Pre-Mississippian Stratigraphic Architecture of the Porcupine Shear Zone, Yukon and Alaska, and Significance in the Evolution of Northern Laurentia

Faehnrich, Karol; McClelland, William C.; Colpron, Maurice; Nutt, Charlotte L.; Miller, Rebecca S.; Trembath, Matthew; Strauss, Justin V.

doi:10.2113/2021/7866155

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 173 publications

(323 reference statements)

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“…The Kaskaskia I peak is largely driven by widespread marine sedimentation along the northwestern margin of Laurentia, which coincided with east-dipping Late Devonian subduction along northwestern Laurentia ( 34 – 37 ). The dynamic response to activation of this margin has been modeled by ref.…”

Section: Subduction-driven Continental Floodingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phanerozoic flooding of North America and the Great Unconformity

Tasistro-Hart,

Macdonald

2023

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The flooding record of North America has been used to infer patterns of global erosion and sea level in deep time. Here, we utilize the geospatial dimension of the stratigraphic record provided by the Macrostrat database, and patterns of erosion from thermochronology, to resolve local tectonic subsidence from global sea level. We show that the flooding history of North America correlates in space and time with continent-facing subduction along active margins, consistent with subduction-driven dynamic topographic subsidence of the continental interior. Nonetheless, the continentally aggregated flooding signal of North America is an exaggerated global M-curve of Phanerozoic sea level. This coincidence relates to the closing of the geodynamic loop of the supercontinent cycle: Subduction under North America accommodated both the makeup and breakup of Pangaea, which, coupled with changing ridge length, flattened hypsometry, and increased sea level both locally and globally. The sole Phanerozoic exception to this pattern of global sea level tracking North American near-field geodynamics is the Cambrian Sauk transgression. We argue that this is a far-field record of the inception of circum-Gondwanan subduction, independent of North America, which significantly flattened Earth’s hypsometry. This hypsometric flattening displaced ocean water globally, flooding tectonically passive North America to seal the Great Unconformity.

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Section: Subduction-driven Continental Floodingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phanerozoic flooding of North America and the Great Unconformity

Tasistro-Hart,

Macdonald

2023

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Paleozoic evolution of the northern Laurentian margin: Evaluating links between the Caledonian, Ellesmerian, and Cordilleran orogens

McClelland

Strauss

Gilotti

et al. 2023

Laurentia: Turning Points in the Evolution of a Continent

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The passive margins of Laurentia that formed during Neoproterozoic–Cambrian breakup of the supercontinent Rodinia record subsequent histories of contraction and translation. This contribution focuses on the northern margin of Laurentia, where recent geologic and geochronologic data have provided new insight into the evolution of northern North America. The Laurentian margin in East and North-East Greenland records synorogenic sedimentation and deformation associated with the Caledonian orogeny—the Silurian to Devonian continent-continent collision between Baltica and Laurentia that followed closure of the northern tract of the Iapetus Ocean. The timing of ultrahigh-pressure metamorphism and simultaneous sinistral and dextral strike-slip faulting in North-East Greenland indicates that the Himalayan-style orogen persisted through the Devonian. In contrast, the Franklinian margin further west records sinistral strike-slip translation of allochthonous crustal blocks and arc fragments starting in the Ordovician–Silurian and culminating with the Devonian– Carboniferous Ellesmerian orogeny, the origin of which remains enigmatic. We suggest that Ellesmerian deformation was related to widespread transpression associated with northward motion of Laurentia during Acadian and Neo-Acadian deformation along the Appalachian margin rather than orthogonal ocean basin closure and microcontinent-continent collision. The Pearya terrane and North Slope subterrane of the Arctic Alaska terrane, separated from the Franklinian passive margin by the Petersen Bay fault and Porcupine shear zone, respectively, best preserve the Paleozoic translational and transpressional history of the northern Laurentian margin. These two major structures record a complex history of terrane accretion and translation that defines the Canadian Arctic transform system, which truncated the Caledonian suture to the east and ultimately propagated early Paleozoic subduction to the Cordilleran margin of western Laurentia.

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Pre-Mississippian Stratigraphic Architecture of the Porcupine Shear Zone, Yukon and Alaska, and Significance in the Evolution of Northern Laurentia

Cited by 2 publications

References 173 publications

Phanerozoic flooding of North America and the Great Unconformity

Phanerozoic flooding of North America and the Great Unconformity

Paleozoic evolution of the northern Laurentian margin: Evaluating links between the Caledonian, Ellesmerian, and Cordilleran orogens

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