Cenozoic tectonism in the central Basin and Range; magnitude, rate, and distribution of upper crustal strain
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ID: 293372
2000
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Abstract
A wealth of pre-Cenozoic geologic markers across the central Basin and
Range province, defined mainly by thrust faults developed within a miogeoclinal
wedge, makes it one of the best areas on Earth to reconstruct large-scale continental
extension. We use this ~100,000 km^2 region, bounded by the southern Sierra Nevada
on the west and the Colorado Plateau on the east, to illustrate the concepts of
correlation and misalignment for regional strain markers and of strain compatibility
and kinematic viability in palinspastic reconstructions. The results indicate ~250 to
300 km of west-northwest motion of the Sierra away from the Plateau, accommodated
by both crustal thinning and north-south shortening. Tertiary intermontane basin
deposits and mineral cooling ages of deeply exhumed rocks constrain the overall
kinematics of motion. Most of the westward motion occurred between 16 and 5 Ma, at
rates near 2 cm/yr, slowing to 1 to 1.5 cm/yr in the last 5 Ma. We have quantified the
partitioning of strain between vertical crustal thinning (via normal faults) and map-view
plane strain (via conjugate strike-slip faults) by placing a grid of 10 x 10 km
elements on a retrodeformed map of the region and measuring the increase in area of
grid elements between the undeformed and present-day grids. This analysis yields a
maximum finite elongation of the Basin and Range at 36°N to 37°N of 3.4, oriented
N73°W. Map-view area balance shows that 20 percent of this elongation is compensated
by ~north-south shortening, and 80 percent by crustal thinning. This yields an
average thinning factor for the upper crust of 2.7 between the Sierra and Plateau,
inconsistent with the hypothesis that Neogene deformation in the central Basin and
Range is predominantly dextral-shear plane strain. These results, in concert with the
observation that the southern Sierra Nevada has similar crustal thickness to the central
Basin and Range, support the hypothesis of large-scale eastward flow of Sierran deep
crust during extension.
| Reference Key |
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|---|---|
| Authors | J. Kent Snow |
| Journal | american journal of science |
| Year | 2000 |
| DOI |
10.2475/ajs.300.9.659
|
| URL | |
| Keywords | Keywords not found |
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