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At least 325 records · Page 18Linked to original sources
USGS1993

Chronology of Elk Lake sediments: Coring, sampling, and time-series construction

A 22 m series of cores from a continuously laminated sequence of postglacial sediment was recovered from 29.6 m of water from the deepest part of Elk Lake, Clearwater County, Minnesota, by piston and freeze-coring methods during the winters of 1978 and 1982. A varve time series constructed and used as a basis for subsampling the cores and samples, based on the varve chronology, allows precise determination of fluxes of geochemical and biological sediment components. Chronological and petrographic studies have shown that the laminations are varves and their measurement and enumeration has produced a 10,400 year time series that estimates the rates and timing of paleolimnologic and paleoenvironmental changes in Elk Lake and its drainage. A radiocarbon date from surface sediment is 850 years. The difference between radiocarbon and varve dates continues down core; varve dates are older than radiocarbon dates, probably because of systematic incorporation of dead carbon (as bicarbonate) in organic matter in the sediment. Varve-dated boundaries of pollen zones in the Elk Lake cores compare closely with the ages of the same zones in cores from nearby lakes that have been radiocarbon dated.

Minnestoa↗
USGS1993

Modern sedimentation in Elk Lake, Clearwater County, Minnesota

The varved sediments of Elk Lake, Clearwater County, Minnesota, contain a 10,000 year record of climatic and limnologic events. Sediment traps deployed in the lake’s water column from 1979 to 1981 and from 1983 to 1984 collected samples that permitted us to identify materials, to see the timing of sedimentation events, and to deduce processes that form the microlaminae within varves. Fall and spring microlaminae consist mainly of sequential accumulations of biogenic silica and resuspended calcific and siliceous materials. Precipitates of iron, manganese, and organic detritus dominate the thin winter microlaminae. Calcific microlaminae are deposited in summer. Concentrated iron and manganese precipitates form when the onset of seasonal circulation (especially in autumn) oxygenates the lower water column, but precipitation of these metals also continues throughout periods of seasonal stratification, when these dissolved elements migrate upward and are converted to particles that rain back to the bottom. Mineraloids dominate the sediment; minerals compose only a minor part and include quartz, calcite, rhodochrosite, and rockbridgeite (iron phosphate). The bulk of the bottom accumulation occurs during the longer, calmer summer and winter periods, but important contributions are also made during spring and autumn overturn events. Sediment resuspended from the shallows accumulates together with newly formed endogenic sediment, and can even briefly dominate the seston in autumn and spring. Vigor and duration of seasonal circulations in the upper water column dictate the amount of resuspended sediment contributed annually to a varve. When abrupt warming within days after ice-out stratifies the lake, sedimentation in that year is diminished by resultant suppression of plankton blooms and lack of vernal resuspension that would normally move sediment from the littoral areas into the deep parts of Elk Lake. Thin sections of varves confirm that resuspension during autumn and spring is a varve-forming process that has probably varied in importance as a function of climate and changing morphometry due to infilling. Through an entire year, sediment traps catch a greater proportion of material from spring and autumn overturns than accumulates on the bottom. Lake morphometry is the most important factor governing sediment resuspension and associated annual accumulation rates in traps.

Minnesota↗
USGS1993

Environment of deposition of CaCO3 in Elk Lake, Minnesota

Elk Lake is near the present forest-prairie border in northwestern Minnesota, and is also located on the boundary between hard-water lakes that are typical of once-glaciated parts of the north-central United States and more saline prairie lakes of western Minnesota and the Dakotas. The sediments of the prairie lakes just west of Elk Lake are unusual in that they commonly contain high-Mg calcite and dolomite in addition to low-Mg calcite, which is the dominant carbonate mineral in most marl lakes. During the mid-Holocene dry period, prairie conditions expanded eastward into the forested regions of Minnesota. Variations in types and abundances of carbonate minerals in the Holocene sediments of Elk Lake recorded this climatic change. Studies of primary productivity, carbonate saturation, water chemistry, and sediment-trap samples show that low-Mg calcite precipitates during the summer, triggered by algal photosynthesis. The epilimnion of Elk Lake is always oversaturated with calcite, and the degree of oversaturation increases progressively during the summer. The pH of the epilimnion increases from <8.0 after spring overturn to almost 9.0 in late summer in response to photosynthetic removal of CO 2 during the summer months. The rate of calcium depletion from the epilimnion is proportional to the increase in pH and the rate of photosynthetic carbon fixation. Today the only carbonate minerals that are accumulating in the sediments of Elk Lake are low-Mg calcite and manganese carbonate (rhodochrosite). Rhodochrosite, and probably manganese oxyhydroxide, precipitates when manganese-rich anoxic bottom waters come in contact with carbonate-rich oxic surface waters. During the arid mid-Holocene prairie period, however, low-Mg calcite, dolomite, aragonite, and rhodochrosite all accumulated in the sediments of Elk Lake. Dolomite formed in Elk Lake during this period in response to a higher Mg:Ca ratio in the water, just as it is forming today in lakes of the prairie regions of western Minnesota. The coincident occurrence of aragonite and biological indicators of high salinity suggests that the salinity of Elk Lake and the Mg:Ca ratio were higher than in any of the present prairie lakes of western Minnesota.

Minnesota↗
USGS1993

Entrenchment and widening of the upper San Pedro River, Arizona

The San Pedro River of southeast Arizona is a north-flowing tributary of the Gila River. The area of the drainage basin upstream of the 40-km-long study reach is about 3,200 km 2 . This study traces the historical evolution of the San Pedro River channel—specifically, the deepening, widening, and sediment deposition that have occurred since 1900—and it aims to evaluate the causes of channel widening and deepening, the rate of widening, and the present stability of the channel. Alluvium of the river valley consists of upper Holocene pre- and postentrenchment deposits. The pre-entrenchment alluvium, which forms the principal terrace of the inner valley, accumulated between about A.D. 1450 and 1900 in a relatively sluggish, low-energy fluvial system with extensive marshy reaches and high water table. In contrast, postentrenchment alluvium, which forms the terrace, floodplain, and channel of the San Pedro River, was deposited in a relatively high-energy, entrenched, and meandering fluvial system. The river flowed in a shallow, narrow channel on the surface of the unentrenched valley before 1890. A series of large floods, perhaps beginning as early as 1881, eventually led to entrenchment of the channel between 1890 and 1908. This deepening placed the channel 1 to 10 m below the former floodplain. The channel has widened substantially since entrenchment through lateral migration and expansion of entrenched meanders; its present size is 5.7 times greater than before entrenchment. The rate of channel expansion, however, has decreased since about 1955, coincident with a decrease of peak-flood discharge. Channel area increased at 0.1 km 2 yr −1 from entrenchment until 1955; since then the area increased at only 0.02 km 2 yr −1 , suggesting that the channel has stabilized and that further widening will probably be minor under present conditions of land use, discharge, and climate. The reduction of peak-flow rates was related partly to increased channel sinuosity and to development of floodplains and riparian woodlands. The increased sinuosity produced a reservoir effect that attenuated flood waves, and the development of flood-plains enabled flood waters to spread laterally, thereby increasing transmission losses. In addition, flow rates were probably affected by improved land use and changes of rainfall intensity and short-term rainfall patterns, which reduced runoff and decreased the time necessary for channel stabilization. Livestock grazing decreased steadily after the turn of the century, and numerous stock ponds and small water-retention structures were constructed in tributaries. The cumulative effect of these structures probably reduced peak-flow rates. Short-term rainfall patterns of the wet season (June 15–October 15) have probably changed from annual alternation of above- and below-average rainfall to a biennial or longer pattern. Moreover, frequency of low-intensity rainfall (daily rainfall less than about 1.27 cm) was consistently above average for the decade 1957–1967. These factors probably improved conditions for growth and establishment of vegetation both in and outside of the channel. The causes of the large floods that resulted in entrenchment are poorly understood, although climate and land use were key factors. Floods followed closely the rapid settlement of the area brought about by mining activity in the late 1870s; population rose from a few hundred to 6,000 in less than 5 yr. Extensive wood cutting for mine timber and fuel, suppression of wildfire, and reintroduction of large cattle herds undoubtedly exacerbated entrenchment. Flood-producing wet-season rainfall in the Southwest, however, was unusually heavy before, during, and shortly after entrenchment.

Arizona↗
USGS1993

The system controlling the composition of clastic sediments

The composition of clastic sediments and rocks is controlled by a complex suite of parameters operating during pedogenesis, erosion, transport, deposition, and burial. The principal first-order parameters include source rock composition, modification by chemical weathering, mechanical disaggregation and abrasion, authigenic inputs, hydrodynamic sorting, and diagenesis. Each of these first-order parameters is influenced to varying degrees by such factors as the tectonic settings of the source region, transportational system and depositional environment, climate, vegetation, relief, slope, and the nature and energy of transportational and depositional systems. These factors are not independent; rather a complicated web of interrelationships and feedback mechanisms causes many factors to be modulated by others. Accordingly, processes controlling the composition of clastic sediments are best viewed as constituting a system , and in evaluating compositional information the dynamics of the system must be considered as whole.

Special Paper of the Geological Society of America↗
USGS1993

Intensity and duration of chemical weathering: An example from soil clays of the southeastern Koolau Mountains, Oahu, Hawaii

Orographic precipitation on the southern flank of the southeastern Koolau Mountains produces a pronounced precipitation gradient. The corresponding gradient in the intensity of the chemical weathering environment provides an opportunity to address the effects of varying chemical weathering intensity on the composition of clay-size weathering products in soils developed on basalt. In addition, little-modified remnants of the constructional surface of the Koolau Volcano, isolated by stream dissection, remain as facets on the southern ends of the parallel ridges of the study area. By comparing clay mineralogy of soils developed on these older geomorphic surfaces with those developed on the younger sharp-crested ridges and steep side slopes, the effects of weathering duration on clay mineralogy can also be addressed. Soil clays in this part of the Koolau Mountains are mineralogically complex; principal phases include smectite, kaolinite, and halloysite, but pure end member phases are uncommon. Rather, most phases contain some amount of mixed layering. Smectite may contain small (<5%) amounts of randomly interstratified halloysite. Similarly, kaolinite commonly contains a small proportion of halloysite interlayers. A complex halloysitic phase shows evidence of interstratification with both smectite and kaolinite. Nonphyllosilicates found in the clay fraction include gibbsite, goethite, rare quartz, and perhaps cristobalite. The gradient in precipitation is reflected in soil clay mineralogy by varying proportions of dominantly smectitic, kaolinitic, and halloysitic phases. In regions of relatively low precipitation (<2,000 mm/yr), soils are dominated by the smectitic and halloysitic phases. With increased precipitation (as much as ∼4,000 mm/yr), kaolinitic and halloysitic phases become the dominant clay minerals, and goethite and gibbsite become increasingly abundant. Older soils developed on geomorphic surfaces representing the original constructional surface of Koolau Volcano are markedly more leached than those from younger landscapes in the same precipitation regime. Although smectite may be present, kaolinite is the dominant phase, and accumulations of Fe and Ti occur in the uppermost soil levels. Enrichment of Zr and Ti in these soils, as compared to concentrations in the original basaltic parent material, indicates that as much as 75% of the parent material has been lost. Thus weathering duration may affect soil clay composition in the same way as weathering intensity. Because smectite and halloysite are expandable clay minerals, their presence in soils may decrease slope stability and influence the nature of slope processes. Soil avalanches occur on steep slopes throughout the study area, whereas slow-moving landslides appear to be restricted to gentler slopes in drier parts of the study area where smectite is abundant. The clay mineralogy of soils thus appears to influence the nature of slope processes in the southeastern Koolau Mountains.

Special Paper of the Geological Society of America↗
USGS1993

Factors influencing the composition of detrital heavy mineral suites in Holocene sands of the Apure River drainage basin, Venezuela

Heavy mineral assemblages in rivers in the Apure River drainage basin of Venezuela and Colombia closely reflect the nature of the source regions, which lie in the Andean orogenic terranes to the west and northwest. The Caribbean Mountains, largely composed of greenschist-facies pelites, phyllites, carbonates, and metavolcanics, supply assemblages dominated by epidote and calcic amphibole. Minor amounts of the high-pressure index minerals glaucophane and lawsonite indicate the presence of blueschistfacies rocks, reflecting the origin of the Caribbean Mountains by subduction-related tectonism. The northern Mérida Andes, which comprise basement gneisses and granites overlain by unmetamorphosed to low-grade metamorphosed clastics, supply two types of assemblage reflecting these two lithological types: garnet-sillimanite-staurolite-amphibole suites from the basement rocks, and epidote-amphibole suites from the overlying cover sequence. The southern Mérida Andes supply stable heavy mineral suites reflecting recycling from the extensive unmetamorphosed sandstones that occur at outcrop. By considering suites from different physiographical provinces, the effects of short-term alluvial storage in the Llanos on heavy mineral assemblages have been evaluated. Weathering during alluvial storage appears to be effective in modifying the apatite-tourmaline ratio, which shows a steady, marked decline with distance from the mountain front, resulting from the removal of apatite during weathering. Clinopyroxene and garnet may also show evidence of loss through weathering, although the trends are poorly constrained statistically. Epidote and amphibole proportions remain essentially constant, possibly through a balance between loss through weathering and continual resupply from the breakdown of rock fragments. In general, the heavy mineral assemblages are less affected than the bulk mineralogy by alluvial storage on the Llanos.

Special Paper of the Geological Society of America↗
USGS1993

Brown coal maceral distributions in a modern domed tropical Indonesian peat and a comparison with maceral distributions in Middle Pennsylvanian–age Appalachian bituminous coal beds

Analyses of modern Indonesian peat samples reveal that the optical characteristics of peat constituents are consistent with the characteristics of macerals observed in brown coal and, as found by previous workers, brown-coal maceral terminology can be used in the analysis of modern peat. A core from the margin and one from near the center of a domed peat deposit in Riau Province, Sumatra, reveal that the volume of huminite macerals representing well-preserved cell structures (red, red-gray, and gray textinite; ulminite; and corpo/textinite) decreases upward. Huminite macerals representing severely degraded (<20 microns) cellular debris (degraded textinite, attrinite, and densinite) increase uniformly from the base to the surface. Greater degradation of the huminite macerals in the upper peat layers in the interior of the deposit is interpreted to be the result of fungal activity that increased in response to increasingly aerobic conditions associated with the doming of the peat deposit. Aerobic conditions concurrent with the activities of fungi may result in incipient oxidation of the severely degraded huminite macerals. This oxidation could lead to the formation of degradosemifusinite, micrinite, and macrinite maceral precursors in the peat, which may become evident only upon coalification. The core at the margin was petrographically more homogeneous than the core from the center and was dominated by well-preserved huminite macerals except in the upper 1 m, which showed signs of aerobic degradation and was similar to the upper 1 m of the peat in the interior of the deposit. The Stockton and other Middle Pennsylvanian Appalachian coal beds show analogous vertical trends in vitrinite maceral composition. The succession from telocollinite-rich, bright coal lithotypes in the lower benches upward to thin-banded/matrix collinite and desmocollinite in higher splint coal benches is believed to reflect a progression similar to that from the well-preserved textinite macerals in the lower portions of the peat cores to severely fragmented and degraded cellular materials (degraded textinite, attrinite, and densinite) in the upper portions of the cores. This petrographic sequence from bright to splint coal in the Stockton and other Middle Pennsylvanian coal beds supports previous interpretations of an upward transition from planar to domed swamp accumulations.

Special Paper of the Geological Society of America↗
USGS1993

Geochemical and analytical implications of extensive sulfur retention in ash from Indonesian peats

Sulfur is an analyte of considerable importance to the complete major element analysis of ash from low-sulfur, low-ash Indonesian peats. Most analytical schemes for major element peat- and coal-ash analyses, including the inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry method used in this work, do not permit measurement of sulfur in the ash. As a result, oxide totals cannot be used as a check on accuracy of analysis. Alternative quality control checks verify the accuracy of the cation analyses. Cation and sulfur correlations with percent ash yield suggest that silicon and titanium, and to a lesser extent, aluminum, generally originate as minerals, whereas magnesium and sulfur generally originate from organic matter. Cation correlations with oxide totals indicate that, for these Indonesian peats, magnesium dominates sulfur fixation during ashing because it is considerably more abundant in the ash than calcium, the next most important cation in sulfur fixation.

Special Paper of the Geological Society of America↗
USGS1994

Faults and structure in the Pierre Shale, central south Dakota

Numerous faults observed at the surface and (or) determined by geometric and geophysical methods to be present as much as several hundred meters below the surface (near-surface faults) have been mapped in a 2,000-km 2 area west of Pierre, S. Dakota. Many of these faults surround an east-west-trending structural high that has been mapped on the lower part of the Virgin Creek Member of the Pierre Shale. Generally, the geometry and displacement of many of the faults precludes slumping from surficial erosion as a mechanism to explain the faults. Seismic-reflection data indicate that several of the faults directly overlie faults in Precambrian basement that have cumulative vertical displacements of as much as 340 m. The structural high is interpreted to have been uplifted by displacements along faults that cut Upper Cretaceous sedimentary rocks. Recent low-level seismicity and fluvial-geomorphic studies of stream patterns, gradients, and orders suggest that rejuvenation of drainages may be taking place as a result of rebound or other tectonic activity. The studies indicate that repeated uplift and subsidence may have been the cause of extensive faulting mapped in the Pierre Shale since its deposition in Cretaceous time. Surficial fault displacements that cause damage to engineered structures are thought to be the result of construction-induced rebound in the Pierre Shale, although tectonic uplift cannot be ruled out as a cause.

Special Paper of the Geological Society of America↗
USGS1992

Allochthonous impact-shocked rocks and superimposed deformations at the Beaverhead site in southwest Montana

Upward-pointing shatter cones in sandstones of uncertain age (Middle Proterozoic? to Lower Cambrian?) and older crystalline basement rocks are exposed over an area of approximately 25 × 8 km in southwestern Montana. These shatter cones, together with pseudotachylites and breccias of various types (particularly in basement gneisses), are inferred to be products of a meteorite or cometary impact. However, Late Cretaceous contraction and Tertiary extension have contributed to the structural complexity of the area, and distinguishing unequivocally the shock brecciation from that due to younger tectonism is difficult. Stratigraphic constraints suggest the structure is Late Proterozoic or Cambrian in age. The shocked rocks are present in the Cabin thrust plate—one of many in the Late Cretaceous Cordilleran Thrust belt—and hence are allochthonous, having been transported tens of kilometers from the west. They are considered to represent only a piece from the central uplift of an original complex crater at least 75 km in diameter. It is speculated that some of the considerable uplift and erosion inferred to have taken place in Late Proterozoic to early Paleozoic time in east-central Idaho (The Lemhi arch) may be related to the postulated impact event. Furthermore, quasi-circular magnetic and regional gravity anomalies (50 to 75 km diameter) centered south-southeast of Challis, Idaho, may mark the concealed scar of the original impact structure.

Idaho, Montana↗
USGS1992

Preliminary results of the U.S. Geological Survey-Iowa Department of Natural Resources Geological Survey Bureau Manson Core Drilling Project

The U.S. Geological Survey and Iowa Department of Natural Resources Geological Survey Bureau completed, in 1992, a two-year core drilling program in the Manson Impact Structure, a 35-km-diameter, Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary-age feature located in north-central Iowa. A total of 12 cores sampled in excess of 1,200 m (4,000 ft) of crater rocks, supplementing the two previously drilled shallow cores from the structure. The cores penetrated the three major terranes in the Manson Impact Structure, the terrace terrane, crater moat, and central peak. Preliminary interpretations identified several important impact-related lithologies in these cores. The most widespread is sedimentary clast breccia, a postimpact polymictic breccia or mixtite that mantles at least part of all crater terranes. Two types of crystalline clast breccias were cored on the central peak, one with a melt matrix, the other with a matrix dominated by silt- to sand-sized grains. Large blocks of basement gneiss that formed the interior of the central peak were encountered in several cores. Within the terrace terrane, structurally preserved Cretaceous strata and an overturned ejecta flap of Proterozoic and Paleozoic sedimentary rocks were encountered. Only sedimentary clast breccia was encountered in the crater moat. The preliminary investigation of these cores has provided significant information on the geometry and history of the Manson Impact Structure, but it has also prompted many more questions.

Iowa↗
USGS1994

The Pennsylvanian Fire Clay tonstein of the Appalachian basin—Its distribution, biostratigraphy, and mineralogy

The Middle Pennsylvanian Fire Clay tonstein, mostly kaolinite and minor accessory minerals, is an altered and lithified volcanic ash preserved as a thin, isochronous layer associated with the Fire Clay coal bed. Seven samples of the tonstein, taken along a 300-km traverse of the central Appalachian basin, contain cogenetic phenocrysts and trapped silicate-melt inclusions of a rhyolitic magma. The phenocrysts include beta-form quartz, apatite, zircon, sanidine, pyroxene, amphibole, monazite, garnet, biotite, and various sulfides. An inherited component of the zircons (determined from U-Pb isotope analyses) provides evidence that the source of the Fire Clay ash was Middle Proterozoic (Grenvillian) continental crust inboard of the active North American margin. 40 Ar/ 39 Ar plateau ages of seven sanidine samples from the tonstein have a mean age of 310.9 ± 0.8 Ma, which suggests that it is the product of a single, large-volume, high-silica, rhyolitic eruption possibly associated with one of the Hercynian granitic plutons in the Piedmont. Biostratigraphic analyses correlate the Fire Clay coal bed with a position just below the top of the Trace Creek Member of the Atoka Formation in the North American Midcontinent and near the Westphalian B-C boundary in western Europe.

Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia↗
USGS1995

Low-grade, M1 metamorphism of the Douglas Island Volcanics, western metamorphic belt near Juneau, Alaska

The western metamorphic belt is part of the Coast plutonic-metamorphic complex of western Canada and southeastern Alaska that developed during collision of the Alexander terrane and Gravina assemblage on the west against the Yukon Prong and Stikine terranes to the east. Deformation, metamorphism, and plutonism range from about 120 to 50 Ma. Subgreenschist to lower greenschist facies metabasalts exposed along the west end of the western metamorphic belt near Juneau, Alaska, record the earliest metamorphic event (M 1 ). The protolith of the M 1 , low-grade metamorphic mineral assemblages is mostly arc-affinity basaltic rocks of the Douglas Island Volcanics. The most common metamorphic mineral assemblages are chlorite-epidote-actinolite with or without pumpellyite and stilpnomelane. There is no systematic distribution of metamorphic mineral assemblages in the study area, and all assemblages are in the pumpellyite-actinolite facies near the transition to the lower greenschist facies. Different low variance assemblages can be attributed to minor differences in pressure ( P ), temperature ( T ), or X CO2 . Mineral chemistry and phase equilibria suggest that thermal peak metamorphism of pumpellyite-bearing assemblages occurred at about 325 °C and 2 to 4.8 kbar.

Alaska↗
USGS1995

Jurassic thrusting of Precambrian basement over Paleozoic cover in the Clipper Mountains, southeastern California

The Clipper Mountains in the eastern Mojave Desert expose evidence of Jurassic plutonic intrusion along what was an active thrust at the east fringe of the exposed Cordilleran Jurassic magmatic arc. This event occurred during a period of widespread arc magmatism and intra-arc thrusting in the Cordillera related to subduction under the west edge of North America. Jurassic plutons in the eastern Mojave Desert are compositionally more diverse and more K 2 O-rich than Cretaceous plutons. Late-kinematic intrusion of the Jurassic Goldhammer pluton, exposed in the Clipper Mountains, was along an active ductile thrust fault that put Proterozoic basement gneiss over Paleozoic strata by the time of intrusion. U-Pb geochronology and hornblende geobarometry are interpreted to indicate that the pluton was emplaced at 161 ± 10 Ma at a pressure approximately 0.46 GPa or more. This pressure corresponds to approximately a 17-km depth or more, at least 13 km greater than inferred stratigraphic overburden (2–4 km) at the time of intrusion. The excess we attribute to pre-intrusion tectonic burial from overthrusting of the observed allochthon of Proterozoic basement and (or) from earlier Mesozoic overthrusting. Ductile deformation continued along the observed thrust system during intrusion of the Goldhammer pluton. Fabrics in the pluton and country-rock record ductile shearing that was partly top westward but mostly top-eastward; the shearing began before or during the intrusion and continued during and after intrusion. The Jurassic burial history in the Clipper Mountains parallels that in adjacent ranges to the east, but contrasts with that in ranges to the south and west where exposed Paleozoic rocks were at colder and shallower crustal levels in Jurassic time. The tectonic record in the Clipper Mountains suggests large crustal thickening and topographic uplift that would be expected to leave a sedimentary record in Jurassic basins.

GSA Special Papers↗
USGS1995

Subduction cycles under western North America during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras

An extensive review of geologic and tectonic features of western North America suggests that the interaction of oceanic plates with the continent follows a broad cyclical pattern. In a typical cycle, periods of rapid subduction (7–15 cm/yr), andesitic volcanism, and trench-normal contraction are followed by a shift to trench-normal extension, the onset of voluminous silicic volcanism, formation of large calderas, and the creation of major batholiths. Extension becomes pervasive in metamorphic core complexes, and there is a shift to fundamentally basaltic volcanism, formation of flood basalts, widespread rifting, rotation of terranes, and extensive circulation of fluids throughout the plate margin. Strike-slip faulting becomes widespread with the creation of new tectonostratigraphic terranes. A new subduction zone forms and the cycle repeats. Each cycle is 50–80 m.y. long; cycles since the Triassic have ended and begun at approximately 225, 152, 92, 44, and 15 Ma. The youngest two cycles are diachronous, one from Oregon to Alaska, the other from central Mexico to California. The transitions from one cycle to the next cycle are characterized by rapid and pervasive changes termed, in this chapter, “major chaotic tectonic events.” These events appear to be related to the necking or breaking apart of the formerly subducted slab at shallow depth, the resulting delamination of the plate margin, and the onset of a new subduction cycle. These are times of the most rapid apparent and true polar wander of the North American plate, when the plate appears most free to move relative to surrounding plates and relative to the mantle below the asthenosphere. In western North America, magmatism and tectonics during the Jurassic period are quite similar to magmatism and tectonics since mid-Cretaceous time except strike-slip faulting shifted in sense from left lateral to right lateral.

North America, Pacific Ocean↗
USGS1995

Timing of emplacement of the Haypress Creek and Emigrant Gap plutons: Implications for the timing and controls of Jurassic orogenesis, northern Sierra Nevada, California

Pre-Cretaceous rocks in the northern Sierra Nevada are subdivided from west to east into the Smartville, central, Feather River peridotite, and eastern belts. Cretaceous and younger sedimentary rocks form the western boundary of the Smartville belt, but various reverse-fault segments of the Foothills fault system separate the other belts. The Foothills fault system and associated structures involve rocks as young as Kimmeridgian (Late Jurassic) and are truncated by Early Cretaceous plutons. This relationship is often cited as evidence for the Nevadan orogeny which is commonly viewed as a temporally restricted event involving deformation and metamorphism during the Late Jurassic. Recent work, however, suggests that some of the Mesozoic structural fabric in the northern Sierra Nevada may not have been produced during the Late Jurassic, but instead may have formed between Early and Middle Jurassic time. Thus, distinguishing Nevadan-age deformation from older Mesozoic deformation is now one of the more important problems facing geologists working in the northern Sierra Nevada. The Haypress Creek pluton crops out in the eastern belt and historically has been cited as a post-Nevadan pluton. It intrudes the Early to Middle Jurassic Sailor Canyon Formation that, together with the overlying Middle Jurassic Tuttle Lake Formation, contains a domainally developed, locally penetrative, northwest-striking cleavage (S 2 ). S 2 can be traced into the contact metamorphic aureole of the Emigrant Gap composite pluton, where structural and microtextural evidence indicates that it predates pluton intrusion. New U-Pb zircon data for the Haypress Creek pluton suggest an age of 166 ± 3 Ma and previously published U-Pb zircon data for the oldest phase of the Emigrant Gap composite pluton suggest an age of 168 ± 2 Ma. The fossiliferous Sailor Canyon Formation ranges in age from Early Jurassic (Sinemurian) in its lower parts to Middle Jurassic (Bathonian or Bajocian) in its upper parts. The overlying Tuttle Lake Formation contains S 2 , which formed prior to emplacement of the Emigrant Gap and Haypress Creek plutons at ca. 168–166 Ma. This relationship suggests that the Tuttle Lake Formation must have been deposited and deformed entirely within the Middle Jurassic. Thus, S 2 and associated structures within the eastern belt formed prior to Late Jurassic Nevadan deformation associated with the Foothills fault system. There are two end-member models used to explain the plate tectonic evolution of pre-Cretaceous rocks in the northern Sierra Nevada. These are referred to as the arc-continent collision and single, wide-arc models. Data discussed herein do not preclude either of these models for Early to Middle Jurassic time. However, regardless of which of these models is favored, both scenarios place the approximately 168 Ma and younger Jurassic volcanic and plutonic rocks of the Smartville, central, and eastern belts in a distinctly intra-arc setting and further imply that the Foothills fault system and related Late Jurassic structures are also of intra-arc character. We conclude that there is no evidence along 39°30′N latitude for arc-continent collision during the Nevadan orogeny.

California↗
USGS1995

Jurassic tectonics of northeastern Nevada and northwestern Utah from the perspective of barometric studies

Jurassic tectonism in the northeastern Great Basin produced varied structures, many closely associated with widespread magmatism at ca. 155–165 Ma and with local metamorphism. Many of the plutons are of suitable mineralogy for Al-in-hornblende barometry, providing the potential for depth data. We have studied conditions of metamorphism in the Pilot Range and barometry for six Jurassic plutons across the northeastern Great Basin. All barometry results are in harmony with pressures estimated from stratigraphic data, requiring little or no tectonic thickening. On the basis of structural styles and barometric data, we divide the northeastern Great Basin into three Jurassic tectonic provinces. An eastern extensional province, largely in western Utah, is characterized by Paleozoic strata that were thrust faulted and then intruded by shallow plutons shortly after or during normal and strike-slip faulting. Extension was probably a short-lived event associated with magmatism, but its west trend indicates a total reorientation of stress at this time, perhaps within transtensional strike-slip zones. A central province of modest, and possibly locally extreme, Jurassic shortening in eastern Nevada is characterized by metamorphosed Paleozoic rocks and by thrusts and kilometer-scale southeast-vergent folds. Upper amphibolite facies, but low pressure (3–4 kbar) metamorphism is present near Jurassic plutons in the Pilot Range and Ruby Mountains, probably indicating metamorphism induced by heat from magmas. In contrast, metamorphism in other ranges, which is known only to be pre–Late Cretaceous, indicates thickening of 10–20 km. This thickening may have entirely postdated the Jurassic. A western province in north-central Nevada is characterized by preserved Jurassic volcanic rocks and shallow plutons, indicating that little erosion, and probably surface uplift, occurred during the late Mesozoic. Folds and thrust faults indicate minor Jurassic shortening but many structures are undated. The low-pressure upper-crustal conditions for demonstrably Jurassic events suggest that higher-pressure metamorphism recorded in the central province is younger (Cretaceous) in age. We suggest that Jurassic structures were caused by distributed minor crustal shortening, manifested mainly as small-scale thrust faults. Local thermal highs created by plutonism produced metamorphic zones in relatively shallow crust. Shortening in the east was manifested by zones of strike-slip, within which plutons were emplaced in tensile niches. Lack of a deep foreland basin and lack of evidence for massive erosion argue against high-relief mountain belts caused by significant crustal shortening. Paleozoic rocks metamorphosed at pressures far in excess of stratigraphic burial are restricted to narrow lenses exhumed during Late Cretaceous and Tertiary extension and are bordered by rocks that always have been part of the shallow crust. The abundant shallow-crustal rocks preserved across the region indicate that a conventional hypothesis of large-scale, regional crustal thickening causing many kilometers of surface uplift and consequent erosion is unlikely to have taken place in the Mesozoic.

Nevada, Utah↗