Mesozoic deformation in the Nevada Test Site and vicinity: Implications for the structural framework of the Cordilleran Fold and thrust belt and tertiary extension north of Las Vegas Valley

Abstract

Detailed studies in the CP Hills and Mine Mountain area of the Nevada Test Site (NTS), together with analysis of published maps and cross sections and a reconnaissance of regional structural relations, indicate that the CP thrust of Barnes and Poole [1968] actually comprises two separate, oppositely verging Mesozoic thrust systems: (1) the west vergent CP thrust, which is well exposed in the CP Hills and at Mine Mountain, and (2) the east vergent Belted Range thrust located northwest of Yucca Flat. Regional structural relations indicate that the CP thrust forms part of a narrow sigmoidal belt of west vergent folding and thrusting traceable for over 180 km along strike. The Belted Range thrust represents earlier Mesozoic deformation that was probably related to the Last Chance thrust system in southeastern California, as suggested by earlier workers. A reconstruction of the pre‐Tertiary geometry of the Cordilleran fold and thrust belt in the region between the NTS and the Las Vegas Range bears a close resemblance to other regions of the Cordillera and suggests that west vergent deformation developed in the hinterland of a part of the Sevier fold and thrust belt characterized by substantial structural relief. Reconstruction of the fold and thrust belt also suggests that previous estimates of upper crustal Tertiary extension north of the Las Vegas Valley shear zone (e.g., 80% [Guth, 1981]) are 2 or 3 times too large.