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We document the interplay between meteoric fluid flow and deformation processes in quartzite-dominated lithologies within a ductile shear zone in the footwall of a Cordilleran extensional fault (Kettle detachment system, Washington, USA). Across 150 m of shear zone section, hydrogen isotope ratios (delta D) from synkinematic muscovite fish are constant (delta D similar to -130 parts per thousand) and consistent with a meteoric fluid source. Quartz-muscovite oxygen isotope thermometry indicates equilibrium fractionation temperatures of similar to 365 +/- 30 degrees C in the lower part of the section, where grain-scale quartz deformation was dominated by grain boundary migration recrystallization. In the upper part of the section, muscovite shows increasing intragrain compositional zoning, and quartz microstructures reflect bulging reaystallization, solution-precipitation, and microcracking that developed during progressive cooling and exhumation. The preserved microstructural characteristics and hydrogen isotope fingerprints of meteoric fluids developed over a short time interval as indicated by consistent mica Ar-40/Ar-39 ages ranging between 51 and 50 Ma over the entire section. Pervasive fluid flow became increasingly channelized during detachment activity, leading to microstructural heterogeneity and large shifts in quartz delta O-18 values on a meter scale. Ductile deformation ended when brittle motion on the detachment fault rapidly exhumed the mylonitic footwall.

The Kaman-K?rşehir region intrusions were generated in a post-collisional extensional setting following Cenomanian-Turonian docking of an oceanic island arc, comprising the supra-subduction zone (SSZ) Central Anatolian ophiolite (CAO), onto the Tauride-Anatolide Platform (TAP). These granitoids have been named, from N to S, the Çamsar? quartz syenite, Hamit quartz syenite, Bay?nd?r nepheline-cancrinite syenite, Durmuşlu nepheline-nosean-melanite syenite porphyry and Baranada? quartz monzonite. They intrude the crustal metasediments of the Central Anatolian Crystalline Complex (CACC) and CAO and are unconformably overlain by Upper Paleocene to Lower-Middle Eocene sediments. The single-zircon 207Pb-206Pb evaporation age of the Çamsar? unit is 95.7±5.1 Ma; those of the Hamit and Baranada? units are indistinguishable with a weighted mean of 74.3±4.5 Ma. The amphibole 40Ar-39Ar ages of the Hamit and Baranada? units are almost identical with a weighted mean of 72.7±0.1 Ma. The apatite fission-track age vs elevation plot for the Çamsar?, Hamit, Durmuşlu and Baranada? samples reveals rapid exhumation (>1 km/Ma) between ?57 and ?61 Ma, consistent with the results of track-length modelling. This Early-Middle Paleocene rapid exhumation is thought to result from uplift triggered by continent (TAP) - continent (Eurasian plate; EP) collision following the closure of İzmir-Ankara-Erzincan (İAE) ocean that also initiated the formation of peripheral foreland basins in central Anatolia. Copyright © TÜBİTAK., Boztu?, D.; Faculty of Engineering, University of Tunceli, TR-62000 Tunceli, Turkey; email: boztug@cumhuriyet.edu.tr

The Karaçay?r syenite, intruding the Palaeozoic crustal metamorphics and unconformably overlain by Upper Paleocene to Eocene Tokuş formation in the north of Sivas (east-central Anatolia), has been studied with respect to 207Pb-206Pb single zircon evaporation, biotite 40Ar-39Ar, and apatite fission-track geothermochronology. 207Pb-206Pb single zircon evaporation dating yields an age of 99.0±11.0 Ma (Cenomanian-Turonian) which is considered to be the intrusion age. Biotite 40Ar-39Ar age determination gives a cooling age of ca. 65 Ma. Apatite fission-track dating, combined with T-t modeling based on track-length distribution data, determines a fast tectonic exhumation with an uplift rate of > 1 mm/a which occurred 58-61 Ma ago. This Middle Paleocene fast tectonic uplift is considered to have resulted from a compressional regime induced by the collision between the Tauride-Anatolide platform (TAP) and the Eurasian plate (EP) along the İzmir-Ankara-Erzincan (İAE) suture zone following the closure of the north-dipping subducted İAE ocean which belongs to northern Neo-Tethyan realm. This compressional regime has also formed the peripheral foreland basins in central Anatolia. Copyright © TÜBİTAK., Boztu?, D.; Faculty of Engineering, University of Tunceli, TR-62000 Tunceli, Turkey; email: boztug@cumhuriyet.edu.tr

In the Colorado Rocky Mountains, the association of high topography and low seismic velocity in the underlying mantle suggests that recent changes in lithospheric buoyancy may have been associated with surface uplift of the range. This paper examines the relationships among late Cenozoic fl uvial incision, channel steepness, and mantle velocity domains along the western slope of the northern Colorado Rockies. New 40Ar/39Ar ages on basalts capping the Tertiary Browns Park Formation range from ca. 11 to 6 Ma and provide markers from which we reconstruct incision along the White, Yampa, and Little Snake rivers. The magnitude of post-10 Ma incision varies systematically from north to south, increasing from ~ 500 m along the Little Snake River to ~1500 m along the Colorado River. Spatial variations in the amount of late Cenozoic incision are matched by metrics of channel steepness; the upper Colorado River and its tributaries (e.g., Gunnison and Dolores rivers) are two to three times steeper than the Yampa and White rivers, and these variations are independent of both discharge and lithologic substrate. The coincidence of steep river profi les with deep incision suggests that the fl uvial systems are dynamically adjusting to an external forcing but is not readily explained by a putative increase in erosivity associated with late Cenozoic climate change. Rather, channel steepness correlates with the position of the channels relative to low-velocity mantle. We suggest that the history of late Miocene-present incision and channel adjustment refl ects long-wavelength tilting across the western slope of the Rocky Mountains.

Napoli, 25/6/2003

The correspondence between seismic velocity anomalies in the crust and mantle and the differential incision of the continental-scale Colorado River system suggests that significant mantle-to-surface interactions can take place deep within continental interiors. The Colorado Rocky Mountain region exhibits low-seismic-velocity crust and mantle associated with atypically high (and rough) topography, steep normalized river segments, and areas of greatest differential river incision. Thermochronologic and geologic data show that regional exhumation accelerated starting ca. 6-10 Ma, especially in regions underlain by low-velocity mantle. Integration and synthesis of diverse geologic and geophysical data sets support the provocative hypothesis that Neogene mantle convection has driven long-wavelength surface deformation and tilting over the past 10 Ma. Attendant surface uplift on the order of 500-1000 m may account for ~25%-50% of the current elevation of the region, with the rest achieved during Laramide and mid-Tertiary uplift episodes. This hypothesis highlights the importance of continued multidisciplinary tests of the nature and magnitude of surface responses to mantle dynamics in intraplate settings.

Isotopic age determinations (40Ar/39Ar) and associated magnetic polarity stratigraphy for Casamayoran age fauna at Gran Barranca (Chubut, Argentina) indicate that the Barrancan 'subage' of the Casamayoran South American Land Mammal 'Age' is late Eocene, 18 to 20 million years younger than hitherto supposed. Correlations of the radioisotopically dated magnetic polarity stratigraphy at Gran Barranca with the Cenozoic geomagnetic polarity time scale indicate that Barrancan faunal levels at the Gran Barranca date to within the magnetochronologic interval from 35.34 to 36.62 megannums (Ma) or 35.69 to 37.60 Ma. This age revision constrains the timing of an adaptive shift in mammalian herbivores toward hypsodonty. Specifically, the appearance of large numbers of hypsodont taxa in South America occurred sometime between 36 and 32 Ma (late Eocene-early Oligocene), at approximately the same time that other biotic and geologic evidence has suggested the Southern high latitudes experienced climatic cooling associated with Antarctic glaciation. Fil:Re, G.H. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina.