Elias Orogen Research Articles

The provenance signal of climate\u2013tectonic interactions in the evolving St. Elias orogen: framework component analysis and pyroxene and epidote single grain geochemistry of sediments from IODP 341 sites U1417 and U1418

The St. Elias orogen and the Surveyor Fan in the adjacent Gulf of Alaska are a coupled source to sink system recording the interplay of tectonics and variable degrees of glaciation during the collision of the Yakutat terrane with the southern Alaska margin since the Miocene. The Miocene to Holocene sediments of the Surveyor Fan were drilled during IODP expedition 341. The recovered material is used to constrain information on changes in erosion centers during the last 10 Ma to study the impact of climatic and tectonic processes on orogen evolution. Point counting of sand- and silt-sized light framework components and geochemical single grain analysis of heavy mineral groups epidote and pyroxene is applied to analyze patterns of sedimentary provenance of two sites on the distal and proximal Surveyor Fan (Site U1417 and U1418, respectively). The studied sands and silts of Miocene to Pleistocene age are slightly enriched in feldspar (plag >> kf) at the proximal site, compositions at both sites do not show systematical changes with time of deposition. Framework component spectra uniformly reflect the expected active margin provenance. Epidote and pyroxene compositions are very consistent and show no change with time of deposition. Associations of epidote and pyroxene with albite, titanite and pumpellyite are in line with near-shore sources in the Chugach Metamorphic Complex and the metabasite belt at its southern border, and in units of recycled detritus exposed in the fold and thrust belt on the western Yakutat Terrane, respectively. Rock fragments indicate input from mainly metamorphic sources during the Miocene and Pliocene and an increase of input from low-grade metamorphic and sedimentary rocks in the Pleistocene, a finding also indicated by the abundance of epidote and pyroxene. This implies increasing erosion of the near-shore areas of the fold and thrust belt with advance of glaciers to the shore since the Miocene, being enhanced by the onset of the Northern Hemisphere glaciation at the beginning of the Pleistocene. Climate changes connected to the mid-Pleistocene transition did not result in appreciable changes in the petrographic compositions. Glaciers seem to have remained nested in their topographically predefined positions, continuously feeding material with uniform characteristics into the fan.

Provenance of the Surveyor Fan and Precursor Sediments in the Gulf of Alaska—Implications of a Combined U-Pb, (U-Th)/He, Hf, and Rare Earth Element Study of Detrital Zircons

The history of exhumation and denudation of the Cenozoic St. Elias orogen is stored in the sediments of the Miocene to Holocene Surveyor Fan, Gulf of Alaska. The orogeny of the mountain belt coincides with major climatic events leading to varying degrees of glaciation that are considered to have strongly interacted with mountain-building processes. In order to assess the relative influence of climate and tectonics on erosion patterns and to reconstruct sediment routing to the ocean, we combine zircon U-Pb dating and (U-Th)/He thermochronology with analysis of rare earth elements and Hf isotopes of zircons of sands and silts from Integrated Ocean Drilling Program expedition 341 sites U1417 and U1418 in the Surveyor Fan. All Miocene to Pleistocene sediments show similar U-Pb age spectra, indicating that the main source areas remained the same during different stages of glaciation. A prominent age component at 50–60 Ma can be linked to the Chugach Metamorphic Complex and the Sanak-Baranof plutonic belt in the mountain range. Older grains can be referred to low-grade metamorphic sources within the Chugach, Prince William, and Yakutat terranes. A decrease in 50–60 Ma igneous and metamorphic zircons implies a reduction of input from the Chugach Metamorphic Complex and the Sanak-Baranof plutonic belt. This indicates that the southward advance of glaciers toward the ocean, together with tectonic changes from the Miocene to the Pliocene, triggered a higher contribution from the newly glaciated areas. During times of increased glaciation in the Pleistocene, glaciers appear to have been nested in the same area as before. Our data do not give evidence of a general change in the drainage systems or the tectonic setting during the Pleistocene but also do not prove the absence of such.

Single grain heavy mineral provenance of garnet and amphibole in the Surveyor fan and precursor sediments on the Gulf of Alaska abyssal plain — Implications for climate-tectonic interactions in the St. Elias orogen

The St. Elias orogen formed as a result of the northwestward drift of the Yakutat terrane along and final collision with the Alaska margin in the Miocene. Its exhumation coincided with changing glacial conditions that are considered to have strongly interacted with mountain building processes. A significant part of the record of these tectonic-climatic interactions is stored in sediments on the Gulf of Alaska abyssal plain including the Surveyor fan. Our study examines temporal provenance changes of Miocene through Pleistocene sediments of the Surveyor fan, Gulf of Alaska, to constrain the dynamics of exhumation and mass transfer from the evolving St. Elias orogen to the adjacent Surveyor deep sea fan. We present single grain geochemical data of amphibole and garnet and 40Ar/39Ar cooling ages of biotite and amphibole together with point counting data of heavy minerals from sands and silts from two sites in the distal and proximal fan, drilled by IODP expedition 341 in 2013 (sites U1417 and U1418, respectively).A shift in heavy mineral composition during the Miocene, predating the onset of glaciation, points to a tectonically-induced change in erosion centers and sediment transport, probably caused by the rise of the St. Elias Mountains. Garnet and amphibole data suggest the Chugach metamorphic complex is the main sediment source, implying input to the Surveyor fan from sources relatively far in the north during the Miocene. Changing provenance signals from the Miocene to Pliocene suggest rising input from the lower grade metamorphic areas at the southern flanks of the orogen, indicating the advance of glaciers to the tidewater line, providing material from this flanking region. Higher input from the Chugach metamorphic complex in all Pleistocene sediments suggests the Northern Hemisphere glaciation at the Plio-Pleistocene boundary caused erosion and sediment yield from the interior of the orogen. Climatic changes at the mid-Pleistocene transition did not cause significant changes in the provenance signal.

The Role of Surface Processes in Partitioning of Strain and Uplift, St. Elias Orogen, Southern Alaska

<span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;" lang="EN-US">Three-dimensional thermo-mechanical numerical simulations of the ongoing Yakutat–North America collision are used to identify the role of surface processes in triggering localized rapid uplift, exhumation, and strain observed within the St. Elias orogen of southern Alaska. Thermochronological data reveal localized rapid exhumation associated with the Seward-Malaspina and Hubbard Glaciers within a tectonic corner structure where transpressional motion to the south along the Fairweather Fault system transitions to shortening to the north and west within the active fold-and-thrust belt of the St. Elias orogen. The modeled deformation patterns are characteristic of oblique convergence within a tectonic corner, recording the transition from simple shear to contractional strain within a zone spatially consistent with the highest exhumation rates suggesting the corner geometry is the primary control of strain partitioning.</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;" lang="EN-US">The relative roles of surface-related processes versus tectonics-related processes in the development of this pattern of deformation were tested with the inclusion of an erosional surface model. The presence of surface processes enhanced the uplift and development of a localized rapid exhumation. When spatially and temporally erosion models are employed, the location of maxima is shifted in response. This indicates that efficient erosion, and resultant deposition and material advection can influence the localization of strain and uplift.</span>

Mid-Pleistocene climate transition drives net mass loss from rapidly uplifting St. Elias Mountains, Alaska

Erosion, sediment production, and routing on a tectonically active continental margin reflect both tectonic and climatic processes; partitioning the relative importance of these processes remains controversial. Gulf of Alaska contains a preserved sedimentary record of the Yakutat Terrane collision with North America. Because tectonic convergence in the coastal St. Elias orogen has been roughly constant for 6 My, variations in its eroded sediments preserved in the offshore Surveyor Fan constrain a budget of tectonic material influx, erosion, and sediment output. Seismically imaged sediment volumes calibrated with chronologies derived from Integrated Ocean Drilling Program boreholes show that erosion accelerated in response to Northern Hemisphere glacial intensification (∼ 2.7 Ma) and that the 900-km-long Surveyor Channel inception appears to correlate with this event. However, tectonic influx exceeded integrated sediment efflux over the interval 2.8-1.2 Ma. Volumetric erosion accelerated following the onset of quasi-periodic (∼ 100-ky) glacial cycles in the mid-Pleistocene climate transition (1.2-0.7 Ma). Since then, erosion and transport of material out of the orogen has outpaced tectonic influx by 50-80%. Such a rapid net mass loss explains apparent increases in exhumation rates inferred onshore from exposure dates and mapped out-of-sequence fault patterns. The 1.2-My mass budget imbalance must relax back toward equilibrium in balance with tectonic influx over the timescale of orogenic wedge response (millions of years). The St. Elias Range provides a key example of how active orogenic systems respond to transient mass fluxes, and of the possible influence of climate-driven erosive processes that diverge from equilibrium on the million-year scale.

Focused rock uplift above the subduction décollement at Montague and Hinchinbrook Islands, Prince William Sound, Alaska

Megathrust splay fault systems in accretionary prisms have been identified as conduits for long-term plate motion and significant coseismic slip during subduction earthquakes. These fault systems are important because of their role in generating tsunamis, but rarely are emergent above sea level where their long-term (million year) history can be studied. We present 32 apatite (U-Th)/He (AHe) and 27 apatite fission-track (AFT) ages from rocks along an emergent megathrust splay fault system in the Prince William Sound region of Alaska above the shallowly subducting Yakutat microplate. The data show focused exhumation along the Patton Bay megathrust splay fault system since 3–2 Ma. Most AHe ages are younger than 5 Ma; some are as young as 1.1 Ma. AHe ages are youngest at the southwest end of Montague Island, where maximum fault displacement occurred on the Hanning Bay and Patton Bay faults and the highest shoreline uplift occurred during the 1964 earthquake. AFT ages range from ca. 20 to 5 Ma. Age changes across the Montague Strait fault, north of Montague Island, suggest that this fault may be a major structural boundary that acts as backstop to deformation and may be the westward mechanical continuation of the Bagley fault system backstop in the Saint Elias orogen. The regional pattern of ages and corresponding cooling and exhumation rates indicate that the Montague and Hinchinbrook Island splay faults, though separated by only a few kilometers, accommodate kilometer-scale exhumation above a shallowly subducting plate at million year time scales. This long-term pattern of exhumation also reflects short-term seismogenic uplift patterns formed during the 1964 earthquake. The increase in rock uplift and exhumation rate ca. 3–2 Ma is coincident with increased glacial erosion that, in combination with the fault-bounded, narrow width of the islands, has limited topographic development. Increased exhumation starting ca. 3–2 Ma is interpreted to be due to rock uplift caused by increased underplating of sediments derived from the Saint Elias orogen, which was being rapidly eroded at that time.

Constraining the area of rapid and deep‐seated exhumation at the St. Elias syntaxis, Southeast Alaska, with detrital zircon fission‐track analysis

AbstractThe Chugach‐St. Elias orogen, Southeast Alaska/Southwest Yukon, formed in response to the ongoing Yakutat microplate subduction‐collision with the North American Plate. Due to heavy glaciation, the region is a prime location to study active convergent orogenesis and climate‐tectonic interactions. This study focuses on the long‐term distribution of deformation in the St. Elias syntaxis area, where dextral motion along the plate‐bounding Fairweather Fault transitions into convergence. We present 2718 new zircon fission‐track single‐grain ages from 26 glaciofluvial outwash samples. The grain ages range from 293 Ma to 0.2 Ma, and each sample contains two to five age populations with peaks between 267 ± 64 Ma and 1.2 ± 0.7 Ma (1σ). The rocks of the Yakutat microplate are dominated by latest Cretaceous and Eocene fission‐track ages, while the rocks of the North American Plate in the syntaxis region reveal two exhumation phases at ~5.1 Ma and ~2.7 Ma. The spatial pattern of ≤5 Ma cooling ages shows that the area of rapid and deep exhumation at the St. Elias syntaxis is more extensive than previously known and confined to the south by the Fairweather Fault, to the west by the Seward Glacier catchment, and to the east possibly by the inferred Connector Fault. The area seems to be ~4800 km2 large and may extend farther to the north. The new zircon fission‐track data further suggest a transpressional plate boundary since ~30 Ma and the onset of plate collision 15–12 Ma.

Ice surface morphology and flow on Malaspina Glacier, Alaska: Implications for regional tectonics in the Saint Elias orogen

AbstractThe Saint Elias Mountains in southern Alaska are located at a structural syntaxis where the coastal thrust and fold belt of the Fairweather plate boundary intersects thrust faults and folds generated by collision of the Yakutat Terrane. The axial trace of this syntaxis extends southeastward out of the Saint Elias Mountains and beneath Malaspina Glacier where it is hidden from view and cannot be mapped using conventional methods. Here we examine the surface morphology and flow patterns of Malaspina Glacier to infer characteristics of the bedrock topography and organization of the syntaxis. Faults and folds beneath the eastern part of the glacier trend northwest and reflect dextral transpression near the terminus of the Fairweather fault system. Those beneath the western part of the glacier trend northeast and accommodate folding and thrust faulting during collision and accretion of the Yakutat Terrane. Mapping the location and geometry of the structural syntaxis provides important constraints on spatial variations in seismicity, fault kinematics, and crustal shortening beneath Malaspina Glacier, as well as the position of the collisional deformation front within the Yakutat Terrane. We also speculate that the geometrical complexity of intersecting faults within the syntaxis formed a barrier to rupture propagation during two regional Mw 8.1 earthquakes in September 1899.

Active tectonics of the St. Elias orogen, Alaska, observed with GPS measurements

We use data from campaign and continuous GPS sites in southeast and south central Alaska to constrain a regional tectonic block model for the St. Elias orogen. Active tectonic deformation in the orogen is dominated by the effects of the collision of the Yakutat block with southern Alaska. Our results indicate that ~37 mm/yr of convergence is accommodated along a relatively narrow belt of N‐NW dipping thrust faults in the eastern half of the orogen, with the present‐day deformation front running through Icy Bay and beneath the Malaspina Glacier. Near the Bering Glacier, the collisional thrust fault regime transitions into a broad, northwest dipping décollement as the Yakutat block basement begins to subduct beneath the counterclockwise rotating Elias block. The location of this transition aligns with the Gulf of Alaska shear zone, implying that the Pacific plate is fragmenting in response to the Yakutat collision. Our model indicates that the Bering Glacier region is undergoing internal deformation and could correspond to the final stage of offscraping and accretion of sediments from the Yakutat block prior to subduction. Predicted block motions at the western edge of the orogen suggest that the crust is laterally escaping along the Aleutian fore arc.

Subduction and accretion of sedimentary rocks in the Yakutat collision zone, St. Elias orogen, Gulf of Alaska

The collision of the Yakutat Block with the continental margin of North America in the Gulf of Alaska has intensified exhumation and erosion in the Chugach–St. Elias orogen over the last few million years. The resultant sediment flux and deposition of the glaciomarine Yakataga Formation on the continental shelf has filled a deep sedimentary basin offshore, where the Pamplona fold-thrust belt first deforms these strata. It is presently unclear whether the older sedimentary rocks of the Poul Creek and Kulthieth Formations are also accreted in the Pamplona Zone, or whether they are underthrusting the margin. In this paper we use marine seismic and well logging data to show that in the offshore Yakataga strata, porosity loss and lateral compaction can account for half of the convergence between the Yakutat Block and North America over the last 2 Myr. A lateral seismic velocity gradient in these syn-orogenic strata suggests that this layer-parallel shortening starts approximately 100 km outboard of the deformation front. Beneath the fold-and-thrust belt, where the seismic velocity is as high as 4.7 km/s, we image a large low-velocity zone (2.0–2.5 km/s) at 5 km depth. The dramatic decrease in seismic velocity with depth coincides with the boundary between the Yakataga and Poul Creek Formations in well data. Fine-grained and organic-rich Poul Creek strata possibly accommodate slip, such that older sedimentary rocks are entrained with the subducting Yakutat Block. Alternatively, the imaged low-velocity zone may have formed by increased fluid pressures in the hanging wall. In that case the décollement would lie beneath this low-velocity zone, possibly within the coal-bearing layers of the older and deeper Kulthieth Formation.

Moho interface beneath Yakutat terrane, southern Alaska

AbstractWe use air gun shots recorded by ocean‐bottom and land seismometers to constrain a 3‐D velocity structure and a Moho interface depth for the Yakutat terrane in southern Alaska. We use a tomographic inversion of ~61,000 first‐arrival picks from 64 receivers to create a 3‐D velocity model. The average velocity‐depth function north of the coastline has velocities at the surface of ~4–5 km/s, increasing to velocities of >6 km/s at ~12–13 km below the surface. Average velocities at the surface are slower near the coast (3.8 km/s) than under the highest topography (4.7 km/s). We carry out an interface inversion of ~19,000 PmP reflection picks from 50 receivers to constrain a 2‐D Moho interface model. The average Moho depth of the Yakutat terrane in the marine portion of our study area is ~30 km, but depth rapidly increases onshore to 40–45 km beneath the high topography of the Chugach‐St. Elias Mountains. Moho depths are consistent with Airy isostasy beneath the orogen. Our data set supports a continuous Moho at the base of the Yakutat terrane, with no evidence for Pacific oceanic crust underthrusting the Yakutat terrane. We present several geologic models for crustal thickening beneath the Chugach‐St. Elias orogen that are consistent with the seismic observations and surface geology and compare these models with geologic mapping in the region. We argue that crustal thickening and topography at the Chugach‐St. Elias Mountains is obtained via a duplex system that produces a vertically growing antiformal stack of sedimentary and metasedimentary material.

Focused exhumation in the syntaxis of the western Chugach Mountains and Prince William Sound, Alaska

The western Chugach Mountains and Prince William Sound are located in a syntaxial bend, which lies above flat-slab subduction of the Yakutat microplate and inboard of the Yakutat collision zone of southern Alaska. The syntaxis is characterized by arcuate fault systems and steep, high topography, which suggest focused uplift and exhumation of the accretionary prism. We examined the exhumation history with low-temperature thermochronometry of 42 samples collected across the region. These new apatite (U-Th)/He, apatite fission-track, zircon (U-Th)/He, and zircon fission-track ages, combined with ages from surrounding regions, show a bull’s-eye pattern, with the youngest ages focused on the western Chugach syntaxis. The ages have ranges of ca. 10–4 Ma, ca. 35–11 Ma, ca. 33–25 Ma, and ca. 44–27 Ma, respectively. The youngest ages are located on the south (windward) side of the Chugach Mountains and just north of the Contact fault. Sequentially higher closure temperature systems are nested across Prince William Sound in the south, the Chugach Mountains, and the Talkeetna Mountains to the north. Computed exhumation rates typically are 0.2 mm/yr across Prince William Sound, increase abruptly to ∼0.7 mm/yr across and adjacent to the Contact fault system, and decrease to ∼0.4 mm/yr north of the core of the Chugach Mountains. The abrupt age and exhumation rate changes centered on the Contact fault system suggest that it may be a critical structural system for facilitating rock uplift. Our data are most consistent with Yakutat flat-slab subduction starting in the Oligocene, and since then ∼11 km of rock uplift north of the Contact fault and ∼4–5 km of rock uplift in Prince William Sound to the south. These data are consistent with a deformation model where the western Chugach core has approached long-term exhumational steady state, though exhumation rates have probably increased in the last ∼5 m.y. We interpret that rock uplift in the overriding wedge has been driven dominantly by underplating, with long-term vertical displacement concentrated at the southern edge of the Chugach Mountains and centered on the Contact fault system. Though our data do not unequivocally differentiate between Pliocene tectonic- or climate-related causes for increased exhumation in the last ∼5 m.y., we interpret the increased rates to be due to increased influx of underplated sediments that are derived from erosion in the Saint Elias orogen collision zone.

Structural relationships in the eastern syntaxis of the St. Elias orogen, Alaska

The eastern syntaxis in the St. Elias orogen (Alaska, USA) is one of the most complex and least understood regions within the southern Alaska coastal mountain belt. The syntaxis contains many features unique to the orogen that are essential to understanding the structural architecture and tectonic history of the collision between North America and the allochthonous Yakutat microplate. The eastern syntaxis contains the transition from transpressional structures associated with the Queen Charlotte–Fairweather fault system in the east to the Yakataga fold-and-thrust belt (YFTB) to the west. Throughout the eastern syntaxis, a prominent unconformity at the base of the synorogenic Yakataga Formation records an erosional event related to the development of the YFTB. Strain accumulations in the eastern YFTB predate the deposition of the Yakataga Formation, extending estimates for the early development of the St. Elias orogen. Structural and stratigraphic relationships in the eastern syntaxis suggest that forethrusts associated with the transpressional system shut down and were overprinted by fold-and-thrust structures in the Early to latest Miocene. Basement in the eastern syntaxis consists of the Yakutat Group, part of the Chugach accretionary complex, which is carried by numerous low-angle thrust faults in the eastern syntaxis. Exposures of basement and fault patterns within the syntaxis have implications for tectonic reconstructions of the Yakutat microplate and the geodynamics of the orogen.

Structure of the actively deforming fold-thrust belt of the St. Elias orogen with implications for glacial exhumation and three-dimensional tectonic processes

Previous studies in the Yakataga fold-thrust belt of the St. Elias orogen in southern Alaska have demonstrated high exhumation rates associated with alpine glaciation; however, these studies were conducted with only a rudimentary treatment of the actual structures responsible for the deformation that produced long-term uplift. We present results of detailed geologic mapping in two corridors across the onshore fold-thrust system: the Duktoth River transect just west of Cape Yakataga and the Icy Bay transect in the Mount St. Elias region. In the Duktoth transect, we recognize older, approximately east-west–trending structures that are overprinted by open, northwest-trending fold systems, which we correlate to a system of northeast-trending, out-of-sequence, probably active thrusts. These younger structures overprint a fold-thrust stack that is characterized by variable structural complexity related to detachment folding along coal-bearing horizons and duplexing within Eocene strata. In the Icy Bay transect, we recognize a similar structural style, but a different kinematic history that is constrained by an angular unconformity at the base of the syntectonic Yakataga Formation. At high structural levels, near the suture, structures show a consistent northwest trend, but fold-thrust systems rotate to east-west to northeast trends in successively younger structures within the Yakataga Formation. We present balanced cross sections for each of these transects where we project the top of basement from offshore seismic data and assume a subsurface structure with duplex systems similar to, but simplified from, structures observed in the onshore transects. These sections can account for 150–200 km of shortening within the fold-thrust system, which is Our section restorations also provide a simple explanation for the observed elongate bullseye pattern of low-temperature cooling ages in the thrust belt as a consequence of exhumation above the growing duplex and/or antiformal stack. Comparison with analog model studies suggests that structural feedbacks between erosion and development of decollement horizons in coal-bearing strata led to this structural style. Although previous studies based on thermochronology suggested an active backthrust at the northern edge of the thrust belt, section restorations indicate that a backthrust is allowable but not required by available data. The Yakataga fold-thrust belt has been treated as a dominantly 2D system, yet our work indicates that 3D processes are prominent. In the Duktoth transect, we interpret a group of northeast-trending thrusts as younger, out-of-sequence structures formed in response to the rapid destruction of the orogenic wedge by glacial erosion and deposition immediately offshore. We infer that these northeast-trending thrusts transfer slip downdip into a duplex system that forms the antiformal stack modeled in cross-section restorations, and we infer that these structures represent thrusting stepping back from the active thrust front attempting to rebuild an orogenic wedge that is being destroyed as rapidly as, or more rapidly than, it is being rebuilt. In the Icy Bay transect, we use the relative chronology provided by an angular unconformity beneath the syntectonic Yakataga Formation to infer that early, northwest-trending fold-thrust systems were formed along the Fairweather transform as transpressional structures. Continued strike slip carried these structures into the tectonic corner between the Fairweather and Yakataga segments of the orogen, producing a counterclockwise rotation of the shortening axis until the rocks reached their present position.

Crustal structure of the Yakutat terrane and the evolution of subduction and collision in southern Alaska

We present a two‐dimensional velocity model to constrain crustal thickness and composition of the Yakutat terrane in the northern Gulf of Alaska. The model was constructed using seismic reflection and refraction data along a ∼455 km onshore‐offshore profile. Our model shows that the crystalline crust composing the Yakutat terrane is wedge‐shaped, with crustal thickness increasing west to east from ∼15 km to ∼30 km. Crustal velocity and structure are continuous across the terrane, with lower crustal velocities >7 km/s, suggesting that the Yakutat terrane is an oceanic plateau across its entire offshore extent rather than a composite oceanic‐continental terrane as previously proposed. The thickest Yakutat crust is entering the adjacent St. Elias orogen where elevated exhumation rates and concentrated seismicity in this vicinity are likely influenced by incipient Yakutat‐North America collision. Our model includes a ∼8 km thick low‐velocity crustal cap extending across the eastern portion of the profile where shallow basement is imaged on marine seismic reflection data. We interpret this cap as a lithified, metamorphosed remnant accretionary prism, providing evidence of a previous attempt at Yakutat subduction along its eastern margin prior to current emplacement at the southern Alaska margin.

Plate margin deformation and active tectonics along the northern edge of the Yakutat Terrane in the Saint Elias Orogen, Alaska, and Yukon, Canada

The northwest directed motion of the Pacific plate is accompanied by migration and collision of the Yakutat terrane into the cusp of southern Alaska. The nature and magnitude of accretion and translation on upper crustal faults and folds is poorly constrained, however, due to pervasive glaciation. In this study we used high-resolution topography, geodetic imaging, seismic, and geologic data to advance understanding of the transition from strike-slip motion on the Fairweather fault to plate margin deformation on the Bagley fault, which cuts through the upper plate of the collisional suture above the subduction megathrust. The Fairweather fault terminates by oblique-extensional splay faulting within a structural syntaxis, allowing rapid tectonic upwelling of rocks driven by thrust faulting and crustal contraction. Plate motion is partly transferred from the Fairweather to the Bagley fault, which extends 125 km farther west as a dextral shear zone that is partly reactivated by reverse faulting. The Bagley fault dips steeply through the upper plate to intersect the subduction megathrust at depth, forming a narrow fault-bounded crustal sliver in the obliquely convergent plate margin. Since . 20 Ma the Bagley fault has accommodated more than 50 km of dextral shearing and several kilometers of reverse motion along its southern flank during terrane accretion. The fault is considered capable of generating earthquakes because it is linked to faults that generated large historic earthquakes, suitably oriented for reactivation in the contemporary stress field, and locally marked by seismicity. The fault may generate earthquakes of Mw <= 7.5.

The Suckling Hills Fault, Kayak Island Zone, and accretion of the Yakutat microplate, Alaska

[1] The Suckling Hills and Kayak Island are isolated mountain blocks located along strike from each other within the foreland of the St. Elias orogen in southern Alaska. These blocks preserve an erosional surface that was deformed by slip on northwest-dipping reverse faults in the Pleistocene. We suggest that the Suckling Hills Fault and Kayak Island Zone form a segmented fault network that links with the Bering Glacier structure to the north. This fault network separates the central Yakataga fold and thrust belt from complex, multiply deformed structures in the western syntaxis. Ongoing accretion of the Yakutat microplate to North America results in translation of structures of the fold and thrust belt into the western syntaxis. The composite Suckling Hills Fault, Kayak Island Zone, and Bering Glacier structure may have formed because the older structures of the fold and thrust belt were unfavorably oriented within the western syntaxis region. This pattern of deformation provides a template for understanding the complex deformation within the core of the western syntaxis and predicts refolding and straightening of the western syntaxis margin with continued accretion. This study provides an analog for structural overprinting and changing deformation patterns through time in orogenic corners.

Tectonic and climatic influence on the evolution of the Surveyor Fan and Channel system, Gulf of Alaska

Present-day seafloor morphology and sediment distribution in the deep-water Surveyor Fan, Gulf of Alaska, is dominated by the >700-km-long Surveyor Channel, an anomaly in a system with no major fluvial input or shelf canyons. The sediment supply instead has been provided by glacial erosion in the still-active Chugach–St. Elias orogen, and glacial transport across the shelf. Glaciation has periodically increased in the St. Elias Range since the Miocene, but began dominating erosion and spurred enhanced exhumation since the mid-Pleistocene transition, at ∼1 Ma. Ice associated with this glacial intensification carved cross-shelf sea valleys that connect the St. Elias Range to the Surveyor Fan. The direct deposition of newly increased terrigenous sediment flux into the fan triggered the formation of the Surveyor Channel and its growth across the Surveyor Fan. Through the formation of the Surveyor Channel, climate events created three major differentiable sequences across the Surveyor Fan that we mapped using seismic-reflection profiles. The change in morphology observed throughout the sequences allows us to characterize the influence that a glaciated orogen can have in shaping margin processes and the sediment pathway from source to sink. We show that the large variation in sediment flux between glacial-interglacial cycles together with sea valley formation leads to a glacial shelf transport process not typical of a fluvial system. This glacial shelf transport along with the channel terminus in the Aleutian Trench makes the Surveyor Fan and Channel morphologically one of the most unique systems in the world.

Coupled stratigraphic and structural evolution of a glaciated orogenic wedge, offshore St. Elias orogen, Alaska

[1] The St. Elias orogen is the result of ∼10 Myr of oblique convergence and flat-slab subduction in the Gulf of Alaska between North America and the Yakutat microplate. Extensive glaciation and a complex tectonic environment make this region a unique case study in which to examine the details of terrane accretion and the possible coupled influence of climate and tectonic drivers on the structural and topographic evolution of an orogenic wedge. Reflection seismic profiles across the offshore Pamplona zone fold-thrust belt, the frontal St. Elias orogenic wedge, provide constraints for quantifying Pleistocene deformation recorded in the glaciomarine Yakataga formation. The total amount of Pleistocene shortening observed varies from ∼3 to 5 mm/yr, compared to the current GPS-derived Yakutat-North America convergence rate across the St. Elias orogen of ∼45 mm/yr. Growth strata and kinematic fold analysis allow comparison of relative timing of fault activity, which reveals temporal and spatial shifting of active deformation during the glacial period: faulting localized adjacent to the coastline and at the current submarine deformation front. The abandoned, currently inactive region is colocated with the major glacial depocenter in the region, the Bering Trough. These observations imply that glacial processes such as sediment loading and focused erosion during advance-retreat cycles has a direct effect on the evolution of individual faults within the Pamplona zone and the overall deformation pattern in the offshore St. Elias margin. This information provides key constraints for understanding how climatic shifts may have affected the evolution of margin architecture during Pleistocene glacial-interglacial periods.

Exhumation at orogenic indentor corners under long-term glacial conditions: Example of the St. Elias orogen, Southern Alaska

Syntaxial bends in convergent plate boundaries, or indentor corners, display some of the most intriguing deformation patterns on Earth and are type localities for “aneurysms” of coupled erosion, thermal weakening, and strain. The St. Elias orogen in Alaska is a small, young convergent system that has been dominated by a glacial climate for much of its history and exhibits two prominent indentor corners that are not well understood. We have added 40 new apatite (U–Th)/He ages to the already extensive dataset for the low-temperature cooling history of this orogen to constrain the pattern of exhumation in these indentor corners. Ages from the western syntaxis show minor variation across the structural hinge, suggesting that the bend has little effect on the pattern of exhumation and that structures, including the Bagley fault, connect smoothly from the orogen core to the subduction zone to the southwest. Rock uplift on the north flank of the range appears to increase steadily towards the eastern syntaxis, which represents the apex in the right-angle bend between a transform fault in the south and the collision zone in the west. Based on age–elevation relationships, zones of relative rock uplift can be defined in which the Mt. Logan massif, or the area just north of the eastern syntaxis, experienced ∼ 4.8 km greater rock uplift than background levels northwest of the western syntaxis. A bulge in relative rock uplift is symmetric about the hinge in the eastern indentor corner. However, rates of denudation in this bulge are not as rapid as the core of the fold and thrust belt and are lower than those implied by detrital cooling ages from beneath the Seward Glacier. This implies that a large bull's eye of ultra-rapid (∼ 5 mm/yr) exhumation does not occur and that the subpopulation of young detrital ages may be sourced from a narrow transpressional zone along the Fairweather fault. Unlike the Himalayan syntaxes, it thus appears that an aneurysm of coupled erosion–strain has not developed in either indentor corner of the St. Elias orogen. This may indicate a limit to the degree to which glacial erosion can partition strain in convergent orogens. Similarly, the likely existence of a through-going dextral fault, the Totschunda fault, through the eastern syntaxis implies that tectonics, rather than surface processes, exerts the main control on strain partitioning in these corners.