Variation in styles of rifting in the Gulf of California

Lizarralde, D.; Axen, Gary J.; Brown, H. E.; Fletcher, J. M.; González‐Fernández, Antonio; Harding, A. J.; Holbrook, W. S.; Kent, G. M.; Páramo, Pedro; Sutherland, F. H.; Umhoefer, Paul J.

doi:10.1038/nature06035

Cited by 272 publications

(334 citation statements)

References 26 publications

(24 reference statements)

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“…One prediction of this model is that Baja California was translated much further relative to mainland Mexico ($500 km) than the $300 km of motion interpreted by Oskin and Stock [2003] since 6 Ma because of the earlier time of transfer. Recent seismic studies by Lizarralde et al [2007] suggest that Baja California has been translated 350-480 km relative to mainland Mexico through a combination of seafloor spreading and continental extension in the Gulf, which supports the integrated transtension model. Gans' [1997] model also suggested that the Tosco-Abreojos fault never accommodated significant strike-slip motion, which would imply that substantial dextral slip was accommodated in Baja and mainland Mexico.…”

Section: Plate Tectonic Setting Of Extension At Sierra Mazatánmentioning

confidence: 64%

Geologic, structural, and thermochronologic constraints on the tectonic evolution of the Sierra Mazatán core complex, Sonora, Mexico: New insights into metamorphic core complex formation

Wong

Gans

2008

Tectonics

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The Sierra Mazatán in northwestern Mexico is the southernmost metamorphic core complex in the North American Cordillera. Large‐magnitude Tertiary extension at Sierra Mazatán involved both ductile and brittle slip along a major normal fault that presently dips 10°–15° west. Extension was polyphase and involved an early period of extension from 25 to 23 Ma followed by major slip from 21 to 16 Ma. Total slip was ≤20 km and occurred at rates of 3–4 mm/a. This extension predated the plate boundary change to transtension at ∼12 Ma and was largely decoupled from relative Pacific–North American plate motion. Numerous lines of evidence suggest that the presently low‐angle normal fault initiated at a steep dip (50°–60°) and was rotated to lower angles during slip. When corrected for this tilting, fault corrugations at Sierra Mazatán had a similar geometry to the segmentation of many active normal faults, which is compatible with their origin as primary fault features. Many aspects of the Sierra Mazatán are comparable to large active normal faults, indicating that this core complex formed owing to prolonged extension on an otherwise typical high‐angle normal fault. Therefore, core complexes need not represent a fundamentally unique mode of crustal extension.

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Section: Plate Tectonic Setting Of Extension At Sierra Mazatánmentioning

confidence: 64%

Geologic, structural, and thermochronologic constraints on the tectonic evolution of the Sierra Mazatán core complex, Sonora, Mexico: New insights into metamorphic core complex formation

Wong

Gans

2008

Tectonics

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“…5), the tomographic maps reflect the crustal structure in the study region. At this period, group velocities in the northern and central Gulf are in general slower than in the southern Gulf, where relatively high velocities are indicative of a relatively thinner crust, as also pointed out from the PESCADOR experiment (Lizarralde et al 2007). We also found low velocities along most of the Baja California Peninsula as well as onshore Sonora, while beneath Sinaloa the group velocities are overall higher.…”

Section: Results: Group Velocity Tomographymentioning

confidence: 86%

“…Crustal deformation in the Gulf varies from classic ridgetransform structures in the south to diffuse deformation in the north, where a large number of shallow small-offset normal faults exist (Persaud et al 2003;Lizarralde et al 2007). Variations in the crustal structure and composition along the Gulf and beneath Baja are found in several studies.…”

Section: G E O L O G I C a L S E T T I N Gmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…The large low-velocity zones beneath the Gulf likely reflect the upwelling of asthenospheric material in the upper mantle (Lizarralde et al 2007) and this is predominant in the central and southern Gulf (Figs 9,11 and 12,profile at 24.2 • N). Numerical models of continental break-up (Corti et al 2003) demonstrate that this process is characterized by a first stage of extension affecting the entire rift length and a second stage in which asthenospheric upwelling occurs in regularly spaced well-confined regions propagating in an extension-orthogonal (along strike) direction.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Seismic structure beneath the Gulf of California: a contribution from group velocity measurements

Luccio

Persaud

Clayton

2014

Geophysical Journal International

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“…Prominent examples are the Main Ethiopian rift (Corti, 2008), the Levant rift system 10 including the Dead Sea rift (Mart et al, 2005), the Gulf of California rift (Atwater and Stock, 1998;Fletcher et al, 2007) and the Upper Rhine Graben (Bertrand et al, 2005). Structure and kinematics of past rift systems has been studied by surveying obliquely rifted margins (Fournier et al, 2004;Lizarralde et al, 2007;Klimke and Franke, 2016) and transform continental margins (Basile, 2015;Mericer de Lépinay et al, 2016). However, quantifying rift obliquity of a specific rift system through time is more difficult since the syn-rift velocity evolution needs to be reconstructed from available geophysical and 15 geological data sets.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oblique rifting: the rule, not the exception

Brune¹,

Williams²,

Müller³

2018

Preprint

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Abstract. Movements of tectonic plates often induce oblique deformation at divergent plate boundaries. This is in striking contrast with traditional conceptual models of rifting and rifted margin formation, which often assume 2D deformation 10 where the rift velocity is oriented perpendicular to the plate boundary. Here we quantify the validity of this assumption by analysing the kinematics of major continent-scale rift systems in a global plate tectonic reconstruction from the onset of Pangea breakup until present-day. We evaluate rift obliquity by joint examination of relative extension velocity and local rift trend using the script-based plate reconstruction software pyGPlates. Our results show that the global mean rift obliquity amounts to 34° with a standard deviation of 24°, using the convention that the angle of obliquity is spanned by extension 15 direction and rift trend normal. We find that more than ~70% of all rift segments exceeded an obliquity of 20° demonstrating that oblique rifting should be considered the rule, not the exception. In many cases, rift obliquity and extension velocity increase during rift evolution (e.g. Australia-Antarctica, Gulf of California, South Atlantic, India-Antarctica), which suggests an underlying geodynamic correlation via obliquity-dependent rift strength. Oblique rifting produces 3D stress and strain fields that cannot be accounted for in simplified 2D plane strain analysis. We therefore highlight the importance of 3D 20 approaches in modelling, surveying, and interpretation of most rift segments on Earth where oblique rifting is the dominant mode of deformation.

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Variation in styles of rifting in the Gulf of California

Cited by 272 publications

References 26 publications

Geologic, structural, and thermochronologic constraints on the tectonic evolution of the Sierra Mazatán core complex, Sonora, Mexico: New insights into metamorphic core complex formation

Geologic, structural, and thermochronologic constraints on the tectonic evolution of the Sierra Mazatán core complex, Sonora, Mexico: New insights into metamorphic core complex formation

Seismic structure beneath the Gulf of California: a contribution from group velocity measurements

Oblique rifting: the rule, not the exception

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