Late Cenozoic sedimentation and volcanism during transtensional deformation in Wingate Wash and the Owlshead Mountains, Death Valley

Luckow, Heather Golding; Pavlis, Terry L.; Serpa, Laura; Guest, Bernard; Wagner, David L.; Snee, Lawrence W.; Hensley, Tabitha M.; Korjenkov, A.M.

doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2005.07.013

Cited by 18 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…14.5-12.5 Ma sequence consisting of basal sandstone and conglomerate with locally interbedded limestones overlain by basaltic rocks, rhyolite lava fl ows, pumaceous epiclastic rocks, and andesitic to dacitic laharic deposits (Smith et al, 1968;Walker, 2003, 2009;Didericksen, 2005). A similar volcanic and sedimentary sequence is also found to the northwest in the Argus Range (Moore, 1976;Walker, 2003, 2009), to the east in the Panamint Range (Johnson, 1957;Andrew and Walker, 2009) and Owlshead Mountains (Davis, 1988;Davis and Fleck, 1977;Luckow et al, 2005), and to the southeast in the Quail Mountains (Muehlberger, 1954;Andrew, 2002), although thicknesses vary greatly between the sections to the east and south of the study area.…”

Section: Geologic Settingmentioning

confidence: 87%

Middle Miocene to recent exhumation of the Slate Range, eastern California, and implications for the timing of extension and the transition to transtension

et al. 2014

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New mapping combined with fault-slip and thermochronological data show that Middle Miocene to recent extension and exhumation of the Slate Range, eastern California, is produced by the active Searles Valley fault system and the Slate Range detachment, an older Middle Miocene low-angle normal fault. Offset Middle Miocene rocks record a combined ~9 km of west-directed extension over the past ~14 m.y. for the fault zones. (U-Th)/He apatite cooling ages of samples from the central and southern Slate Range indicate that footwall cooling began ca. 14 Ma; we interpret this as the age of initiation of motion on the Slate Range detachment. This timing is consistent with inferences made using stratigraphic and structural criteria. Data from the northern Slate Range show that rapid fault slip began along the Searles Valley fault ca. 4 Ma; data from the central and southern Slate Range can be interpreted as indicating cooling at 5-6 Ma. This timing correlates to the results of nearby studies, suggesting a strain transition in the surrounding area between ca. 6 and 3 Ma. The data collected are most consistent with a westward migration in the locus of transtensional deformation, and show that the initiation of that deformation commonly lags the timing predicted by plate reconstructions by a few million years.

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Section: Geologic Settingmentioning

confidence: 87%

Middle Miocene to recent exhumation of the Slate Range, eastern California, and implications for the timing of extension and the transition to transtension

et al. 2014

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“…This vector was approximately the same as a 9 km westward displacement vector interpreted from thermochronology data in the Slate Range (Didericksen, 2005). We used these reconstruction vectors and the slip vector for the Hunter Mountain fault to calculate the Miocene been found by Serpa and Pavlis (1996), Guest et al (2003), and Luckow et al (2005). The northern triple junction is more complicated.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconstructing late Cenozoic deformation in central Panamint Valley, California: Evolution of slip partitioning in the Walker Lane

Andrew¹,

Walker²

2009

Geosphere

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New geologic mapping and Ar-Ar geochronology of the late Cenozoic volcanicsedimentary units in central and southern Panamint Valley, California, provide the fi rst known Miocene palinspastic reconstruction vectors for Panamint Valley. Panamint Valley contains active faulting and potentially accommodates a signifi cant percentage of the slip of the Walker Lane at this latitude. Volcanism in Panamint Valley occurred during two time intervals, one ca. 15-13.5 Ma ago and a second ca. 4.5-4 Ma ago. The reconstruction vectors are based on unique relationships of sedimentary source areas and the only known Miocene intrusive zones to determine the displacement across Panamint Valley since ca. 15 Ma ago. The Argus Range was displaced ~17 km to the west-northwest, and the southern Slate Range was displaced 10.5 km to the north-northwest relative to the Panamint Range. Our displacement vector for reconstructing the past ~15 Ma of slip across Panamint Valley is 14 km shorter than previously published reconstruction models. We interpret this smaller slip value to be a function of the previous studies using displacement vectors that included a component of pre-15 Ma ago slip. The Harrisburg fault of the Tucki Mountain detachment system is a likely candidate for an earlier slip, possibly during the regionally observed extension during Late Cretaceous and Eocene. We created a model of the ca. 0-15 Ma ago displacement history of Panamint Valley using our new slip vectors and the slip vector for the Hunter Mountain fault. The Miocene extension begins with or slightly before ca. 15 Ma ago volcanism and may have continued to <~13.5 Ma ago. We interpreted the slip during Miocene extension to have occurred on one master detachment fault. Pliocene and younger extension is oblique to the Miocene extension, and the detachment fault was then cut up into discrete segments, the Emigrant, Panamint, and Slate Range detachment faults. The Panamint detachment was reactivated in an oblique normal sense, while slip on the other two detachment faults ceased; slip now occurs on nearby steeper normal faults. The Panamint detachment ends to the north and south in triple junctions: at the north end, slip is partitioned onto the Hunter Mountain and Towne Pass faults, and at the south end, slip is partitioned onto the Manly Pass and Southern Panamint Valley faults. The southern triple junction has an unstable geometry and it must migrate northward, lengthening the Southern Panamint Valley fault at the expense of the Panamint detachment. The continued slip on the unfavorably oriented low-angle Panamint detachment may be explained by the presence of weak fault gouge along it or by a regional pattern of slip partitioning. Major regional strikeslip faults, the Northern Death Valley and Garlock faults, are proximal to the northern and southern triple junctions. These two large faults may drag the two ends of the Panamint detachment with them, creating the triple junctions. The modern complex geometries and kinematics of Panamint Valley may therefore be a fun...

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“…This sequence is 60 to 90 meters thick in the western Quail Mountains (Andrew, 2007) and thickens northward. Correlative volcanic rocks occur farther north in the 12-14.5 Ma volcanic rocks exposed in the northern Slate Range, southeastern Panamint Range (Andrew and Walker, 2009) and Owlshead Mountains (Luckow et al, 2005). The volcanic-sedimentary rocks exposed at Layton Pass have been displaced westward from exposures of very similar sedimentary-volcanic sequence rocks along the east side of the Slate Range by the Slate Range detachment (Didericksen, 2005;Andrew and Walker, 2009 varies with a maximum thickness of ~50 meters.…”

Section: Volcanic and Sedimentary Rocksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geologic Map of the Southern Slate Range and a Portion of the Central Garlock Fault, China Lake Naval Weapons Station, San Bernardino County, California

Andrew¹

2014

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Late Cenozoic sedimentation and volcanism during transtensional deformation in Wingate Wash and the Owlshead Mountains, Death Valley

Cited by 18 publications

References 23 publications

Middle Miocene to recent exhumation of the Slate Range, eastern California, and implications for the timing of extension and the transition to transtension

Middle Miocene to recent exhumation of the Slate Range, eastern California, and implications for the timing of extension and the transition to transtension

Reconstructing late Cenozoic deformation in central Panamint Valley, California: Evolution of slip partitioning in the Walker Lane

Geologic Map of the Southern Slate Range and a Portion of the Central Garlock Fault, China Lake Naval Weapons Station, San Bernardino County, California

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