Intraplate deformation and microplate tectonics of the Yellowstone hot spot and surrounding western U.S. interior

Puskas, C. M.; Smith, Robert B.

doi:10.1029/2008jb005940

Cited by 16 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 83 publications

(163 reference statements)

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“…The low strain rates evident in eastern Oregon are also at odds with notions that the current PNW surface velocity field includes a large, time‐dependent signal due to the viscoelastic response of the mantle and crust to past earthquakes [e.g., Puskas and Smith , ; Pollitz et al ., ]. Pollitz et al .…”

Section: Interpretation Of the Velocity Fieldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Active tectonics of northwestern U.S. inferred from GPS‐derived surface velocities

et al. 2013

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[1] Surface velocities derived from GPS observations from 1993 to 2011 at several hundred sites across the deforming northwestern United States are used to further elucidate the region's active tectonics. The new velocities reveal that the clockwise rotations, relative to North America, seen in Oregon and western Washington from earlier GPS observations, continue to the east to include the Snake River Plain of Idaho and south into the Basin and Range of northern Nevada. Regional-scale rotation is attributed to gravitationally driven extension in the Basin and Range and Pacific-North America shear transferred through the Walker Lane belt aided by potentially strong pinning below the Idaho Batholith. The large rotating section comprising eastern Oregon displays very low internal deformation rates despite seismological evidence for a thin crust, warm mantle, organized mantle flow, and elevated topography. The observed disparity between mantle and surface kinematics suggests that either little stress acts between them (low basal shear) or that the crust is strong relative to the mantle. The rotation of the Oregon block impinges on Washington across the Yakima fold-thrust belt where shortening occurs in a closing-fan style. Elastic fault locking at the Cascadia subduction zone is reevaluated using the GPS velocities and recently published uplift rates. The 18 year GPS and 80 year leveling data can both be matched with a common locking model suggesting that the locking has been stable over many decades. The rate of strain accumulation is consistent with hundreds of years between great subduction events.

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Section: Interpretation Of the Velocity Fieldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Active tectonics of northwestern U.S. inferred from GPS‐derived surface velocities

et al. 2013

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“…The closely grouped locations of the poles of the Centennial Tectonic Belt, Snake River 118 S.J. Puskas & Smith 2009) or localized extension (i.e. 7a) suggest common driving mechanisms but preclude that Yellowstone hotspot volcanism (e.g.…”

Section: Driving Mechanism For Clockwise Rotationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Earthquake epicentres (brown dots) compiled for magnitudes greater than 2.0 from 1960 to 2010 (http://www.ncedc.org/anss/catalog-search.html). Anders & Sleep 1992;Saltzer & Humphreys 1997;McQuarry & Rodgers 1998;Puskas & Smith 2009). See the Supporting Information for references of lower-hemisphere focal mechanisms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new interpretation of deformation rates in the Snake River Plain and adjacent basin and range regions based on GPS measurements

Payne

McCaffrey

King

et al. 2012

Geophysical Journal International

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SUMMARY Within the Northern Basin and Range Province, USA, we estimate horizontal velocities for 405 sites using Global Positioning System (GPS) phase data collected from 1994 to 2010. The velocities, together with geologic, volcanic, and earthquake data, reveal a slowly deforming region within the Snake River Plain in Idaho and Owyhee–Oregon Plateau in Oregon separated from the actively extending adjacent Basin and Range regions by shear. Our results show a NE‐oriented extensional strain rate of 5.6 ± 0.7 × 10−9 yr−1 in the Centennial Tectonic Belt and an ∼E‐oriented extensional strain rate of 3.5 ± 0.2 × 10−9 yr−1 in the Great Basin. These extensional rates contrast with the very low strain rate within the 125 km × 650 km region of the Snake River Plain and Owyhee–Oregon Plateau, which is indistinguishable from zero (−0.1 ± 0.4 × 10−9 yr−1). Inversions of the velocities with dyke‐opening models indicate that rapid extension by dyke intrusion in volcanic rift zones, as previously hypothesized, is not currently occurring in the Snake River Plain. This slow internal deformation, in contrast to the rapidly extending adjacent Basin and Range regions, indicates shear along the boundaries of the Snake River Plain. We estimate right‐lateral shear with slip rates of 0.3–1.4 mm yr−1 along the northwestern boundary adjacent to the Centennial Tectonic Belt and left‐lateral oblique extension with slip rates of 0.5–1.5 mm yr−1 along the southeastern boundary adjacent to the Intermountain Seismic Belt. The fastest lateral shearing evident in the GPS occurs near the Yellowstone Plateau where strike‐slip focal mechanisms and faults with observed strike‐slip components of motion are documented. The regional velocity gradients are best fit by nearby poles of rotation for the Centennial Tectonic Belt, Snake River Plain, Owyhee–Oregon Plateau, and eastern Oregon, indicating that clockwise rotation is not locally driven by Yellowstone hotspot volcanism, but instead by extension to the south across the Wasatch fault due to gravitational collapse and by shear in the Walker Lane belt resulting from Pacific–Northern America relative plate motion.

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“…The following is reported for the period 1987 -2003 (Chadwick et al, 2007;Puskas and Smith, 2009;Puskas et al, 2007;Rodgers et al, 2005):…”

Section: A Pure Plate Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…GPS data have been collected locally in the ESRP-Y zone since 1990 (Chadwick et al, 2007;Puskas and Smith, 2009;Puskas et al, 2007;Rodgers et al, 2005). Assessing long-term averaged rates of motion is difficult because deformation is highly episodic.…”

Section: A Pure Plate Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Yellowstone “hot spot” track results from migrating basin-range extension

Foulger

Christiansen

Anderson

Geological Society of America Special Papers

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Whether the volcanism of the Columbia River Plateau, Eastern Snake River Plain, and Yellowstone is related to a mantle plume or to plate tectonic processes is a long-standing controversy. There are many geological mismatches with the basic plume model as well as logical flaws, such as citing data postulated to require a deep-mantle origin in support of an 'upper-mantle plume' model. USArray has recently yielded abundant new seismological results, but despite this, seismic analyses have still not resolved the disparity of opinion. This suggests that seismology may be unable to resolve the plume question for Yellowstone, and perhaps elsewhere. USArray data have inspired many new models that relate Western USA volcanism to shallow mantle convection associated with subduction zone processes. Many of these models assume that the principal requirement for surface volcanism is melt in the mantle and that the lithosphere is essentially passive. In this paper we propose a pure plate model in which melt is commonplace in the mantle, and its inherent buoyancy is not what causes surface eruptions. Instead, it is extension of the lithosphere that permits melt to escape to the surface and eruptions to occur-the mere presence of underlying melt is not a sufficient condition. The time-progressive chain of rhyolitic calderas in the Eastern Snake River PlainYellowstone zone that has formed since basin-range extension began at ~ 17 Ma results from laterally migrating lithospheric extension and thinning that has permitted basaltic magma to rise from the upper mantle and melt the lower crust. We propose that this migration formed part of the systematic eastward migration of the axis of most intense basin-range extension. The bimodal rhyolite-basalt volcanism followed migration of the locus of most rapid extension, not vice versa. This model does not depend on seismology to test it but instead on surface geological observations. § Deceased.

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Intraplate deformation and microplate tectonics of the Yellowstone hot spot and surrounding western U.S. interior

Cited by 16 publications

References 83 publications

Active tectonics of northwestern U.S. inferred from GPS‐derived surface velocities

Active tectonics of northwestern U.S. inferred from GPS‐derived surface velocities

A new interpretation of deformation rates in the Snake River Plain and adjacent basin and range regions based on GPS measurements

The Yellowstone “hot spot” track results from migrating basin-range extension

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