Accretionary Mesozoic–Cenozoic expansion of the Cordilleran continental margin in California and adjacent Oregon

Abstract

The Mesozoic–Cenozoic Cordilleran orogen of California includes multiple accretionary belts incorporated sequentially into the continental margin since Middle Triassic time. Accreted tectonic elements include subduction complexes assembled along the Cordilleran margin, intraoceanic island arcs attached to the continental margin by Jurassic arc-continent collision, and subduction complexes associated with the flanks of the exotic island arcs. Systematic analysis of areal relations and geochronological data displayed on subregional geologic maps and summary chronostratigraphic diagrams allows the punctuated but quasi-continuous pattern of tectonic accretion to be discerned. Stitching plutons and sedimentary overlap successions constrain the times that successive accretionary belts were juxtaposed and amalgamated into the edge of the continental block. In the Klamath Mountains and Sierra Nevada, a continental-margin magmatic arc of Triassic–Jurassic age includes volcanic and plutonic components built upon and intruded into deformed Paleozoic assemblages that were accreted to the Laurentian margin before Middle Triassic time. The native arc assemblage is separated from intraoceanic Triassic–Jurassic arc assemblages exposed farther west by a compound suture belt of melange and broken formation derived from the remnant ocean basin that separated the east-facing intraoceanic arc system from the Cordilleran margin. Polarity reversal after Middle to Late Jurassic arc-continent collision was followed by accretion of a disrupted ophiolitic belt forming mafic basement in the subsurface of the Great Valley forearc basin. Subsequent forearc sedimentation accompanied the assembly of multiple belts of melange and broken formation that form the Mesozoic–Cenozoic Franciscan subduction complex of the California Coast Ranges. Franciscan subduction was largely coeval with intrusion of the dominantly Cretaceous Sierra Nevada batholith into the roots of the Cordilleran magmatic arc, but Franciscan accretion was just a late phase of continuing tectonic expansion that spanned more than 200 m.y. along the California continental margin.