Interpretation of the Last Chance thrust, Death Valley region, California, as an Early Permian décollement in a previously undeformed shale basin

Stevens, Calvin H.; Stone, Paul

doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2005.04.005

Cited by 32 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…1) (Snow, 1992;Dunne and Walker, 2004). Structural burial by the Permian thrust belt, including the Last Chance thrust (e.g., Snow, 1992;Stevens and Stone, 2005), is insuffi cient to achieve the ~9 kbar metamorphic pressures in Monarch Canyon rocks (Hodges and Walker, 1990;Snow, 1992;Hoisch and Simpson, 1993;Applegate and Hodges, 1995). Jurassic thrust faults have not been recognized in the Funeral Mountains and the relative component of Jurassic versus Permian burial is uncertain.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Jurassic Barrovian metamorphism in a western U.S. Cordilleran metamorphic core complex, Funeral Mountains, California

Hoisch

Wells

Beyene

et al. 2014

Geology

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Large-magnitude retroarc shortening of Cretaceous age is well documented in the Sevier orogenic belt of the western United States, and has been associated with eastward Franciscan subduction that began in the Middle-Late Jurassic, but evidence for major Late Jurassic retroarc shortening has been lacking. Here we report new Lu-Hf garnet geochronology, pressuretemperature (P-T) paths, and 40 Ar/ 39 Ar thermochronology data that document tectonic burial of Late Jurassic age in a Barrovian metamorphic terrain, the Funeral Mountains metamorphic core complex, California, located in the hinterland of the Sevier orogenic belt. The P-T paths determined from growth-zoned garnets in upper greenschist facies pelitic schist show steep P-T trajectories consistent with metamorphism during thrust loading. The age of thrust loading is constrained by a fi ve-point Lu-Hf garnet isochron to be 158.2 ± 2.6 Ma (2σ). Partial exhumation, recorded in 146-153 Ma 40 Ar/ 39 Ar muscovite cooling ages, closely followed garnet growth. Late Jurassic Barrovian metamorphism has not been previously recognized in Cordilleran metamorphic core complexes, possibly due to being obscured by Late Cretaceous to Tertiary deformation, magmatism, and metamorphism. This study fi nds that the period of large-magnitude crustal shortening in the retroarc extended into the Late Jurassic, and may have closely followed the formation of the coherent orogenic system associated with east-dipping Franciscan subduction.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Jurassic Barrovian metamorphism in a western U.S. Cordilleran metamorphic core complex, Funeral Mountains, California

Hoisch

Wells

Beyene

et al. 2014

Geology

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“…1; e.g., Davis et al, 1978;Schweickert and Lahren, 1987;Dunne and Suczek, 1991;Stevens and Greene, 1999;Stevens and Stone, 2005;Saleeby, 2011;Chapman et al, 2012). The original paleogeographic architecture of passive-margin lithofacies has been intensely disrupted by Paleozoic and later folding and faulting, but facies were most likely arranged as the following NE-SW-trending belts (e.g., Saleeby and Dunne, 2015): (1) Neoproterozoic to Cambrian inner-shelf facies miogeoclinal strata (i.e., shallow marine sedimentary rocks of the inner continental margin) of the Death Valley and Mojave Desert regions, and the Snow Lake terrane, an allochthonous slice purportedly shuffl ed ~400 km northward along the cryptic Mesozoic Mojave-Snow Lake fault (e.g., Lahren and Schweickert, 1989;Wyld and Wright, 2001;Grasse et al, 2001); (2) temporally correlative outer-shelf miogeoclinal strata of the Inyo facies (Walcott, 1908;Nelson, 1962), which tectonically overlie belt 1 assemblages along the late Paleozoic-early Mesozoic Last Chance thrust (Stewart et al, 1966;Morgan and Law, 1998;Stevens and Stone, 2005); (3) Cambrian to Devonian eugeoclinal (i.e., deep-water marine sediments of the outer continental margin) deposits of chert, siliceous argillite, limestone, shale, serpentinite, and volcanic rocks belonging to the Roberts Mountains allochthon and related El Paso terrane, the former of which was thrust over belts 1 and 2 during the Antler orogeny (e.g., Stevens and Greene, 1999;Gehrels et al, 2000); (4) a eugeoclinal belt of Cambrian to Ordovician quartzite, phyllite, and chert named the Sierra City mélange and Shoo Fly complex (e.g., Harding et al, 2000) in the north and the remnants of similar strata preserved in pendants of the Kernville terrane (e.g., Saleeby and Busby, 1993;Chapman et al, 2012) in the south; and (5) the Paleozoic Foothills ophiolite belt, with overlying Permian to Triassic (?) Calaveras complex hemipelagic deposits, and unconformable infolds of suprasubduction-zone mafi c volcanic rocks and siliciclastic turbidites (Saleeby, 2011).…”

Section: Regional Tectonostratigraphic Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(2) the Late Permian Sonoma orogeny, wherein deep-water assemblages of the Golconda allochthon tectonically overrode the post-Antler continental margin along the Golconda thrust (e.g., Schweickert and Lahren, 1987); and/or (3) activity along the Last Chance thrust, which juxtaposed miogeoclinal outer-shelf (i.e., Inyo) above inner-shelf (i.e., Death Valley) facies in the time between the Antler and Sonoma orogenies (e.g., Stevens and Stone, 2005). Late Cenozoic (beginning in middle Miocene) tilting and exhumation of the White-Inyo Range accompanied basin-and-range extension and associated normal slip along the White Mountain and eastern Inyo fault zones (Stockli et al, 2003;Kirby et al, 2006;Lee et al, 2009;Ganev et al, 2010).…”

Section: White-inyo Rangementioning

confidence: 99%

Detrital zircon geochronology of Neoproterozoic–Lower Cambrian passive-margin strata of the White-Inyo Range, east-central California: Implications for the Mojave–Snow Lake fault hypothesis

Chapman

Ernst

Gottlieb

et al. 2015

Geological Society of America Bulletin

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Correlation of lithotectonic packages across major transcurrent structures is critical to understanding the tectonic evolution of the North American continental margin.Detrital zircon geochronology of uppermost Proterozoic to Lower Paleozoic mio geo clinal strata from the White-Inyo Mountains permits evaluation of: (1) the age and provenance of these metasediments and (2) a model for truncation of the passive margin along a postulated large-magnitude Cretaceous dextral shear zone, i.e., the Mojave-Snow Lake fault. U-Pb ages of detrital zircons from the Neoproterozoic Wyman Formation, the upper most Proterozoic Reed Dolomite (Hines Tongue Member), and clastic strata of the Lower Cambrian Deep Springs, Campito (Montenegro Member), Poleta, and Harkless formations refl ect ultimate derivation from the adjacent 1.7-pre-1.8 Ga Mojavia terrane and/or 1.7-1.8 Ga Yavapai continental basement, with subsidiary sources in both the ca. 1.4 Ga Yavapai-Mazatzal anorogenic granitoids and the >2.5 Ga North American craton, and a small proportion of 1.0-1.3 Ga grains, most likely reworked from Grenville clastic wedge deposits. Detrital zircon age spectra from the Lower Cambrian Andrews Mountain Member of the Campito Formation are unique in comparison with the remainder of the studied section, containing a major age peak centered at ca. 1.1 Ga and a subsidiary Lower Cambrian age peak, permitting calculation of a ca. 527 ± 12 (2σ) Ma maximum depositional age. These features, in addition to abundant detrital magnetite-ilmenite grains, refl ect a distal source for these rocks, most likely from the ca. 1.1 Ga Pikes Peak batholith and/or the Midcontinent rift and ca. 0.53 Ga bimodal intrusions of the Oklahoma-Colorado aulacogen. In terms of zircon age distribution, allochthonous metamorphic pendants in the Snow Lake terrane of the central Sierra Nevada batholith are most similar to those of stratigraphically equivalent units in the Death Valley region and, to lesser degrees, the White-Inyo section, and the Mojave Desert region. Given the similarity and relative proximity of Death Valley facies assemblages to the Snow Lake terrane, we suggest that the latter was not transported northward from the Mojave Desert region and instead represents footwall assemblages of a late Early to early Middle Jurassic lowangle normal fault system, probably along the outer transform-truncated margin of the Last Chance thrust stack. This model implies a few tens of kilometers of offset, in contrast to the hundreds of kilometers required by the Mojave-Snow Lake fault hypothesis.

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“…For convenience, we refer to the pre-Late Cretaceous architecture of the Sierra Nevada batholith and adjacent southern California batholith of the Mojave Desert and Salinia as autoch thonous, although a number of the pre-batholithic elements were deformed prior to and during emplace ment of the Sierra Nevada batholith (Kistler, 1990;Dunne and Suczek, 1991;Saleeby and Busby, 1993;Stevens and Stone, 2005;Nadin and Saleeby, 2008;Saleeby, 2011;Fig. 2).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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et al. 2012

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The Sierra Nevada batholith is an ~600-km-long, NNW-trending composite arc assemblage consisting of a myriad of plutons exhibiting a distinct transverse zonation in structural, petrologic, geochronologic, and isotopic patterns. This zonation is most clearly expressed by a west-to-east variation from mafi c to felsic plutonic assemblages. South of 35.5°N, the depth of exposure increases markedly, and fragments of shallow-level eastern Sierra Nevada batholith affi nity rocks overlie deeper-level western zone rocks and subjacent subduction accretion assemblages along a major Late Cretaceous detachment system. The magnitude of displacement along this detachment system is assessed here by palinspastic reconstruction of vertical piercing points provided by batholithic and metamorphic pendant structure and stratigraphy. Integration of new and published U-Pb zircon geochronologic, thermobarometric, (U-Th)/He thermochronometric, and geochemical data from plutonic and metamorphic framework assemblages in the southern Sierra Nevada batholith reveal seven potential correlations between dispersed crustal fragments and the Sierra Nevada batholith autochthon. Each correlation suggests at least 50 km of south-to southwest-directed transport and tectonic excision of ~5-10 km of crust along the Late Cretaceous detachment system. The timing and pattern of regional dispersion of crustal fragments in the southern Sierra Nevada batholith is most consistent with Late Cretaceous collapse above the underplated accretionary complex. We infer, from data presented herein (1) a high degree of coupling between the shallow and deep crust during extension, and (2) that the development of modern landscape in southern California was greatly preconditioned by Late Cretaceous tectonics.

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Interpretation of the Last Chance thrust, Death Valley region, California, as an Early Permian décollement in a previously undeformed shale basin

Cited by 32 publications

References 37 publications

Jurassic Barrovian metamorphism in a western U.S. Cordilleran metamorphic core complex, Funeral Mountains, California

Jurassic Barrovian metamorphism in a western U.S. Cordilleran metamorphic core complex, Funeral Mountains, California

Detrital zircon geochronology of Neoproterozoic–Lower Cambrian passive-margin strata of the White-Inyo Range, east-central California: Implications for the Mojave–Snow Lake fault hypothesis

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