Late Triassic, arc-related, potassic igneous rocks in the North American Cordillera

Abstract

Igneous rocks of Late Triassic age are widespread in the Cordillera of western North America and, except in Wrangellia, consist of subduction-related plutonic and volcanic suites. Many of these, including those in the Stikinia, Quesnellia, Rattlesnake Creek, and Jackson terrenes and in southern California, are clinopyroxene rich and belong to high-potassium and shoshonitic rock series, features that are generally absent from older and younger igneous rocks in the same terranes. The Late Triassic subduction-related rocks are exposed in two discontinuous belts that lie east and west of the Cache Creek terrane in Canada and correlative melange terranes farther south. Stratigraphic and structural data suggest that these belts were spatially separate magmatic arcs in Late Triassic time. Tectonic implications of this analysis include an explanation of Middle Jurassic Cordilleran deformation as the result of collision of the western with the eastern belt, absence of Late Triassic links between Stikinia and Quesnellia, disassociation of Stikinia with terranes in northwestern Nevada, and tentative correlation of the Wallowa (Seven Devils) terrane with Stikinia rather than Wrangellia.