Crustal structure of the northwestern Basin and Range Province and its transition to unextended volcanic plateaus

Abstract

The northwestern margin of the Basin and Range Province is characterized by a transition from low‐magnitude (∼20%) extension in northwestern Nevada to relatively unextended volcanic plateaus in northeastern California. Seismic‐velocity and potential‐field modeling provides new control on the Mesozoic‐to‐present tectonic evolution of this poorly understood portion of the U.S. Cordillera. We document ∼20% crustal thinning associated with Basin and Range extension from a crustal thickness of ∼37 km under northeastern California to ∼31 km under northwestern Nevada that is consistent with the amount of extension recorded in the upper crust in northwestern Nevada, suggesting the crustal response to extension was relatively homogeneous over the entire crustal column. Our modeling also shows a well‐defined, 80‐km‐wide zone of unusually low upper‐crustal velocities (∼5.9–6.1 km/s) that coincide with the surface location of sparse Cretaceous granites, locating the elusive northern extension of the Sierra Nevada batholith through northwestern Nevada for the first time in the subsurface. Combining geological and geophysical data, we reconstruct the late Cretaceous‐to‐present crustal evolution of this region, documenting an interplay between magmatic addition to the crust, erosional exhumation, sedimentation, and extension that has reversed the direction of crustal thinning from a west‐facing continental margin to an east‐facing interior basin margin over this time interval. Finally, we find no evidence in northwestern Nevada for unusually thick crust (>40 km) prior to Basin and Range extension.