Development Of Metamorphic Core Complexes Research Articles

Late-stage evolution of the Chemehuevi and Sacramento detachment faults from apatite (U-Th)/He thermochronometry--Evidence for mid-Miocene accelerated slip

Research Article| May 01, 2006 Late-stage evolution of the Chemehuevi and Sacramento detachment faults from apatite (U-Th)/He thermochronometry—Evidence for mid-Miocene accelerated slip Timothy J. Carter; Timothy J. Carter 1School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, 3010, Victoria, Australia Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Barry P. Kohn; Barry P. Kohn 1School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, 3010, Victoria, Australia Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar David A. Foster; David A. Foster 2Department of Geological Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Andrew J.W. Gleadow; Andrew J.W. Gleadow 3School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, 3010, Victoria, Australia Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Jon D. Woodhead Jon D. Woodhead 3School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, 3010, Victoria, Australia Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Author and Article Information Timothy J. Carter 1School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, 3010, Victoria, Australia Barry P. Kohn 1School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, 3010, Victoria, Australia David A. Foster 2Department of Geological Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA Andrew J.W. Gleadow 3School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, 3010, Victoria, Australia Jon D. Woodhead 3School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, 3010, Victoria, Australia Publisher: Geological Society of America Received: 27 Sep 2004 Revision Received: 03 Nov 2005 Accepted: 25 Nov 2005 First Online: 08 Mar 2017 Online ISSN: 1943-2674 Print ISSN: 0016-7606 Geological Society of America GSA Bulletin (2006) 118 (5-6): 689–709. https://doi.org/10.1130/B25736.1 Article history Received: 27 Sep 2004 Revision Received: 03 Nov 2005 Accepted: 25 Nov 2005 First Online: 08 Mar 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Citation Timothy J. Carter, Barry P. Kohn, David A. Foster, Andrew J.W. Gleadow, Jon D. Woodhead; Late-stage evolution of the Chemehuevi and Sacramento detachment faults from apatite (U-Th)/He thermochronometry—Evidence for mid-Miocene accelerated slip. GSA Bulletin 2006;; 118 (5-6): 689–709. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/B25736.1 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietyGSA Bulletin Search Advanced Search Abstract The unique low-temperature sensitivity of the apatite (U-Th)/He (AHe) technique provides valuable new information relating to the late-stage thermal evolution of metamorphic core complexes in the southern Basin and Range Province. In all the ranges studied, the data show greater complexity than previously seen from other thermochronometers. In the Chemehuevi and northern Sacramento Mountains, a trend of decreasing ages toward the northeast applies only for the structurally shallowest parts of the footwall. This is followed by essentially age-invariant segments of 15 ± 1 Ma, reflecting an increase in the rate of detachment fault movement. The timing of the change suggested by the data agrees with recently published AHe results from the nearby Harcuvar Mountains, located ∼125 km to the southeast, suggesting that an underlying regional mechanism triggered this change. Plate reconstructions indicate that the Pioneer-Mendocino fracture zone migrated northward through the area at this time, leaving a slab window in its wake. We suggest that the additional heat applied to the base of the lithosphere from the slab window resulted in mechanical weakening of the area and that this, combined with the extensional strain regime present, resulted in an increased rate of slip within the actively extending metamorphic core complexes. This agrees well with timing constraints for extension onset in the central Basin and Range Province of southern Nevada, and suggests that weakening of the southern Basin and Range Province at 15 ± 1 Ma was partially responsible for the onset of extension in the central Basin and Range. These findings demonstrate that improved constraints on changes in extension rate within the Basin and Range Province should be possible through the application of the AHe technique to other metamorphic core complex footwalls. You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.

Mantle compensation of active metamorphic core complexes at Woodlark rift in Papua New Guinea.

In many highly extended rifts on the Earth, tectonic removal of the upper crust exhumes mid-crustal rocks, producing metamorphic core complexes. These structures allow the upper continental crust to accommodate tens of kilometres of extension, but it is not clear how the lower crust and underlying mantle respond. Also, despite removal of the upper crust, such core complexes remain both topographically high and in isostatic equilibrium. Because many core complexes in the western United States are underlain by a flat Moho discontinuity, it has been widely assumed that their elevation is supported by flow in the lower crust or by magmatic underplating. These processes should decouple upper-crust extension from that in the mantle. In contrast, here we present seismic observations of metamorphic core complexes of the western Woodlark rift that show the overall crust to be thinned beneath regions of greatest surface extension. These core complexes are actively being exhumed at a rate of 5-10 km Myr(-1), and the thinning of the underlying crust appears to be compensated by mantle rocks of anomalously low density, as indicated by low seismic velocities. We conclude that, at least in this case, the development of metamorphic core complexes and the accommodation of high extension is not purely a crustal phenomenon, but must involve mantle extension.

A tectonic model for the Tertiary evolution of strike–slip faults and rift basins in SE Asia

Models for the Tertiary evolution of SE Asia fall into two main types: a pure escape tectonics model with no proto-South China Sea, and subduction of proto-South China Sea oceanic crust beneath Borneo. A related problem is which, if any, of the main strike–slip faults (Mae Ping, Three Pagodas and Aliao Shan–Red River (ASRR)) cross Sundaland to the NW Borneo margin to facilitate continental extrusion? Recent results investigating strike–slip faults, rift basins, and metamorphic core complexes are reviewed and a revised tectonic model for SE Asia proposed. Key points of the new model include: (1) The ASRR shear zone was mainly active in the Eocene–Oligocene in order to link with extension in the South China Sea. The ASRR was less active during the Miocene (tens of kilometres of sinistral displacement), with minor amounts of South China Sea spreading centre extension transferred to the ASRR shear zone. (2) At least three important regions of metamorphic core complex development affected Indochina from the Oligocene–Miocene (Mogok gneiss belt; Doi Inthanon and Doi Suthep; around the ASRR shear zone). Hence, Paleogene crustal thickening, buoyancy-driven crustal collapse, and lower crustal flow are important elements of the Tertiary evolution of Indochina. (3) Subduction of a proto-South China Sea oceanic crust during the Eocene–Early Miocene is necessary to explain the geological evolution of NW Borneo and must be built into any model for the region. (4) The Eocene–Oligocene collision of NE India with Burma activated extrusion tectonics along the Three Pagodas, Mae Ping, Ranong and Klong Marui faults and right lateral motion along the Sumatran subduction zone. (5) The only strike–slip fault link to the NW Borneo margin occurred along the trend of the ASRR fault system, which passes along strike into a right lateral transform system including the Baram line.

Cretaceous and Tertiary sedimentary, magmatic, and tectonic evolution of north-central Sonora (Arizpe and Bacanuchi Quadrangles), northwest Mexico

The Arizpe and Bacanuchi Quadrangles provide a geologic history representative of the north-central part of Sonora, where lithologies are dominated by late Mesozoic and Cenozoic igneous rocks. In this study, new geologic mapping, 40Ar/39Ar dating, and geochemical analyses have been combined to provide a stratigraphic framework for this area. Ten lithostratigraphic units and several igneous and tectonic events can be recognized. The oldest outcropping rocks are Lower Cretaceous strata of the Bisbee Group, which along with the Picacho conglomerate record a middle Cretaceous compressive tectonic event and associated sedimentation. Laramide igneous activity is widespread and represented by (1) highly altered andesitic flows and volcaniclastic rocks (Arroyo Alcaparros andesitic rocks) of late Campanian to Maastrichtian age, (2) less altered andesitic and dacitic flows (Cerro Las Jarillas volcanic rocks) of late Paleocene age, and the intrusive bodies of (3) Sierra El Manzanal granodiorite and (4) Rancho Vaqueria quartz monzonite. The Sierra El Manzanal granodiorite was emplaced at ca. 68 Ma on the basis of a 40Ar/39Ar biotite age (67.97 ± 0.19 Ma) and cooled relatively rapidly according to less precise 40Ar/39Ar hornblende and K-feldspar ages from the same sample (64.8 ± 1.0 Ma and 62.8 ± 0.3 Ma, respectively). The Cerro Las Jarillas volcanic rocks are slightly younger (40Ar/39Ar biotite age of 58.67 ± 0.17 Ma). The Rancho Vaqueria quartz monzonite was emplaced at ca. 57 Ma (40Ar/39Ar biotite age of 56.73 ± 0.14 Ma and a less precise 40Ar/39Ar hornblende age of 55.0 ± 0.7 Ma); a protracted cooling history of this pluton is indicated by the age spectrum of K-feldspar from the same sample. A probable magmatic lull and denudation seem to have occurred between middle and late Eocene time and probably until the early Oligocene. Subsequently, rhyolitic to mafic volcanism began close to late Oligocene time and lasted until the early Miocene. Felsic volcanism is represented by the Cerro Cebadehuachi volcanic rocks, from which 40Ar/39Ar hornblende ages of 27.25 ± 0.09 and 27.32 ± 0.06 Ma and a biotite age of 26.97 ± 0.06 Ma were obtained at three different localities. The Mesa Pedregosa volcanic rocks represent the transition to younger, mafic volcanic activity that occurred during the late Oligocene, as indicated by a sanidine 40Ar/39Ar age of 25.48 ± 0.05 Ma. This late Oligocene and early Miocene magmatism was paired by two episodes of extensional deformation. The first phase is characterized by northwest-striking normal faults and folds, which expose the deepest structural levels of the area, and by the related basin fill, the Bacanuchi conglomerate. The second phase is represented by north-striking normal faults and by the syntectonic basin fill, the Arizpe conglomerate. Basaltic andesite volcanic flows at the base of the Arizpe conglomerate yielded 40Ar/39Ar (whole-rock) ages of 23.52 ± 0.17 and 21 ± 0.20 Ma. The extensional deformation (27 to 23 Ma) in the study area is coeval with the development of metamorphic core complexes in neighboring areas of Sonora and with the onset of extension in southern Sonora. The mafic volcanic rocks and clastic sedimentary units associated with this extension resemble the basin fills that in other parts of Sonora are assigned to the Baucarit Formation. Geochemical information from samples representing each of the igneous events displayed high-K calc-alkalic and mostly metaluminous compositions. The older units including the Arroyo Alcaparros andesitic rocks, the Cerro Las Jarillas volcanic rocks, the Sierra El Manzanal granodiorite, and the Rancho Vaqueria quartz monzonite are characterized by steep chondrite-normalized REE (rare earth element) slopes and generally well-developed negative Eu anomalies, suggesting garnet and plagioclase removal in the source. The younger igneous events including the Cerro Cebadehuachi and Mesa Pedregosa volcanic rocks, and the basaltic flows associated with the Arizpe conglomerate, showed basin-shaped REE slopes with no Eu anomalies, suggesting clinopyroxene or amphibole fractionation.

SHRIMP monazite and zircon geochronology of high‐grade metamorphism in New Zealand

Ion microprobe dating of zircon and monazite from high‐grade gneisses has been used to (1) determine the timing of metamorphism in the Western Province of New Zealand, and (2) constrain the age of the protoliths from which the metamorphic rocks were derived. The Western Province comprises Westland, where mainly upper crustal rocks are exposed, and Fiordland, where middle to lower crustal levels crop out. In Westland, the oldest recognisable metamorphic event occurred at 360–370 Ma, penecontemporaneously with intrusion of the mid‐Palaeozoic Karamea Batholith (c. 375 Ma). Metamorphism took place under low‐pressure/high‐temperature conditions, resulting in upper‐amphibolite sillimanite‐grade metamorphism of Lower Palaeozoic pelites (Greenland Group). Orthogneisses of younger (Cretaceous) age formed during emplacement of the Rahu Suite granite intrusives (c. 110 Ma) and were derived from protoliths including Cretaceous Separation Point suite and Devonian Karamea suite granites. In Fiordland, high‐grade paragneisses with Greenland Group zircon age patterns were metamorphosed (M1) to sillimanite grade at 360 Ma. Concomitant with crustal thickening and further granite emplacement, M1 mineral assemblages were overprinted by higher‐pressure kyanite‐grade metamorphism (M2) at 330 Ma. It remains unclear whether the M2 event in Fiordland was primarily due to tectonic burial, as suggested by regional recumbent isoclinal folding, or whether it was due to magmatic loading, in keeping with the significant volumes of granite magma intruded at higher structural levels in the formerly contiguous Westland region. Metamorphism in Fiordland accompanied and outlasted emplacement of the Western Fiordland Orthogneiss (WFO) at 110–125 Ma. The WFO equilibrated under granulite facies conditions, whereas cover rocks underwent more limited recrystallization except for high‐strain shear zones where conditions of lower to middle amphibolite facies were met. The juxtaposition of Palaeozoic kyanite‐grade rocks against Cretaceous WFO granulites resulted from late Mesozoic extensional deformation and development of metamorphic core complexes in the Western Province.

Magmatism as an essential driving force for formation of active metamorphic core complexes in eastern Papua New Guinea

The D'Entrecasteaux Islands in eastern Papua New Guinea are composed of a number of active metamorphic core complexes which have been intruded by granodiorite plutons during their formation. The plutons do not appear to have been intruded by diapiric processes as previously suggested. Late, relatively undeformed plutons form flat‐lying bodies which crosscut structural boundaries and are strongly discordant to core complex shear zones. Granodiorite magmatism and the development of the metamorphic core complexes have occurred in a linear zone which coincides with a zone of thick crust and rugged topography. It is proposed that plutonism facilitated deformation in ductile extensional shear zones which resulted in tectonic exhumation of deep crustal rocks and formation of the metamorphic core complexes. The source of the plutons is thought to be related to a linear zone of mantle upwelling beneath the islands related to the propagation of the Woodlark seafloor spreading center into continental crust. It is suggested that a localized heat source of this type, which can provide heat and magmatic material to the crust, is essential for the development of metamorphic core complexes.

Connection between igneous activity and extension in the central Mojave metamorphic core complex, California

The development of metamorphic core complexes and associated low‐angle detachment faults commonly is intimately associated with synextensional igneous activity. In most areas studied to date, the relation of magmatism to extension is obscured by imprecise dating and by the overprint of later tectonic events. We present data from the early Miocene central Mojave metamorphic core complex (CMMCC) which indicate that extension was accompanied by igneous activity, as reflected by prekinematic, synkinematic, and postkinematic plutons and coeval volcanic rocks deposited in the associated extensional basins. The principal intrusion is an early Miocene granite pluton exposed in outcrops across an area greater than 400 km2. Dikes adjacent to the pluton are common in the Mitchel Range, at The Buttes, and at Fremont Peak. The overall orientation of the pluton and associated dikes is west‐northwest, roughly perpendicular to the extension direction. Results of U‐Pb analyses on zircon from two pluton and two dike samples yield ages of 20 to 23 Ma. Two other dike samples yield inconclusive results. Synextensional basins formed by detachment faulting during the core complex development. Rocks in these basins compose the Jackhammer and Pickhandle formations and filled an elongate, NW trending trough more than 50 km long. The 40Ar/39Ar ages for tuff beds are as old as 23.8±0.3 Ma near the base of the lower Pickhandle Formation and as young as 21.3±0.5 Ma in the uppermost lower Pickhandle. Hence volcanism and plutonism are coeval. The diversity of intrusive relations relative to the timing and development of the mylonitic fabric in the CMMCC precludes any simple cause‐and‐effect relationship between magmatism and extensional deformation. Rather, magmatism and extension may have been localized at a releasing bend in a transfer‐fault system which links extension in the CMMCC with extension in the Colorado River area to the east.

Thrusting, magmatic intraplating, and metamorphic core complex development in the Archaean Belleterre-Angliers Greenstone Belt, Superior Province, Quebec, Canada

Abstract The Belleterre-Angliers Greenstone Belt in the Pontiac Subprovince is the youngest and southernmost of the greenstone belts in the Archaean Superior Province of the Canadian shield. The greenstone belt has been disrupted into three fragments: from north to south the Baby, Belleterre and Lac des Bois groups, respectively. The Belleterre-Angliers Greenstone Belt has sheared contacts with younger Pontiac metasediments and older tonalites. The Pontiac metasediments dip beneath the Baby Group and are tectonically interlayered with the tonalites. Thus the Belleterre-Angliers belt is interpreted to be a thrust sheet (6 km thick in the north, thinner in the south) above a mid-crustal duplex consisting of metasedimentary and tonalite imbricates. The thrust sheet was transported from the north, but age and geochemical constraints rule out derivation from the Abitibi Subprovince. It probably roots in a band of ultramafic rocks that mark a major south-vergent thrust in the northern Pontiac Subprovince. After emplacement the Belleterre-Angliers sheet and the adjacent Pontiac metasediments were deformed by a system of linked, extensional shears and transfer faults that border dome or antiformal areas in a style similar to Phanerozoic metamorphic core complexes. The orientation of shear zones and foliations indicates that the regional far-field stresses were compressional both before and after extensional shearing. Since the system of extensional shears is intruded by a suite of monzodiorite, granodiorite, syenodiorite and syenite plutons (with high Mg number) it is concluded that crustal inflation caused by the injection (intraplating) of large volumes of magma perturbed the regional compressive stress field and facilitated extensional faulting.

Evidence for a local crustal root beneath the Santa Catalina metamorphic core complex, Arizona

We used data from the Tucson, Arizona, broad-band seismic station to analyze crustal and mantle structure under and adjacent to the Catalina metamorphic core complex. The data can be modeled with a simple two-layer crust having an average Moho depth of ∼30 km and seismic velocities consistent with a felsic composition. The lower crust thickens under the Catalina Mountains, depressing the Moho by ∼4.2 km. The crustal root can isostatically compensate the average topography of the Catalina Mountains, indicating that the depth of isostatic compensation is at or below the Moho and that the Catatina Mountains act as a coherent block bounded by high-angle normal faults. The presence of the crustal root is not consistent with models that predict upward bowing of the Moho under the Catalina metamorphic core complex. The presence of the root cannot rule out models of lower crustal flow during the formation of the core complex. However, the presence of a root favors a model of metamorphic core complex development described by crustal thickening in shortening episodes (crustal-welt model) followed by collapse of the crustal welt through extension.

An Archean metamorphic core complex in the southern Slave Province: basement–cover structural relations between the Sleepy Dragon Complex and the Yellowknife Supergroup

Archean rocks in the Fenton Lake – Brown Lake area, southern Slave Province, are subdivided into two lithotectonic domains: a supracrustal domain, which consists mainly of the Archean Yellowknife Supergroup, and a gneiss–granite domain. The latter is composed of gneissic and metaigneous rocks of the Sleepy Dragon Complex, determined to be basement to the Yellowknife Supergroup, and granite plutons, including the 2641 ± 3.5 Ma Suse Lake granite and the 2583.5 ± 1 Ma Morose Granite. Volcanic rocks of the Cameron River Belt and greywacke–mudstone turbiditic metasedimentary rocks of the Burwash Formation constitute the supracrustal domain.A late Archean, amphibolite- to greenschist-facies, ductile to local brittle, high-strain zone separates the domains. Kinematic indicators demonstrate that the zone experienced two kinematically opposed episodes of displacement. The older episode involved pre- to synthermal peak thrusting of the supracrustal rocks over the gneiss–granite domain. Thrusting is kinematically and temporally consistent with late Archean, pre- to synthermal peak, regional contractional deformation. Structural and metamorphic relations and kinematic indicators suggest that thrusting and regional contraction were followed shortly by intrusion of the peraluminous Morose Granite and thereafter by a late syn- to post-thermal peak episode of extension, resulting in tectonic unroofing of the gneiss–granite domain.The sequential history of contraction and attendant regional metamorphism, granite intrusion, and, ultimately, extensional collapse, which is documented in the Archean rocks in the area, is a common feature of Phanerozoic collisional orogens. Moreover, the tectonic history of the gneiss–granite domain is broadly similar to the evolution of metamorphic core complexes in the North American Cordillera.

Evolving geographic patterns of Cenozoic magmatism in the North American Cordillera: The temporal and spatial association of magmatism and metamorphic core complexes

Four maps are presented here that show the location and extent of magmatic fields between eastern Alaska and northern Mexico during the successive time intervals of 55–40, 40–25, 25–10, and 10–0 Ma, and four others show the distribution of metamorphic core complexes during the same Cenozoic time intervals. The maps are based on U.S. Geological Survey and Canadian Cordilleran data bases contining about 6000 isotopic dates and extensive literature review. For nearly 60 Ma the development of metamorphic core complexes has coincided with the locus of a really extensive and voluminous intermediate‐composition magmatic fields. The association is suggestive of a close link between magmatism and core complex formation, namely that magma directly and indirectly lowers the strength of the crust. Magmatism thus controls the location and timing of core complex formation. The stresses responsible may be inherited from Mesozoic crustal thickening, locally created by uplift and magmatic thickening of the crust, and imposed by the global pattern of plate motions and driving forces. Since the Miocene, rates of magmatism, extension, and core complex formation have declined. The modern Basin and Range province is not a suitable model for the situation that existed during major magmatic culminations. The singular event of early Miocene time, the merging of two large magmatic fields, extinguishing the Laramide magmatic gap, explains several disconnected observations: the hyperextension episode of the Colorado River corridor, rapid reorientation of stress patterns across much of western North America, and subsequent rapid tectonic movements in California. Magma‐triggered breakup of western North America lithosphere coincided with development of the San Andreas transform system. Thermal destruction of the Laramide magmatic gap created a California “microplate” about 22 Ma ago that moved rapidly away from North America. Thus two plate tectonic processes, thermal destruction of the lithosphere “bridge” and northward growth of a transform system, interacted to produce Miocene and later tectonic patterns and events.

The 40Ar/39Ar thermochronology of the eastern Mojave Desert, California, and adjacent western Arizona with implications for the evolution of metamorphic core complexes

Mesozoic thickening and Cenozoic extension resulted in the juxtaposition of upper and middle crustal rocks in the eastern Mojave Desert, southeastern California and western Arizona. The application of 40Ar/39Ar thermochronology to rocks in this region provides information about the timing and nature of thrusting, plutonism, metamorphism, denudation, and detachment faulting. The 40Ar/39Ar ages of 175 to 125 Ma from the Clipper, Piute, Turtle, Mohave, Bill Williams, and Hualapai Mountains are interpreted to be the result of a middle Mesozoic thermal event(s) caused by crustal thickening. The 40Ar/39Ar data from the Clipper and Piute Mountains suggest that this thermal event was followed by a period of cooling at rates of 1°–5°C/m.y. Orogenesis culminated during the Late Cretaceous when rocks exposed in the Old Woman‐Piute, Chemehuevi, and Sacramento Mountains attained temperatures >500°C which reset the K–Ar systems of minerals from Proterozoic rocks. High‐grade metamorphism in the Old Woman Mountains area was caused by the intrusion of the Old Woman‐Piute batholith at 73±1 Ma. Cooling rates following batholith emplacement in the Old Woman Mountains were ∼100°C/m.y. between 73 and 70 Ma and 5°–10°C/m.y. from 70 to ∼30 Ma. Between 65 and 25 Ma the entire eastern Mojave Desert underwent a period of cooling at a rate of 2°–10°C/m.y. By 30 Ma, rocks exposed in the Old Woman‐Piute, Marble, Ship, Clipper, and Turtle Mountains were below ∼100°C. The 40Ar/39Ar ages from the Sacramento Mountains suggest that mylonitization caused by the onset of regional extension occurred at 23±1 Ma. When extension started in the Chemehuevi Mountains, rocks exposed in the southwestern and northeastern portions of footwall to the Chemehuevi detachment fault were at ∼180°C and ∼350°C, respectively. This suggests that the exposed part of the Chemehuevi detachment fault initiated at a dip of 5°–30° or as a series of higher‐angle faults that cut to a depth of 10–12 km and were later rotated to their present dip. Unroofing of the footwalls to detachment faults in the Sacramento and Chemehuevi Mountains resulted in average cooling rates of 10°–50°C/m.y. between 22 and 15 Ma.

A shear-zone model for the structural evolution of metamorphic core complexes in southeastern Arizona

Summary Some of the world’s best exposed and most thickly developed mylonites, ultramylonites, and cataclasites are found in parts of a number of mountain ranges in southeastern Arizona. These fault rocks and associated structures occupy metamorphic core complexes, which I view as mountain-size geological exposures of regional, upward-tapering ductile-brittle shear zones. The fundamental characteristics of the core complexes were fashioned by regional crustal extension in the Tertiary. Normal-slip shearing served to ‘telescope’ fault rocks and structures which had formed originally at different depth levels in the crust. The result of normal-slip simple shear within the shear zones was the translation of hanging wall crust by tens of kilometres. The shear zones and linked fault zones are interpreted to have dipped at 45° or more initially, rotating progressively to more gentle inclinations and shallower depths as the crust thinned and stretched. Progressive simple-shear under conditions of a steadily decreasing confining pressure and temperature is dramatically recorded in suites of structures and fabrics: for example mylonite gneiss is converted to microbrecciated mylonite gneiss, which in turn is transformed to cataclasite and ultracataclasite. The physical nature of this progressive deformation is beautifully exposed in the gently dipping Catalina-Rincon shear zone, whose once-deep and once-shallow parts are now exposed to view over broad expanses E and NE of Tucson, Arizona.