What do fault patterns reveal about the latest phase of extension within the Northern Snake Range metamorphic core complex, Nevada, USA?

Abstract

The Northern Snake Range is a classic example of a metamorphic core complex, Basin-and-Range province, United States. It is composed of a plastically deformed footwall and a brittlely deformed hanging wall, separated by the Northern Snake Range low-angle detachment (NSRD). Brittle deformation, however, is not confined to the hanging wall.This paper focuses on exposures in Cove Canyon, located on the SE flank of the Northern Snake Range, where penetrative, homogeneous faults are well exposed throughout the hanging wall, footwall and NSRD, and overprint early plastic deformation. These late-stage fault sets assisted Eocene-Miocene extension. Detailed analysis of the faults reveals the following: (1) The shortening direction defined by faults is similar to the shortening direction defined by the stretching lineation in the footwall mylonites, indicating that the extensional kinematic history remained unchanged as the rocks were uplifted into the elastico-frictional regime. (2) After ∼17 Ma, extension may have continued entirely within elastic-frictional regime via cataclastic flow. (3) This latest deformation phase may have been accommodated by a single, continuous event. (3) Faults within NSRD boudins indicate that deformation within the detachment zone was non-coaxial during the latest phase of extension.