvenation of high‐K calc‐alkaline volcanism near the Nevada‐California border at 16.7 Ma. Here the initiation of slab rollback is evident in the westward migration of arc volcanism at 7.8 km/Ma. Today, the uplifted slab is largely missing beneath the Oregon back‐arc region, replaced instead by a seismic hole that is bound on the south by the adakite hot spot track. We attribute slab destruction to thermal uplift and mechanical dislocation that culminated in rapid tearing of the slab from 17–15 Ma and possible foundering and sinking of slab segments from 16 to 10 Ma.

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Extensional and Transtensional Continental ARC Basins: Case Studies from the Southwestern United States

Busby

2011

Tectonics of Sedimentary Basins

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Extensional and transtensional continental arc basins preserve very thick, continuous sequences and are an important contributor to the growth of continents; therefore, it is important to understand how they evolve. In this chapter, I describe four continental arc basin types, using Mesozoic to Cenozoic case studies from the SW US: (1) early-stage, low-lying extensional; (2) early-stage, low-lying transtensional; (3) late-stage, highstanding extensional; and (4) late-stage high-standing transtensional.During the breakup of Pangea in early Mesozoic time, the paleo-Pacific Ocean basin was likely composed of very large, old, cold plates; these rolled back during subduction to produce subsidence and extension in the upper plate, particularly along the thermally-weakened arc that formed along the western margin of North and South America. Late Triassic to Middle Jurassic early-stage low-lying extensional continental arc basins of the SW US were floored by supracrustal rocks, showing that uplift did not precede magmatism, and they subsided deeply at high rates, locally below sea level. These basins formed a sink, rather than a barrier, for craton-derived sediment. They were characterized by abundant, widespread, large-volume silicic calderas, whose explosive eruptions buried fault scarps and horst blocks, resulting in a paucity of epiclastic debris in the basins. In Late Jurassic time, early-stage low-lying transtensional continental arc basins formed along the axis of the early-stage low-lying extensional continental arc basins, due to the opening of the Gulf of Mexico, which resulted in oblique subduction. Basins were downdropped at releasing bends or stepovers, in close proximity to uplifts along restraining bends or stepovers (referred to as "porpoising"), with coeval reverse and normal faults. Uplift events produced numerous large-scale unconformities, in the form of deep paleocanyons and huge landslide scars, while giant slide blocks of "cannibalized" basin fill accumulated in subsiding areas. Erosion of pop-up structures yielded abundant, coarse-grained epiclastic sediment. Silicic giant continental calderas continued to form in this setting, but they were restricted to symmetrical basins at releasing stepovers.In Cretaceous to Paleocene time, the arc migrated eastward under a contractional strain regime, due to shallowing of the progressively younger subducting slab. This produced a broad, high plateau, referred to as the "Nevadaplano" because of its similarity to the modern Altiplano of the Andean arc. Then, in Eocene to Miocene time, volcanism migrated westward due to slab rollback or steepening, producing latestage high-standing extensional continental arc basins. Late-stage extensional continental arc basins were similar to early-stage extensional arc basins in having "supervolcano" silicic caldera fields, but they were restricted to areas of thickest crust (along the crest of the Nevadaplano), rather than forming everywhere in the arc. Late-stage basins differed markedly from early-stage basins by forming ...

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The ancestral Cascades arc: Cenozoic evolution of the central Sierra Nevada (California) and the birth of the new plate boundary

Cited by 39 publications

References 84 publications

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

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

Uplift, rupture, and rollback of the Farallon slab reflected in volcanic perturbations along the Yellowstone adakite hot spot track

Extensional and Transtensional Continental ARC Basins: Case Studies from the Southwestern United States

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