Search

Landscape evolution modeling and global compilations of exhumation data indicate that a wetter climate, mainly through orographic rainfall, can govern the spatial distribution of erosion rates and crustal strain across an orogenic wedge. However, detecting this link is not straightforward since these relationships can be modulated by tectonic forcing and/or obscured by heavy-tailed frequencies of catchment discharge. This study combines new and published along-strike average rates of catchment erosion constrained by 10 Be and river-gauge data in the Central Andes between 28°S and 36°S. These data reveal a nearly identical latitudinal pattern in erosion rates on both sides of the range, reaching a maximum of 0.27 mm/a near 34°S. Collectively, data on topographic and fluvial relief, variability of rainfall and discharge, and crustal seismicity suggest that the along-strike pattern of erosion rates in the southern Central Andes is largely independent of climate, but closely relates to the N–S distribution of shallow crustal seismicity and diachronous surface uplift. The consistently high erosion rates on either side of the orogen near 34°S imply that climate plays a secondary role in the mass flux through an orogenic wedge where the perturbation to base level is similar on both sides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climatic or geologic controls, such as tectonics or glacial drainage, might impose constraints on landscape self-organization resulting in spatial patterns of rivers and valleys which do not obey the typical self-similar relationships found in most landscapes. The goal of this study is to quantify how such geologic constraints express themselves on channel network topology, spatial heterogeneity of drainage patterns, and emergence of preferred scales of landscape dissection. We use as an example a basin located in the Upper Midwestern United States where successive glaciations over the past thousand years have led to a pronounced spatially anisotropic channel network structure which defeats most scaling laws of fluvial landscapes. This is contrasted with another river basin in the North-Central U.S. which has been organized under the absence of major geologic influences and follows a typical self-similar channel network organization. We show how the geologic constraints have imposed a competition for space which is captured in the slope–local drainage density probabilistic structure, in the failure of self-similarity in basin-wide river network topology, and in the length-area scaling relationship being not typical of fluvial landscapes. Via a two-dimensional wavelet analysis and synthesis, we demonstrate the occurrence of a gap in the power spectrum which corresponds to the presence of preferred scales of organization, and characterize them through multi-scale detrending. The developed methodologies can be useful in advancing our geomorphologic understanding of how external controls might manifest themselves in creating a landscape dissection that is outside the norm and how this dissection can be studied objectively for understanding cause and effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tectonic forcing of delta progradation is increasingly being invoked to explain stratal stacking patterns in foreland basins. Nonetheless, the recognition of different types of tectonic forcing and their consequences for the spatial and temporal distribution of accommodation often rely on incomplete data sets and indirect sequence stratigraphic criteria. Previous work has concluded that the Cenomanian-Turonian Frontier Formation of northern Utah, north-west Colorado and south-west Wyoming ('Vernal Delta') owes its origin largely to tectonic overprinting of depositional patterns, although the lack of a comprehensive sequence stratigraphic framework for the unit has hampered evaluation of this claim. This study provides detailed facies and sequence stratigraphic analyses based on outcrop sections and wireline log suites from the Uinta, Piceance and Green River basins. Four genetically related intervals were defined and mapped by using regionally traceable stratigraphic horizons (flooding surfaces and sequence boundaries). Internally, intervals are composed of distal and proximal delta front lithologies, and coastal plain facies. Overall, Intervals 1 to 4 form a major basinward projection of coarse clastic strata generated in response to four separate, high-frequency regressions. Furthermore, a change through time from southward projection of elongate lobes (Intervals 1 and 2) to eastward dispersal and development of a broad, arcuate planform (Intervals 3 and 4) can be explained in terms of changes in prevailing tectonic forcing mechanisms. North-south trending Sevier Orogeny forebulge structures controlled Intervals 1 and 2. West-east progradation (Intervals 3 and 4) was probably controlled by Proterozoic basement lineament reactivation due to Laramide foreland uplifts. Therefore, this study provides direct geological evidence for the initiation of local Laramide deformation as early as 90 Ma. These findings contribute to a more complete understanding of tectonic forcing of coastal to shallow marine successions in foreland basins and the tectonic evolution of the western USA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long period (10-20,000 s) magnetotelluric (MT) data are being acquired across the continental USA on a quasi-regular grid of ~70 km spacing as an electromagnetic component of the National Science Foundation EarthScope/USArray Program. These data are sensitive to fluids, melts, and other orogenic indicators, and thus provide a valuable complement to other components of EarthScope. We present and interpret results of 3-D MT data inversion from 325 sites acquired from 2006-2011 to provide a regional scale view of electrical resistivity from the middle crust to nearly the mantle transition zone, covering an area from NW Washington to NW Colorado. Beneath the active extensional subprovinces in the south-central region, on average we see a resistive upper crust, and then extensive areas of low resistivity in the lower crust and uppermost mantle. Further below, much of the upper half of the upper mantle appears moderately resistive, then subsequently the lower upper mantle becomes moderately conductive. This column suggests a dynamic process of moderately hydrated and fertile deeper upper mantle upwelling during extension, intersection of that material with the damp solidus causing dehydration and melting, and upward exodus of generated mafic melts to pond and exsolve saline fluids near Moho levels. Lithosphere here is very thin. To the east and northeast, thick sections of resistive lithosphere are imaged under the Wyoming and Medicine Hat Cratons. These are punctuated with numerous electrically conductive sutures presumably containing graphitic or sulfide-bearing meta-sediments deeply underthrust and emplaced during ancient collisions. Below Cascadia, the subducting Juan de Fuca and Gorda lithosphere appears highly resistive. Suspected oceanic lithosphere relicts in the central NW part of the model domain also are resistive, including the accreted "Siletzia" terrane beneath the Coast Ranges and Columbia Embayment, and the seismically fast "slab curtain" beneath eastern Idaho interpreted by others as stranded Farallon plate. Upwelling of deep fluid or melt in the Cascade volcanic arc region manifests as conductive features at several scales. These include quasi-horizontal conductive patches under the arc and fore-arc, likely denoting fluids evolved via breakdown of hydrous minerals in the current down-going slab. In the backarc, low resistivities concentrate in "plumes" connecting into a deeper aesthenospheric layer to the east, consistent with subduction-driven upwelling of hot, hydrated or melted, aesthenospheric mantle. Low resistivities <10 Ωm deep beneath the stable cratons suggest higher levels of hydration there, and/or influence of poorly resolved structures outside the array. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the properties of the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB) and other shallow mantle discontinuities across the diverse geologic provinces of the northwest United States. Sp phases were used to image three-dimensional discontinuity structure by common conversion point stacking with data from 804 temporary and permanent broadband stations, including 247 from EarthScope's USArray Transportable Array. Substantial variations in mantle discontinuity structure are apparent over a variety of spatial and temporal scales. To the west of the Sevier Thrust Belt, a coherent Sp negative phase coincides with the LAB depth range inferred from tomographic models. To the east, within the stable craton, multiple negative phases typically occur in the high velocity lithospheric layer, although in places a single mid-lithospheric discontinuity is imaged. Sub-cratonic LAB phases are often absent, indicating an LAB velocity gradient that is distributed over >50 km and that is consistent with effects of temperature alone. Where weak and intermittent LAB phases appear, they suggest more vertically localized velocity gradients produced by other factors such as bulk composition, volatile content, or contrasts in grain size or melt. In the tectonically active west, a positive Sp phase at depths consistent with the base of the asthenospheric low velocity zone in tomography models is intermittently observed. Beneath magmatic provinces in the west, the LAB Sp discontinuity deepens by ?10 km from the High Lava Plains, where magmatism has occurred from 0-10.5 Ma, to the northern region of the Columbia River Basalts, which has been magmatically quiet since 15 Ma. Here we suggest a model in which the negative LAB velocity gradient is created by a layer of partial melt ponding beneath a solidus-defined boundary. This model predicts that higher temperatures associated with more recent magmatism would result in a shallowing of the intersection of the geotherm with the solidus. Beneath the Yellowstone Caldera, the absence of an LAB Sp phase suggests that the contrast in seismic velocity between the lithosphere and asthenosphere has been erased by intrusion of partial melt and heat into the lithosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The magnetotelluric component of the EarthScope USArray program has covered over 35% of the continental United States. Resistivity tomography models derived from these data image lithospheric structure and provide constraints on the distribution of fluids and melt within the lithosphere. We present a three-dimensional resistivity model of the northwestern United States which provides new insight into the tectonic assembly of western North America from the Archean to present. Comparison with seismic tomography models reveals regions of correlated and anti-correlated resistivity and velocity that help identify thermal and compositional variations within the lithosphere. Recent (Neogene) tectonic features reflected in the model include the subducting Juan de Fuca-Gorda plate which can be traced beneath the forearc to more than 100 km depth, high lithospheric conductivity along the Snake River Plain, and pronounced lower-crustal and upper-mantle conductivity beneath the Basin and Range. The latter is abruptly terminated to the northwest by the Klamath-Blue Mountains Lineament, which we interpret as an important structure during and since the Mesozoic assembly of the region. This boundary is interpreted to separate hot extended lithosphere from colder, less extended lithosphere. The western edge of Proterozoic North America, as indicated by the Cretaceous initial 87Sr/86Sr = 0.706 contour, is clearly reflected in the resistivity model. We further image an Archean crustal block ("Pend Oreille block") straddling the Washington/Idaho border, which we speculate separated from the Archean Medicine Hat block in the Proterozoic. Finally, in the modern Cascades forearc, the geometry and internal structure of the Eocene Siletz terrane is reflected in the resistivity model. The apparent eastern edge of the Siletz terrane under the Cascades arc suggests that pre-Tertiary rocks fill the Washington and Oregon back-arc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

U-Pb geochronologic and Hf isotopic analy ses have been conducted on detrital zircons extracted from 36 samples of Neoproterozoic through Triassic passive margin strata from western North America. The data serve as an improved reference for comparison with inboard strata that accumulated on the North American craton and outboard strata belonging to potentially displaced Cordilleran terranes. As expected, this reference documents signifi cant variations in ages and Hf isotope compositions both north-south and also through time. The data also provide insights into the provenance of Cordilleran passive margin strata. During Neoproterozoic, Cambrian, and Early-Middle Devonian time, most grains were shed from relatively local basement rocks and from Mesoproterozoic clastic strata containing 1.2-1.0 Ga grains that originated in the Grenville orogen. This pattern was interrupted during Ordovician time, when much of the Cordilleran margin was blanketed by detritus shed from the northern Canadian Shield. Beginning in Late Devonian time, and continuing through late Paleozoic and Triassic time, most regions were dominated by locally derived detritus (largely recycled from underlying strata), but also received 0.7-0.4 Ga grains that were shed from the Franklinian, Caledonian, Appalachian, and Ouachita-Marathon orogens. This pattern is complicated in southern transects as a result of mid-Paleozoic emplacement of off-shelf assemblages onto the continental margin (e.g., Antler orogeny) and construction of Permo-Triassic magmatic arcs along the margin. Our data also provide a robust record of the crustal evolution of western North America, with signifi cant production of juvenile crust during late Archean (3.0- 2.5 Ga) and Paleoproterozoic (1.78-1.6 Ga) time and phases of mainly crustal reworking at 2.0-1.78, 1.5-1.3, 1.2-1.0, and 0.6-0.2 Ga. This history is somewhat different from that of other continents, with western Laurentia comprising a greater overall proportion of juvenile crust, punctuated by greater degrees of crustal reworking between 2.2 and 1.78 Ga and 0.3-0.2 Ga. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Although the northwest-striking Saline River fault system of southeastern Arkansas is not defined by microseismicity, it is associated with sand blows and shows evidence of Pleistocene and Holocene surface ruptures, suggesting a significant seismogenic potential. This fault system is within the northern Gulf of Mexico interior coastal plain, a region only recently recognized as containing seismogenic faults. To better characterize this active fault system, we reconstructed its post-Paleozoic history using petroleum and coal industry wire-line well log and seismic reflection subsurface data. The Saline river fault system initiated as a series of northwest-striking grabens during Triassic/Jurassic uplift and incipient Gulf of Mexico rifting along the basement Alabama–Oklahoma transform margin of the North American Proterozoic craton. During post-rift subsidence, these grabens were buried by Gulf sediments until mid-Cretaceous uplift and igneous activity resulted in minor extensional reactivation of graben faults. Faulting style changed from extension to transpression during the Late Cretaceous due to compression of eastern North America as the North Atlantic rapidly widened and due to thermal weakening of the Alabama–Oklahoma transform lithospheric discontinuity as it obliquely crossed a mantle hot spot. In the Late Cretaceous, graben faults experienced contractional reactivation and steep, deeply-rooted transpressional faults developed within and parallel to the graben system. These transpressional faults locally displace Eocene, Pleistocene, and Holocene sediments. Fault activity continues on the Saline River fault system due to thin crust along the Alabama–Oklahoma transform and to high heat flow, which act together to weaken the crust and promote seismogenic tectonism. The fault system may lack appreciable microseismicity because the aftershock sequence of the last large earthquake has had time to dissipate. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Giant duplexes called mushwads in the southern Appalachian thrust belt are estimated to contain a natural gas resource base of about 17.7Tcm (625Tcf). Early development efforts in mushwads of the Cambrian-age Conasauga Formation encountered significant challenges and highlight the need for an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to shale gas exploration. To facilitate development of this gigantic resource, an integrated geological analysis of stratigraphy, sedimentation, structural geology, basin hydrodynamics, petrology, geochemistry, gas storage and mobility, and reservoir volumetrics was conducted. The results of this analysis demonstrate the myriad geological factors that need to be considered when developing shale gas resources and suggest that the greatest reservoir potential lies deep in the mushwads, where free gas is concentrated. Meeting the challenges posed by deformed shale masses in thrust belts is a major frontier for hydrocarbon exploration that could result in a major expansion of natural gas reserves. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

SUMMARY Within the Northern Basin and Range Province, USA, we estimate horizontal velocities for 405 sites using Global Positioning System (GPS) phase data collected from 1994 to 2010. The velocities, together with geologic, volcanic, and earthquake data, reveal a slowly deforming region within the Snake River Plain in Idaho and Owyhee-Oregon Plateau in Oregon separated from the actively extending adjacent Basin and Range regions by shear. Our results show a NE-oriented extensional strain rate of 5.6 ± 0.7 × 10−9 yr−1 in the Centennial Tectonic Belt and an ∼E-oriented extensional strain rate of 3.5 ± 0.2 × 10−9 yr−1 in the Great Basin. These extensional rates contrast with the very low strain rate within the 125 km × 650 km region of the Snake River Plain and Owyhee-Oregon Plateau, which is indistinguishable from zero (−0.1 ± 0.4 × 10−9 yr−1). Inversions of the velocities with dyke-opening models indicate that rapid extension by dyke intrusion in volcanic rift zones, as previously hypothesized, is not currently occurring in the Snake River Plain. This slow internal deformation, in contrast to the rapidly extending adjacent Basin and Range regions, indicates shear along the boundaries of the Snake River Plain. We estimate right-lateral shear with slip rates of 0.3-1.4 mm yr−1 along the northwestern boundary adjacent to the Centennial Tectonic Belt and left-lateral oblique extension with slip rates of 0.5-1.5 mm yr−1 along the southeastern boundary adjacent to the Intermountain Seismic Belt. The fastest lateral shearing evident in the GPS occurs near the Yellowstone Plateau where strike-slip focal mechanisms and faults with observed strike-slip components of motion are documented. The regional velocity gradients are best fit by nearby poles of rotation for the Centennial Tectonic Belt, Snake River Plain, Owyhee-Oregon Plateau, and eastern Oregon, indicating that clockwise rotation is not locally driven by Yellowstone hotspot volcanism, but instead by extension to the south across the Wasatch fault due to gravitational collapse and by shear in the Walker Lane belt resulting from Pacific-Northern America relative plate motion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The amalgamation of crustal blocks that composes the western cordillera of North America has a long history of deformation across a broad zone. Investigations spanning a range of scales in the region have sought to unravel details of its structure and evolution. By sampling the entire western portion of the United States, the deployment of the Transportable Array component of the Earth- Scope USArray provides broadband seismic data to study crustal structure across much of this deforming region. Receiver functions recorded across the western United States provide insight into the thickness of the crust and how it varies between tectonic provinces. The thickness of the crust varies from <30 km in the southern Basin and Range and along the west coast to >50 km beneath the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and Wyoming. Distinct crustal structures characterize the Basin and Range, Snake River Plain, the Sierra Nevada, and the active Cascade volcanic arc, suggesting that the recent tectonic processes that affected the region have shaped the crustal structure. In addition, characteristics of the crust appear to relate to the boundaries of, and structures within, the terranes that formed North America. Patterns of crustal thickness across an expansive region presented here allow for the crustal response to specific tectonic processes to be determined while still imaging small-scale structures that can be more difficult to identify in a continental- scale study. This provides a context for previous and future detailed studies to understand how observed crustal structures relate to the evolution of western North America. The amalgamation of crustal blocks that composes the western cordillera of North America has a long history of deformation across a broad zone. Investigations spanning a range of scales in the region have sought to unravel details of its structure and evolution. By sampling the entire western portion of the United States, the deployment of the Transportable Array component of the Earth- Scope USArray provides broadband seismic data to study crustal structure across much of this deforming region. Receiver functions recorded across the western United States provide insight into the thickness of the crust and how it varies between tectonic provinces. The thickness of the crust varies from <30 km in the southern Basin and Range and along the west coast to >50 km beneath the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and Wyoming. Distinct crustal structures characterize the Basin and Range, Snake River Plain, the Sierra Nevada, and the active Cascade volcanic arc, suggesting that the recent tectonic processes that affected the region have shaped the crustal structure. In addition, characteristics of the crust appear to relate to the boundaries of, and structures within, the terranes that formed North America. Patterns of crustal thickness across an expansive region presented here allow for the crustal response to specific tectonic processes to be determined while still imaging small-scale structures that can be more difficult to identify in a continental- scale study. This provides a context for previous and future detailed studies to understand how observed crustal structures relate to the evolution of western North America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: During a trip to the Hall of the White Giant, Carlsbad Caverns (NM, USA) cigar-shaped vertically upward developing holes were observed on the ceiling at different heights of the passages. They have a circular cross-section with diameters of 1 to some centimetres and taper out towards their upper end. Their walls are smooth and their bottom edges are sharp, while their length can reach several decimetres. Sometimes gypsum can be found inside. They often occur randomly distributed in groups and their development is not necessarily controlled by fractures or other bedrock structures. We name these peculiar karren-like cave microforms “zenithal ceiling tube-holes” because of their origin by H2S environment corrosion processes and their vertical (zenithal) upward growth in ceilings. A comparison is made between zenithal ceiling tube-holes and other karstic or non karstic similar forms such as bell holes, oxidation vents, snailholes, Korrosionskolke (mixture-solution hollows) or pockets, röhrenkarren, light-oriented photokarren, borings of (often marine) organisms and negative stalactites. Zenithal ceiling tube-holes are created by the corrosive effect of sulphuric acid. H2S(g) dissolves in water giving rise to widespread sulphuric acid corrosion. When H2S bubbles are trapped underneath overhanging surfaces or ceilings and water level rises steadily the corrosive effect is concentrated vertically upwards, drilling vertical holes that can also completely pass overhanging rock ledges. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study assesses early Mesozoic provenance linkages and paleogeographic-tectonic models for the western United States based on new petrographic and detrital zircon data from Triassic and Jurassic sandstones of the "Izee" and Olds Ferry terranes of the Blue Mountains Province, northeastern Oregon. Triassic sediments were likely derived from the Baker terrane offshore accretionary subduction complex and are dominated by Late Archean (ca. 2.7--2.5 Ga), Late Paleo proterozoic (ca. 2.2--1.6 Ga), and Paleozoic (ca. 380--255 Ma) detrital zircon grains. These detrital ages suggest that portions of the Baker terrane have a genetic affinity with other Cordilleran accretionary subduction complexes of the western United States, including those in the Northern Sierra and Eastern Klamath terranes. The abundance of Precambrian grains in detritus derived from an offshore complex highlights the importance of sediment reworking. Jurassic sediments are dominated by Mesozoic detrital ages (ca. 230--160 Ma), contain significant amounts of Paleozoic (ca. 290, 380--350, 480--415 Ma), Neoproterozoic (ca. 675--575 Ma), and Mesoprotero zoic grains (ca. 1.4--1.0 Ga), and have lesser quantities of Late Paleoproterozoic grains (ca. 2.1--1.7 Ga). Detrital zircon ages in Jurassic sediments closely resemble well-documented age distributions in transcontinental sands of Ouachita-Appalachian provenance that were transported across the southwestern United States and modified by input from cratonal, miogeoclinal, and Cordilleran-arc sources during Triassic and Jurassic time. Jurassic sediments likely were derived from the Cordilleran arc and an orogenic highland in Nevada that yielded recycled sand from uplifted Triassic backarc basin deposits. Our data suggest that numerous Jurassic Cordilleran basins formed close to the Cordilleran margin and support a model for moderate post-Jurassic translation (~400 km) of the Blue Mountains Province. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to evaluate potential effects of tectonics and climate change on the behaviour of the axial Rio Grande in the Rio Grande rift, a 16·5 km stretch of modern floodplain and Holocene terraces were mapped in the tectonically active Palomas half graben, south-central New Mexico, USA. In addition, 51 cores and natural exposures were logged and 20 radiocarbon dates were obtained from charcoal, bulk organic matter, mollusc shells and pedogenic calcite. The Holocene alluvium comprises four terraces above the modern floodplain, each of which formed by a period of river incision followed by stability and renewed floodplain construction to a level below that of the previous terraces. Estimated times of incision between Terraces I and II, II and III, and III and IV are after 12 400, 8040 to 5310, and 760 to 550 yr bp, respectively, whereas the incision between Terrace IV and the modern floodplain occurred within the last 260 years. Although there is some evidence for tectonic control on river behaviour in the southern part of the basin, terrace formation is interpreted as being related to climate change, with periods of incision corresponding to times of increased aridity and low sediment/water discharge ratio in the Rio Grande. This process may have resulted from a reduction in intensity and magnitude of summer storms which supply sediment to the axial river, coupled with an increase in spring discharge peak caused by snowmelt in upstream mountain catchments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study on the age and tectonic significance of the McCoy Mountains Formation (MMF) in western Arizona. The researchers performed uranium-lead (U-Pb) isotopic analysis (IA) of detrital-zircon grains, and geochronological, geochemical and neodymium IA of mafic sills and lava flows within the clastic sequence. Their findings support the interpretation that the lower MMF was deposited during rifting within the western extension of the Sabinas-Chihuahua-Brisbee rift belt.

Three hundred and six coal samples were taken from main coal mines of twenty-six provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities in China, according to the resource distribution and coal-forming periods as well as the coal ranks and coal yields. Nitrogen was determined by using the Kjeldahl method at U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), which exhibit a normal frequency distribution. The nitrogen contents of over 90% Chinese coal vary from 0.52% to 1.41% and the average nitrogen content is recommended to be 0.98%. Nitrogen in coal exists primarily in organic form. There is a slight positive relationship between nitrogen content and coal ranking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article evaluates the hypothesis that porous sedimentary rocks subjected to high strain may not form deformation band zones (DBDZs). The accessible faults planes at the Upheaval Dome impact structure in southeastern Utah reportedly yielded no DBDZ formation evidence and instead pulverized quartz grains in the adjacent Navajo structure were found. The article states that strain rates at Upheaval Dome are consistent with seismic slip rates along faults like the San Andreas fault.

Abstract: New field observations and cross section restoration from the Jurassic White Horse pluton–host rock system, Goshute Range, eastern Nevada, USA, indicate a sequential variation of host rock rheology attending magma emplacement. The pluton intruded weakly to nondeformed Devonian–Mississippian limestone, argillite and quartzite at shallow crustal levels (ca. 7km). The contact aureole is well exposed along the southern, eastern and northern margin of the intrusive body and is less than 1km wide. Rocks outside of the aureole are sub-horizontal and do not contain a penetrative fabric or are gently folded (interlimb angles >120°) about sub-vertical axial planes. Within the contact aureole, continuous and discontinuous spaced, axial planar foliations and harmonic to disharmonic, tight to isoclinal folds wrap around the eastern margin of the pluton. Folds verge toward and away from the pluton and rim anticlines, synclines, and monoclines with wavelength in excess of 250m are preserved along the pluton margin. The spatial proximity of these ductile structures to the pluton and the apparent increase in intensity of structure development approaching the pluton is compatible with contraction within the aureole attending pluton emplacement. However, all of the above structures are truncated by the intrusive contact at various scales. Granodioritic dikes ranging in thickness from 1m up to ∼10m emanate from the intrusion and cut host rock structure at high angles and turn to propagate towards one another, parallel to the pluton margin and host rock anisotropy. Such features are interpreted to reflect the last stages of diking and brittle deformation that modified the pluton contact after emplacement-related folding of the carbonate rocks, but before final solidification of the pluton. Eight serial geologic cross sections were constructed and evaluated to place geometric constraints on the shape and growth of the White Horse intrusion. Based on line-length restoration of serial cross sections oriented perpendicular to the pluton contact, the aureole was shortened approximately 54% during emplacement. Extrapolating this shortening value over the exposed area of the pluton indicates that approximately 48% of the exposed pluton area may be accounted for by the restoration. Therefore, host rocks must have been displaced out of the map plane and likely downward based on geometrical constraints provided by the cross sections. The preferred emplacement model requires in-situ chamber dilation accommodated by ductile deflection of host rocks followed by fracturing and removal of the aureole rocks via cauldron subsidence and/or stoping. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Iapetan rifted margin of southern Laurentia includes the northeast-striking Blue Ridge, Ouachita, and Marathon rifts, which are offset by the northwest-striking Alabama-Oklahoma and Texas transform faults, framing the Alabama and Texas promontories and the Ouachita and Marathon embayments of the continental margin. Interpretations of the original trace, structural style, and age of the rifted margin rest on identifi cation of synrift rocks and structures, as well as continental-shelf and offshelf sedimentary deposits on the passive margin. Both late Paleozoic Ouachita- Appalachian allochthons and post-orogenic Atlantic-Gulf passive-margin deposits cover the Iapetan rift margin, necessitating the use of data from deep wells and geophysical surveys along with geologic maps of the exposed Ouachita-Appalachian thrust belts to characterize the synrift and post-rift rocks and structures. The continental margin and passive-margin shelf strata are primarily in the footwall of the Ouachita allochthon; however, some Ouachita thrust faults displaced shelf-margin basement and cover. Appalachian thrust faults imbricate synrift fi ll of the intracratonic Birmingham graben and the passive-margin shelf. Palinspastic restoration of thrust-belt structures uses balanced cross sections to locate the original trace of the Iapetan margin. Thickness and subsidence history of the passive-margin successions, as well as a general lack of preserved synrift deposits, indicate an upperplate structure along the Blue Ridge rift on the Alabama promontory and along the Ouachita rift on the Texas promontory. The upper plate on the Texas promontory is conjugate to a lower-plate rift structure on the Argentine Precordillera. Although data are limited, the evolution of the passive margin along the Marathon rift in the Marathon embayment suggests a lower-plate structure. Geophysical modeling supports a steep continental margin along the Alabama-Oklahoma transform, and a similar structure can be inferred for the Texas transform. The Blue Ridge rift north of the Alabama promontory is dated by synrift volcanic rocks as young as 564 Ma, and passive-margin transgression beginning in earliest Cambrian is documented along the Alabama promontory and farther north. The age of the Ouachita rift is documented by the 530-539 Ma synrift volcanics of the transform-parallel intracratonic Southern Oklahoma fault system, by Early Cambrian synrift sediment along the conjugate rift margin in the Argentine Precordillera, and by late synrift graben-fi ll of Early to early Late Cambrian age in the rift-parallel intracratonic Mississippi Valley and Birmingham graben systems, as well as by subsidence history of the passive margin on the Texas promontory. The diachroniety of rifting refl ects an inboard shift from the Blue Ridge rift to the Ouachita rift along the Alabama-Oklahoma transform and rifting of the Argentine Precordillera from the Ouachita embayment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Early Cenozoic terrestrial deposits in the western United States represent well-preserved archives of climatic and tectonic processes that together shaped the Earth's surface during the demise of a large continental plateau. This study examines a Cenozoic terrestrial sedimentary sequence in the central part of the Cordilleran orogen (Montana) using sedimentologic and geochemical techniques. At ∼49 Ma, we observe rapid major shifts in oxygen, carbon and strontium isotope records that are too large to directly reflect changes in meteoric water composition due to simple orographic rainout. The transition to low-δ18O values in pedogenic carbonate in concert with changes in the composition of clastic material at ∼49 Ma points to the input of evolved meteoric water to the hydrological cycle due to a change in the source of waters reaching Cordilleran intermontane regions in southwestern Montana. This drainage reorganization coincides with the initiation of magmatism and extension to the west in what is now Montana and Idaho. The sedimentological record shows evidence that depositional gradients increased in the study area ∼46 Ma, ∼3 Myr after the drainage reorganization occurred. This interval is most likely the time it took for extensional deformation to propagate to the study area itself. Evidence of freshening events in Laramide Basins to the southeast suggests that this drainage reorganization diverted waters to progressively fill these basins and highlights the impact of post-plateau extension-related landscape reorganization on river networks and lake dynamics. This study also emphasizes the importance of using multiple tools in deciphering topographic history through the study of terrestrial basin deposits, in that interpretation based on any single method employed would have compromised our ability to successfully identify the regional evolution of topography and drainage networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Faults and associated fracture networks can significantly influence regional flow of groundwater, hydrocarbons and other fluids. The distribution of CO2 springs and seeps along the Little Grand Wash fault and Salt Wash faults in central Utah is controlled by along-fault flow of CO2-charged groundwater from shallow aquifers (<1 km deep). The same faults are the likely conduits that charge the shallow aquifers with CO2 from depth. We document fault zone trace geometry and architecture, and evidence for palaeo-fluid flow within the footwalls of both faults. Evidence for palaeo-fluid flow consists of extensive bleaching of sandstones and some siltstones, mineralisation of carbonates and celestine veins and minor hydrocarbon staining. The field evidence shows that the pathways for multiple phases of fluid flow were structurally controlled utilising the fracture network developed in the damage zone of the faults. To investigate the likely effect of these faults on the regional fluid-migration pathways at depth, a 3D model of the faulted system was generated and a fault seal analysis applied to predict the cross-fault sealing capabilities of the studied faults. Due to the scarcity of subsurface data, the results are not conclusive but suggest probable multiple cross-fault leak points for fluids to migrate across the fault, in contrast to the field observations that indicate fault-parallel flow. This comparison of field observations to the modelling approach demonstrates the inability of conventional seal analysis techniques to predict fault-parallel fluid leakage and highlight the effects fracture networks in the damage zone, especially at structural complexities along the fault, have in producing pathways for vertical flow. Multiple fluids have utilised similar fault-parallel pathways over geological time demonstrating that such pathways have the potential to cause long-term leakage from hydrocarbon reservoirs and CO2 storage sites. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Despite how common folds are as structural features, along-strike fold propagation has proven elusive to document. However, if a fold grows laterally along its axis, early-formed fold-related joints may differ significantly in orientation from joints that form later. In this paper, we integrate mechanical stratigraphy with joint pattern analysis to determine relative timing of jointing. Additionally, we demonstrate that joint patterns can be related to stresses on both the top and bottom of the bed during flexure. We present joint data from eight sedimentary beds on the fold terminus at Sheep Mountain Anticline, Wyoming, USA. The joint patterns around the terminus show two distinct patterns: joints in six of the beds show a radial pattern around the terminus whereas joint patterns in the two remaining beds differ from proximal units, despite being in the same structural position. Fracture resistance calculations confirm that the beds with mis-oriented fractures are less resistant to fracturing than other units in the study, and therefore would have fractured earlier in fold growth history. We present a plate bending model that illustrates potential joint patterns around a plunging fold nose from stresses along both the top and bottom of the bed. The joint strike predictions for the area in front of the inflection line on the fold nose match the orientations in our less resistant beds, which are now positioned behind the inflection line, suggesting that the fold grew laterally. The combined analysis of fracture pattern and mechanical stratigraphy provides a new way to investigate fold evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The distribution and character of Venus's impact craters led to the widely accepted idea that Venus underwent global catastrophic resurfacing ca. 500 Ma, and thus Venus records only a short history, encompassing surface evolution since postulated catastrophic resurfacing. Ribbon tessera terrain (RTT), a structurally distinctive unit, represents some of Venus's oldest surfaces, and is widely accepted as forming prior to postulated global catastrophic resurfacing. We constructed a global geologic map of RTT unit exposures and structural trends using National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Magellan data. Map relations illustrate that RTT displays planet-scale patterns that, together with altimetry, record a rich geologic history that predates proposed global catastrophic resurfacing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ungulate and carnivore diversity patterns since 30 Ma in different regions of the western United States suggest abrupt increased diversification at 17-17.5 Ma, followed by decreases ca. 11 Ma, and stasis thereafter. Although global climate change presumably affects evolution, we hypothesize that widespread extensional tectonism in the western U.S. also helped drive diversity increases ca. 17.5 Ma through a topographically induced increase in floral and habitat diversity. The decreases in diversities ca. 11 Ma, as well as the rapid increase in C4 ecosystems (RICE) worldwide at 7-8 Ma may have responded to climate teleconnections and increased seasonality linked to global cooling and growth of orogenic plateaus, particularly the Tibetan Plateau between 13 and 8 Ma. Thus, biodiversity complexly responds both to climate and to tectonics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent seismic imaging across the Rio Grande rift, western United States, revealed unexpected structures in the underlying mantle. Low seismic wave velocity anomalies below the Rio Grande rift have been interpreted as being partially of melt origin, and high-velocity structures below the western Great Plains have been proposed to be the result of small-scale convection, i.e., cold downwelling lithospheric material with probably a compositional contribution. We perform a dynamic test of these interpretations using a passive rift model for isochemical convection. The models self-consistently produce a rift localized at approximately the right distance from the border to the nearby thicker Great Plains lithosphere. With realistic upper mantle rheologies, small-scale convection forms, aided by the lithospheric step. The resulting thermal anomalies produce seismic low-velocity anomalies below the rift of amplitudes similar to those imaged seismically, requiring the presence of only small amounts of melt. The lateral extent of the observed low velocities below the Rio Grande rift is as in the models, where it is controlled by the spacing between downwelling limbs of the small-scale convection. The fast velocity structure below the western Great Plains can be produced by cold downwelling lithosphere. The thermal rifting models can predict the amplitudes and size of the main seismic anomalies; compositional heterogeneity may contribute to some of the smaller features observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Phanerozoic circum-Pacific orogenic belts, most "postcollisional" S-type granites and associated high-temperature, low-pressure metamorphic complexes formed during early arc extension. The granites are part of a tripartite association consisting of (1) inboard S-type granite, (2) outboard oceanic arc, and (3) intervening, turbidite-filled backarc basin. S-type granites herald the formation of new outboard oceanic arc and extensional backarc systems, but thickening of a preexisting, sediment-dominated backarc basin is a prerequisite for their generation. In these environments, S-type plutonism is triggered by renewal of arc magmatism following thickening, when hot basaltic magmas are intruded into the thickened backarc crust once slab retreat is reestablished. With ongoing extension during retreat, the crust becomes progressively thinned, the sedimentary contribution is diminished, and the granites lose their S-type character. Such tripartite associations involving S-type granite are probably diagnostic of repeated slab-retreat episodes, and the Jurassic U.S. cordillera might be an example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study using multiple techniques provided insight into tectonic influences on ground water systems; the results can help to understand ground water systems in the tectonically active western United States and other parts of the world. Ground water in the San Bernardino Valley (Arizona, United States and Sonora, Mexico) is the main source of water for domestic use, cattle ranching (the primary industry), and the preservation of threatened and endangered species. To improve the understanding of ground water occurrence, movement, and sustainability, an investigation was conducted using a number of complementary methods, including major ion geochemistry, isotope hydrology, analysis of gases dissolved in ground water, aquifer testing, geophysics, and an examination of surface and subsurface geology. By combining information from multiple lines of investigation, a more complete picture of the basin hydrogeology was assembled than would have been possible using fewer methods. The results show that the hydrogeology of the San Bernardino Valley is markedly different than that of its four neighboring basins in the United States. The differences include water quality, chemical evolution, storage, and residence time. The differences result from the locally unique geology of the San Bernardino Valley, which is due to the presence of a magmatically active accommodation zone (a zone separating two regions of normal faults with opposite dips). The geological differences and the resultant hydrological differences between the San Bernardino Valley and its neighboring basins may serve as a model for the distinctive nature of chemical evolution of ground water in other basins with locally distinct tectonic histories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

40Ar/39Ar dating of slate and phyllite in the Nambucca Block, southern New England Orogen, indicates that deformation took place between 264 and 260 Ma. These data further show that indentation of the Early Permian turbidite successions by the southward-moving Coffs Harbour Orocline ceased at this time. Folding of the Sakmarian to Sarginian sequences in the Silver Spur Basin (294.6 - 275.6 Ma) during the megafolding event constrains the formation of the Texas Orocline to be post-ca 276 Ma. The presence of brachiopod faunas indicates that orocline formation commenced in the early Kungurian (ca 273 Ma) during the early stages of the Hunter - Bowen Orogeny. Thus, development of the Texas and Coffs Harbour Oroclines took place within a period of 13 million years, from 273 to 260 Ma. Oblique convergence is believed to be responsible for the formation of the Texas and Coffs Harbour Oroclines and associated constrictional structures during the Hunter - Bowen Orogeny. Slip on a dextral, strike-slip fault formed during convergence, buckled and rotated the meridional-trending arc - forearc - subduction complex to form north-northwest-trending, Z-shaped megafolds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new approach is proposed in order to interpret field self-potential ( SP) anomalies related to simple geometric-shaped models such as sphere, horizontal cylinder, and vertical cylinder. This approach is mainly based on solving a set of algebraic linear equations, and directed towards the best estimate of the three model parameters, e.g., electric dipole moment, depth, and polarization angle. Its utility and validity are demonstrated through studying and analyzing synthetic self-potential anomalies obtained by using simulated data generated from a known model and a statistical distribution with different random errors components. Being theoretically tested and proven, this approach has been consequently applied on two real field self-potential anomalies taken from Colorado and Turkey. A comparable and acceptable agreement is obtained between the results derived by the new proposed method and those deduced by other interpretation methods. Moreover, the depth obtained by such an approach is found to be very close to that obtained by drilling information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Fault slip and fault separation are generally not equal to each other, however, they are geometrically related. The fault slip (S) is a vector with a magnitude, a direction, and a sense of the movement. In this paper, a series of approaches are introduced to estimate quantitatively the magnitude and direction of the fault slip using fault separations. For calculation, the known factors are the pitch of slip lineations (γ), the pitch of a cutoff (β), the dip separation (S md) or the strike separation (S mh) for one marker. The two main purposes of this work include: (1) to analyze the relationship between fault slip and fault separation when slickenside lineations of a fault are known; (2) to estimate the slip direction when the parameters S md or S mh, and β for two non-parallel markers at a place (e.g., a point) are known. We tested the approaches using an example from a mainly strike-slip fault in East Quantoxhead, United Kingdom, and another example from the Jordan Field, Ector County, Texas. Also, we estimated the relative errors of apparent heave of the normal faults from the Sierra de San Miguelito, central Mexico. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: For some time, onset of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) was considered to have caused or stabilised full Antarctic glaciation. Recently, however, the importance of the ACC in this role has been questioned. In order to understand the relationship between the ACC and Antarctic glaciation, and thence the importance of ocean circulation to palaeoclimate, we need to determine the development history of both processes. To this end, we summarise all published estimates of ACC onset. The time of onset, of shallow circulation or deep, is uncertain, whether based on tectonic studies or the interpretation of changes in the sediment record. Two potential final barriers to circumpolar flow have been identified; south of Tasmania and south of South America. The former is well constrained by tectonics and marine geology to before 32Ma for a deep gap, with a shallow gap in place by 35.5Ma at the latest. These ages fit nicely with the onset of full Antarctic glaciation at 33–34Ma, although some workers question the causality. Estimates of the time of opening of the latter range widely, whether based on tectonics or sedimentary geology, from as recently as 6Ma to as early as 41Ma, with the gap depth uncertain also. Resolution of the tectonics-based uncertainties by additional survey being most probably both time-consuming and inconclusive, and the geological estimates being open to alternative interpretations, we define an optimal strategy for additional sampling and measurement, designed to resolve the time of onset more certainly, possibly also resolving between deep and shallow opening, and thereby constraining the ACC role. Sample sites would have to be close to likely final barriers, to avoid extraneous influence, and within modern zones of ACC influence, ideally would form a depth transect, and would have continuous, mixed terrigenous and biogenic sections. A wide range of carefully selected parameters would be measured at each. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article focuses on a paper that presented at the American Water Resources Association (AWRA) conference and its topic was suggested by Charles T. DuMars, water rights attorneys in New Mexico. The paper was presented to respond the problem in Albuquerque-Belen Basin regarding the unusable volume of ground water. With the aid of mathematical groundwater models developed by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Office of the New Mexico State Engineer, hydrologists were able to plan solutions to obtain usable groundwater in the basin. In addition, veteran geologist Bob Grant estimated the volume of saturated valley fill in the Rio Grande trough in the basin.

Tectonic processes, flexure due to crustal loading, and dynamic mantle flow each impart a unique imprint on topography and geomorphic responses over time scales of 104 to 106 yr. This paper explores the mobility of regional drainage divides as a key geomorphic metric that can distinguish between the various processes driving crustal deformation in the greater Yellowstone region of the northwestern United States. We propose a new analysis that quantifies the differences between the location of the presentday drainage divide from divides synthetically generated from filtered topography to determine the relative impact of tectonic and dynamic mantle influences on landscape development. The greater Yellowstone region is an opportune location for this investigation because contrasting models have been proposed to explain the parabolic shape of elevated topography and active seismicity that outline the imprint of hypothesized hotspot activity. Drainage divides synthesized from topography filtered at 50, 100, and 150 km wavelengths within the greater Yellowstone region show that the locations of the actual and synthetic Snake River drainage divides are controlled by both dynamic and flexural mechanisms in the eastern greater Yellowstone region, but by flexural mechanisms only in the western greater Yellowstone region. The location of the actual divide deviates from its predicted position in the filtered topography where tectonic controls, such as active faults (e.g., Centennial and Teton faults), have uplifted large footwall blocks. Our results are consistent with the notion of a northeastward-propagating greater Yellow stone region topographic and seismic parabola, and suggest that Basin and Range extension follows from, rather than precedes, greater Yellowstone region dynamic topography. Furthermore, our analysis suggests that eastward migration of the Snake River drainage divide lags behind the continued northeastward propagation of high-standing topography associated with the Yellowstone geophysical anomaly by 1–2 m.y. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first indication of a potential deep-subsurface kimberlite-like material in the Appalachian Basin, without surface expression, has been discovered in oil and gas well drilling samples from a deep well drilled near Zanesville, Ohio, USA. The well was drilled into the Cambrian Sauk Sequence within a localized fault-bounded graben, where a zone of ultramafic rocks was encountered. The zone of ultramafic rocks is within Sauk carbonates at 1720 m below sea level and is not highly anomalous on geophysical wire-line well logs. Petrographic analyses of grain-mounted samples show a 20 m zone of ultramafic rock material near the top of the Conasauga Group. Well cuttings from the ultramafic zone include relatively fresh phenocrysts of phlogopite with calcite, apatite, and titaniferous magnetite, in a secondary matrix of amphibole, chlorite, Fe-oxides, and possibly serpentine. The rocks have undergone deuteric alteration and probably later hydrothermal alteration. A 20-m-thick, localized, natural gas—bearing sandstone unconformably overlies (Knox unconformity) the Sauk Sequence above the ultramafic zone. Structural mapping indicates that the localized sandstone is confined to a small seismic-defined graben originating in the faulted Precambrian Grenville basement complex. Mapping of newly acquired gravity and magnetic data does not indicate the presence of an anomaly coincident with the graben, suggesting that the ultramafic material must be a very small, localized intrusive body (pipe or diatreme). Alternative interpretations include a thin intrusive sill, extrusive tuff deposits, Grenville-aged tectonic fault slice, or eroded igneous deposits. Subsurface mapping of units above the Sauk Sequence (Ordovician Black River Group-Trenton Limestone) shows no significant variation in structural contours above the feature. Although the igneous material has not been isotopically dated, the stratigraphic position suggests that it was intruded prior to Middle Ordovician time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim The biogeography of western North American freshwater molluscs has traditionally been attributed to vicariance associated with late Tertiary rearrangement of landscape based on distributional evidence and the putatively limited dispersal ability of these organisms. We examined the phylogeography of a widely ranging western springsnail ( Pyrgulopsis wongi Hershler, 1989) to test this hypothesis and evaluate the relative importance of vicariance and dispersal in structuring the distribution of this species. Location Southwestern Great Basin (California and Nevada), United States of America. Method Two mitochondrial genes (COI, NDI) were sequenced for 28 populations of P. wongi spanning its entire geographic range, which consists of 10 topographically closed drainage basins. We also sequenced eight closely related congeners, as well as the type species of the closely related eastern North American genus Floridobia Hershler & Thompson, 2002, which was used as the outgroup. Phylogenies based on the combined data set were obtained using several methods, and networks for each gene were generated as an additional means of examining relationships among haplotypes. Partitioning of haplotype variation was studied usingamova, migration between populations was estimated using a coalescent-based method (mdiv), and divergence times were inferred using a locally calibrated molecular clock andmdiv. Results Pyrgulopsis wongi is subdivided into narrowly localized and widely distributed lineages that diverged in the Pleistocene, well after the inception of the contemporary regional landscape. While large ΦST values and the localized geographic distributions of most haplotypes imply absence or negligible contemporary dispersal of this spring-dwelling snail, the pattern of phylogeographic structuring, presence of a few widespread haplotypes, and results of themdiv analyses suggest geologically recent dispersal across drainage divides. Main conclusions Phylogeography of P. wongi conflicts with the traditional vicariance model as it is not structured by the contemporary landscape and is instead indicative of geologically recent dispersal. In the absence of evidence that dispersal of this species occurred through surface water connections during the relevant (Quaternary) time frame, we conjecture that spread may have instead been mediated by transport on waterfowl or via upland stream capture. The non-concordance between phylogeography and landscape reported in this and other recent studies of Pyrgulopsis suggests that members of this diverse and imperiled genus should not be managed using an a priori, ‘watershed as conservation unit’ approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use 10Be to infer when, how fast, and why the Susquehanna River incised through bedrock along the U.S. Atlantic seaboard, one of the world's most prominent and ancient passive margins. Although the rate at which large rivers incise rock is a fundamental control on the development of landscapes, relatively few studies have directly measured how quickly such incision occurs either in tectonically active environments or along passive margins. Exposure ages of fluvially carved, bedrock strath terraces, preserved along the lower Susquehanna River, demonstrate that even along a passive margin, large rivers are capable of incising through rock for short periods of time at rates approaching those recorded in tectonically active regions, such as the Himalayas. Over eighty samples, collected along and between three prominent levels of strath terraces within Holtwood Gorge, indicate that the Susquehanna River incised more than 10 meters into the Appalachian Piedmont during the last glacial cycle. Beginning ∼36 ka, incision rates increased dramatically, and remained elevated until ∼14 ka. The northern half of the Susquehanna basin was glaciated during the late Wisconsinan; however, similar rates and timing of incision occurred in the unglaciated Potomac River basin immediately to the south. The concurrence of incision periods on both rivers suggests that glaciation and associated meltwater were not the primary drivers of incision. Instead, it appears that changing climatic conditions during the late Pleistocene promoted an increase in the frequency and magnitude of flood events capable of exceeding thresholds for rock detachment and bedrock erosion, thus enabling a short-lived episode of rapid incision into rock. Although this study has constrained the timing and rate of bedrock incision along the largest river draining the Atlantic passive margin, the dates alone cannot explain fully why, or by what processes, this incision occurred. However, cosmogenic dating offers compelling evidence that episodes of rapid incision into bedrock are tied to glacial cycles and changes in global climate. These results, and the methods we employ, provide valuable insights into the nature of bedrock channel incision, not only along the Susquehanna River and passive margins, but also across a wide range of settings around the globe. Because river incision into bedrock transmits the effects of changing climate and tectonics through fluvial networks to hillslopes, comprehending when, where, and why rivers incise has important implications for the evolution of landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In the western Churchill Province, Canadian Shield, Neoarchean supracrustal and plutonic rocks, intruded by Paleoproterozoic mafic dykes and granitic rocks, comprise the MacQuoid supracrustal belt and the structurally overlying Cross Bay plutonic complex. They form part of the northwestern Hearne subdomain that occupies an intermediate position between the continental Rae domain to the north and west, and the oceanic central Hearne subdomain to the south and east. New geological mapping and supporting geoscience are compatible with the presence of 2550–2500Ma, southeast-directed, mid-crustal, thick-skinned thrusting that juxtaposed the plutonic complex over the supracrustal belt. The structural contact between the MacQuoid supracrustal belt and the Cross Bay plutonic complex potentially represents a fundamental boundary between isotopically distinct crustal blocks. The ∼2190Ma MacQuoid mafic dyke swarm cuts across Neoarchean deformation fabrics, but records ∼1.9Ga, deep-crustal, regional metamorphism that affected both the supracrustal belt and the plutonic complex. Other Paleoproterozoic deformation events that occurred at ∼1850–1810Ma are of local extent and appear to be relatively minor manifestations of more important events elsewhere, related to the Trans-Hudson orogen. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The Tehuantepec Ridge is one of the most prominent lithospheric structures of the Cocos Plate, yet its tectonic evolution has remained poorly constrained until now. Calculated ocean floor ages and spreading rates, morphostructural analysis of the ridge and the surrounding ocean floor are used to infer the tectonic evolution and pattern of the Tehuantepec Ridge and associated structures. The ocean floor age estimates south of the Tehuantepec Ridge suggest an age of ∼26 Ma at the Middle America trench. A mean age difference across the Tehuantepec Ridge of ∼7 Ma suggests that the Tehuantepec Ridge would be formed as a long transform fault on the Guadalupe plate, prior to 15 Ma. The full-spreading rate estimates show that there might be a differential full-spreading rate across the transform fault between 15 and 5 Ma, when the oceanic plate just south of Clipperton Fracture Zone was decelerating between 15 and 10 Ma, then accelerating for the next 5 Ma. We propose a model in which between 13 and 8 Ma temporarily transpressional intratransform-spreading centers would have been existing as a consequence of the East Pacific Rise onset with an angle of ∼10° clockwise with respect to the ceased Mathematician ridge. Our model estimates indicate that between 21 and 15 Ma a prominent pseudofault was formed south of the Tehuantepec Ridge due to an unstable offset on the Mathematician ridge that migrated northward. The Tehuantepec Ridge and the pseudofault trace bound a deeper oceanic basin than the surrounding area, with no corresponding anomalous depth on the western side of the East Pacific Rise. The complete absence of a pseudofault trace and a deeper oceanic basin on the western side of the East Pacific Rise, as well as the spreading rate changes, suggest the existence of a microplate embedded into the Cocos Plate just south of the Tehuantepec Ridge. Also, the asymmetric and sharp morphology of the Tehuantepec Ridge suggests that it may be the expression of a major transpressional structure along the former transform fault on the Guadalupe plate 15–20 Ma ago. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Lithoprobe Slave – Northern Cordillera Lithospheric Evolution (SNORCLE) transect support enabled 24 paleomagnetic collections (536 sites, 6547 specimens) to be made in the northern Cordillera. Paleopoles from 16 studies are integrated with other published paleopoles to present a tectonic synthesis for the Intermontane Belt (IMB) and Yukon–Tanana (YT) terranes since 215 Ma. It shows that the YT terrane has been parautochthonous with the North American craton at least since the Early Jurassic. Since 54 Ma the IMB terranes have rotated steadily clockwise at 0.29° ± 0.11°/Ma on top of the YT terrane and craton or by 16° ± 6° clockwise. Between 102 ± 14 and 54 Ma, the IMB terranes rotated another 35° ± 14° clockwise, probably during Paleocene collision with the craton, and were translated 8.3° ± 7.0° (2σ) (915 ± 775 km) northward, probably during the Late Cretaceous on the Kula plate. The 915 km estimate is much less than most paleomagnetic estimates for "Baja BC" but agrees with the geological evidence. These post-Jurassic estimates are used to reconstruct the position of the Late Triassic – Jurassic cratonic apparent polar wander path for the IMB. The resulting IMB path is found to be concordant with the Cache Creek and Quesnellia terrane poles, indicating that these terranes were together and close to the craton in the Early Jurassic. These results place the IMB terranes close to the Pacific coastline of the northern USA and southern Canada but rotated 35° ± 14° counterclockwise, in the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use three large normal fault arrays in the northeastern Basin and Range Province, western United States, to document catchment development and relief production during fault growth. Fault slip and slip rates increase systematically along strike from zero at the fault tips. Catchment relief and across-strike range width both increase as slip accumulates but reach maximum values at a distance of ∼15 km from the fault tips and remain uniform along strike over much of the footwalls. Catchment outlet spacing also increases away from the fault tips but does not reach a uniform value and may vary by a factor of 5–6 along strike. We infer that catchments first elongate in the across-strike direction as slip accumulates and the range half-width increases. Once the half-width reaches its maximum value, continued catchment growth is possible only by along-strike capture, which increases outlet spacing but not relief. The close correspondence between catchment relief and range half-width suggests that geomorphically limited hillslope and channel gradients are achieved within the 15 km tip zone. Thus, the limiting factor in footwall development is the width of the range, which is controlled by two external agents: the geometry and spacing of the major faults, and the elevations of base level on both flanks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summer monsoonal rains (the southwest monsoon) are an important source of moisture for parts of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Improved documentation of the variability in the southwest monsoon is needed because changes in the amount and seasonal distribution of precipitation in this semiarid region of North America influence overall water supply and fire severity. Comparison of abundance variations in the planktic foraminifer Globigerinoides sacculifer in marine cores from the western and northern Gulf of Mexico with terrestrial proxy records of precipitation (tree-ring width and packrat-midden occurrences) from the southwestern United States indicate that G. sacculifer abundance is a proxy for the southwest monsoon on millennial and submillennial time scales. The marine record confirms the presence of a severe multicentury drought centered ca. 1600 calendar (cal.) yr B.P. as well as several multidecadal droughts that have been identified in a long tree-ring record spanning the past 2000 cal. yr from west-central New Mexico. The marine record further suggests that monsoon circulation, and thus summer rainfall, was enhanced in the middle Holocene (ca. 6500–4500 14C yr B.P.; ca. 6980–4710 cal. yr B.P.). The marine proxy provides the potential for constructing a highly resolved, well-dated, and continuous history of the southwest monsoon for the entire Holocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yucca Mountain, Nevada, is the sole candidate site for underground disposal of high-level radioactive waste in the United States. The mountain is composed of Tertiary (12.8–11.6 Ma) volcanic tuff, cut by west-dipping normal faults that divide the mountain into north-trending, east-dipping cuestas. Geologic characterization of Yucca Mountain by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has focused on mapping lithostratigraphic units, faults (including single plane, small-displacement surfaces of discontinuity, and large-displacement fault zones), and fractures (quasi-planar zones that have experienced loss of cohesion, including joints, partially mineralized joints, veins, and small-displacement faults). Faults and fractures are important to repository design because they affect seismic hazard, rockfall, and fluid transmissivity in the surrounding rock mass. Geologic maps and detailed studies of rock pavements and tunnel walls reveal that faults and fractures within Yucca Mountain are not uniform in orientation or intensity. We investigate two aspects of distributed deformation arising from fault displacement patterns at Yucca Mountain. First, fault-parallel strains (elongation parallel to cutoff lines where stratigraphic horizons intersect fault planes) develop as a result of lateral fault displacement gradients. Using existing data, we analyze the likely state of strain in fault blocks at Yucca Mountain. Second, fault-strike-perpendicular strains can develop where two normal faults propagate past each other. A component of the total strain is distributed into the surrounding rock to produce synthetic layer dip or a network of smaller faults and fractures. We find that small-scale faulting and fracturing at Yucca Mountain is variable and is strongly controlled by larger scale fault system architecture. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The San Gabriel Basin is a Pliocene—Pieistocene Transverse Ranges structure bounded by the San Gabriel Mountains on the north, the San Jose and Puente Hills on the east, and the Repetto and Montebello Hills on the west. A basement boundary between gneissoid rocks of San Gabriel Mountains aspect and Peninsular Ranges rocks strikes east across the basin and connects with the San Jose fault. This boundary may represent the eastward continuation of the Canton fault, a middle Miocene precursor of the San Gabriel fault system with up to 30 km of right slip. Canton fault displacement is largely canceled by ∼22.5 km of left slip on a precursor to the Raymond fault such that an Oligocene dacite in the San Jose Hills and clasts derived from it show little evidence of large horizontal displacement between the San Gabriel Mountains and Puente Hills. Clockwise rotation in the middle Miocene probably influenced the distribution of lateral slip. The fill in the northeast-trending Pliocene—Pleistocene San Gabriel Basin is a basal shallow-marine sequence overlain by the nonmarine Duarte Conglomerate, in contrast to the deep-water Fernando Formation of the Los Angeles Basin. The paleoslope trends south in the direction of the Repetto and Puente Hills, evidence that uplift of these hills postdated deposition. The triangular San Gabriel Basin is currently a stable block bounded by the right-slip, northwest-striking East Montebello fault on the west and the left-slip(?), northeast-striking Walnut Creek fault on the east. Farther east, the San Jose and Puente Hills are underlain by an east-trending active fold belt, including the San Jose reverse fault and anticline, the Walnut anticline, and the Puente Hills anticline adjacent to the right-lateral Whittier fault. The East Montebello fault is bounded on the west by the Elysian Park anticlinorium, a fold belt in downtown Los Angeles. The left-slip Holocene Raymond fault joins the Sierra Madre reverse fault at its segment boundary marked by the Clamshell-Sawpit fault. The triangular stable block between east-trending fold belts is bounded on the south by the Puente Hills blind thrust and on the north by the Sierra Madre fault, documenting north-south Quaternary convergence. East-west extension is also indicated, although not confirmed by geodetic measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The response of ephemeral alluvial streams to active tectonics is not as well established as those documented for perennial alluvial streams. This study documents the response of ephemeral streams transverse to growing folds along the north flank of the San Bernardino Mountains in southern California. The growing folds emerge amid a broad, sloping piedmont mantled by north-dipping alluvial fans and underlain by coarse, angular gravel and sand of mixed provenance. The study area contains fans composed of two distinct lithologies that control the expression of the folds. Sediment transport processes differ among alluvial perennial and ephemeral channels and play a primary role in defining the range of responses that ephemeral streams have to an actively rising fold. We find that ephemeral streams respond by (1) changing pattern from a single, slightly incised channel with well-defined banks to a braided channel upstream of the fold axis, (2) incising across the fold axis, preserving a terrace and braid bars, and (3) returning to a single-thread, less incised channel downstream of the fold axis. This channel response is documented for both a topographically obvious anticlinal fold, the Cougar Buttes anticline, as well as a suspected, but not topographically obvious anticline, the Pitzer Buttes anticline. Variations from this general model appear to be correlated with locations of slow fold growth l and/or channel alluvium that is fine grained and of low cohesion. A growing fold, such as the Cougar Buttes anticline, provides a laboratory for the investigation of the development of transverse streams with respect to position along strike with the fold axis. Some streams crossing the Cougar Buttes anticline are antecedent, whereas others are consequent to the growth of the fold. These observations lay the foundation for a conceptual model for ephemeral stream response to active tectonics, particularly useful in identifying previously unrecognized actively rising folds. In this study, the fold axis of the Cougar Buttes anticline is revealed to extend at least 1 km beyond its current obvious topographic expression. Because ephemeral streams are sensitive to tectonic deformation, they can be used locally in paleo-seismological investigations, regionally to understand the strain partitioning between the Big Bear and Mojave blocks, and conceptually to constrain geodynamic models investigating the interaction between surface processes and the geometry of and slip rates on faults responsible for fold growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New compilations of geometry and tectonic transport in the Pennsylvania salient suggest that these features continue uninterrupted from the Piedmont through the Valley and Ridge provinces. These data are the basis for a new two-azimuth transport model for origin of the curvature. Edge geometry of an Eocambrian craton and a thickened stratigraphy acted as templates for Alleghanian regional décollement, first as Reading Prong ∼N35°W motion, followed by ∼N68°W Blue Ridge motion. Both displacements involved some drag rotation and overprinting in a central zone. This model avoids the problem of minimal tangential stretching, explains the anthracite basins as trailing-edge graben and basin structures against the autochthonous Pocono Plateau, and produces the Nittany- Juniata culmination as an overprinted pileup of duplexes in the central zone. The model of detachment followed by changing azimuth of motion of a megadécollement sheet may apply to other salients throughout the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The origin of coastal and high-elevation marine gravels on the Hawaiian islands of Lanai and Molokai is controversial, because the vertical tectonics of these islands is poorly constrained. The gravels are either from eustatic highstands or were left by massive tsunamis from offshore giant landslides. In contrast, at Kohala on the island of Hawaii, where continuous subsidence is well estab- lished, lithofacies analysis and dating of a fossiliferous marine con- glomerate 1.5–61 m above present sea level support a tsunami or- igin and indicate a runup of >400 m >6 km inland. The conglomerate age, 110 ± 10 ka, suggests a tsunami caused by the ca. 120 ka giant Alika 2 landslide from nearby Manna Loa volcano. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geologic mapping and fracture studies have documented the fundamental patterns of joints and faults in the thick sequence of rhyolite tuffs at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, the proposed site of an underground repository for high-level radioactive waste. The largest structures are north-striking, blockbounding normal faults (with a subordinate left-lateral component) that divide the mountain into numerous 1-4-km-wide panels of gently east-dipping strata. Blockbounding faults, which underwent Quaternary movement as well as earlier Neogene movement, are linked by dominantly northwest-striking relay faults, especially in the more extended southern part of Yucca Mountain. Intrablock faults are commonly short and discontinuous, except those on the more intensely deformed margins of the blocks. Lithologic properties of the local tuff stratigraphy strongly control the mesoscale fracture network, and locally the fracture network has a strong influence on the nature of intrablock faulting. The least faulted part of Yucca Mountain is the north-central part, the site of the proposed repository. Although bounded by complex normal-fault systems, the 4-km-wide central block contains only sparse intrablock faults. Locally intense jointing appears to be strata-bound. The complexity of deformation and the magnitude of extension increase in all directions away from the proposed repository volume, especially in the southern part of the mountain where the intensity of deformation and the amount of vertical-axis rotation increase markedly. Block-bounding faults were active at Yucca Mountain during and after eruption of the 12.8-12.7 Ma Paintbrush Group, and significant motion on these faults postdated the 11.6 Ma Rainier Mesa Tuff. Diminished fault activity continued into Quaternary time. Roughly half of the stratal tilting in the site area occurred after 11.6 Ma, probably synchronous with the main pulse of vertical-axis rotation, which occurred between 11.6 and 11.45 Ma. Studies of sequential formation of tectonic joints, in the context of regional paleostress studies, indicate that north- and northwest-striking joint sets formed coevally with the main faulting episode during regional east-northeast-west-southwest extension and that a prominent northeast-striking joint set formed later, probably after 9 Ma. These structural analyses contribute to the understanding of several important issues at Yucca Mountain, including potential hydrologic pathways, seismic hazards, and fault displacement hazards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Newly released reflection seismic and borehole data, combined with sedimentological, provenance, and biostratigraphic data from Upper Cretaceous—Paleocene strata in the proximal part of the Cordilleran foreland-basin system in Utah, establish the nature of tectonic controls on stratigraphic sequences in the proximal to distal foreland basin. During Campanian time, coarse-grained sand and gravel were derived from the internally shortening Charleston-Nebo salient of the Sevier thrust belt. A rapid, regional Campanian progradational event in the distal foreland basin (>200 km from the thrust belt in >8 m.y.) can be tied directly to active thrust-generated growth structures and an influx of quartzose detritus derived from the Charleston-Nebo salient. Eustatic sea-level variation exerted a minimal role in sequence progradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Topography is a fundamental geophysical observable that contains valuable information about the geodynamic, tectonic and climatic history of a region. Here, we extend the traditional uses of topographic analysis to evaluate the role played by topography in the distribution of regional-scale biodiversity in the south-western USA. An important aspect of our study is its ability to provide a way to quantify characteristics of the topographic fabric and to construct predictive models that can be used to test hypotheses that relate topography and biodiversity. South-western USA region of the North American Cordillera. Our approach begins with a quantitative analysis of the topography and the construction of a predicted biodiversity map based on measurable topographic quantities: organization, roughness, slope aspect, grain orientation and mean elevation. We then make a quantitative comparison between the predicted and observed biodiversity, based on the assumption that land-cover diversity is a plausible measure of regional-scale biodiversity. Land-cover information used for this study was collected as part of the U.S.G.S. global land cover characteristics (GLCC) project and is derived from satellite (AVHRR) imagery. To a first order, the predicted regional-scale biodiversity based on our topographic model shows a good correlation with the observed biodiversity (as estimated from the land-cover diversity). Our model overestimates the biodiversity in many parts of the Colorado Plateau, Rio Grande Rift, and the low desert regions of the Southern Basin and Range, suggesting that in these provinces a biodiversity estimate based solely on topography is an over-simplification. However, much of the Madrean Archipelago and Sierra Madre provinces, which are centres of high biodiversity in this region, show excellent agreement between the observed and predicted biodiversity. While we acknowledge that many other factors in addition to topography have an important influence on biodiversity (particularly on a local scale), we conclude that topography plays a primary role in the regional to continental-scale biodiversity, particularly in regions characterized by insular mountain fabrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]