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A very brief overview of the rest of the U.S. Cordillera (not California and not Cenozoic) Basil Tikoff University of Wisconsin-Madison Goal: Give an overview of US Cordillera
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Dickinson, 2006
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Two sources for many of the figures Animations at: http://csmres.jmu.edu/Geollab/Whitmeyer/web/publications.html http://csmres.jmu.edu/Geollab/Whitmeyer/web/publications.html
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Outline Geography exercise (5 minutes) Assembly of Precambrian North America (Laurentia) The Cordillera evolution Idaho and the Canadian Cordillera A retrospective (and, perhaps, a soapbox)
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Organize into groups, with no more than one person from any particular country in any group. Write the name of each state in each state (ask anyone for help)
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Envelope: Parts of the Precambrian In each “geography” group, open the envelope. We’ll go through the evolution of North American by putting together a jigsaw puzzle.
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Archean – grey blobs
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Archean cratons (positions unconstrained; Rae and Hearne in present-day locations) > 2.0 Ga
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Proterozoic accretionary belts between Archean blocks – pink zones
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Front view Back view
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Continued shortening across Trans Hudson orogen; closure of Great Falls Tectonic Zone and Vulcan Zone; accretion of Medicine Hat Block, and Wyoming Province 1.82-1.80 Ga
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Like anything that is published, it isn’t necessarly correct. In this case, it does not look like the Selway terrane exists (the area is underlain by Archean crust, determined by zircon xenocrysts in Cretaceous plutons).
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Proterozoic terranes (from N to S) Yavapai (1.70 Ga accretion) Mazatzal (1.63 Ga accretion) Granite-rhyolite province (1.55 – 1.35 Ga)
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Yavapai – dark green
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1.76-1.72 Ga Accretion of Mojavia(?) and Yavapai Province, as a Banda Sea style assembly of arcs
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DePaolo & Bennet, 1987 Hoffman, 1988
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CD-ROM working group
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Figure 2. Geologic cross section with data from CD-ROM Cheyenne belt seismic line. Tyson A et al. Geology 2002;30:943-946 ©2002 by Geological Society of America
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Mazatzal – blue Mazatzal ( = place of the deer, or so sayeth Wikipedia) Mountains, Arizona
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1.69-1.65 Ga Accretion of Mazatzal and Labradorian Provinces, as juvenile crust
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Granite-rhyolite –light green St Francis Mountains, Missouri Red rock is a 1500 Ma rhyolite
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Llano block
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1.55-1.35 Ga Accretion of Granite- Rhyolite Province, Elzevir Block & Pinware terrane, as juvenile crust
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Belt Group, from Glacier National Park Deposition estimated at ~1400 Ma
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Collision! Grenville orogeny & formation of Rodinia This just wasn’t a collision – it was the assembly of a supercontinent (Rodinia) Laurentia is at the center of this collision, which means it is highly affected structurally and thermally (similar to Hercynian orogeny in Europe)
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1.3-0.95 Ga Grenville orogen: Granitoids intrude juvenile belts as far west as Colorado
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Simultaneous with collision, there is a major rifting event Midcontinent rift event
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1.2-1.1 Ga Midcontinent Rift system: Keweenawan, Ft. Wayne rifts; Intrusion of MacKenzie and Animikie dikes
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Watch animation of Rodinia assembly Questions?
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0.78-0.68 Ga Rifting along western margin of Laurentia; Intrusion of Gunbarrel dikes, Deposition of Windermere Supergroup
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Dickinson Inyo Mtns
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Thickness of latest Proterozoic & Early Cambria strata. Contour lines (hard to see) are 2, 6, and 8 km.
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Time for animation From: http://csmres.jmu.edu/Geollab/Whitmeyer/web/publications. html Questions?
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The story of the US Cordillera is one of subduction and terrane accretion to the western margin
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Accreted or “suspect” terranes Dott & Prothero
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When do they attach to each other, and when (and where) do they attach to the North American margin?
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Tectonic map for Cambrian through Late Devonian Black material was offshore, but was being deposited
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Dott & Prothero Late Mississippian
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Antler orogeny Lasted ~10 m.y. Major feature: Roberts Mountain thrust During thrusting, the thrust sheets formed a highland and deposited material eastward into a well-developed foredeep No, low metamorphism Overlapped by Pennsylvanian shallow- water materials ….and, there is no/little volcanic material
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Sheared and folded deep water sediments of the distal Antler marine basin thrust over and emplaced on top of the shallow water deposits of the continental margin. Robert’s Mountain thrust. Above the contact we see the Early Missisppian conglomerates and below we see a thick band of sheared rocks. From MIT website (C. Burchfiel)
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Burchfiel & Royden, 1991
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Ancestral Rockies Permian age Basins and uplifts in southern part of western US (they do not extend, for the most part, into the Archean Wyoming province) Results from collision of Africa on SE US …and now for the large piles of sandstone and conglomerates
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Maroon Bells
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Blakey, 2008Note: Large vertical exaggeration
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Ancestral Rockies are interpretted by Miller et al. (1992) as a far-field effect of a continent-continent collision. The diagram shows the scale of the ongoing Himalayan collision to the Ancestral Rockies collision, emphasizing the “free” subduction boundary. Ancestral Rockies are equivalent to Baikal rift.
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Watch Pangea assembly Questions?
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Dickinson, 2006 Next: The Sonoman orogeny
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Dott & Prothero Permian-Triassic
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Sonoman orogeny Permian-Triassic Major feature: Golconda thrust A lot like the Antler orogeny: 1) Thrust sheets (Havallah sequence) were thrust on Antler orogeny and its Paleozoic overlap sequence; and 2) Little metamorphism Overlapped by Triassic shallow-water materials (Star Peak/Luning) and cut by Triassic pluton in eastern Sierra Nevada region
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Triassic Development of an Andean margin offshore California, possibly with back- arc basin (Star Peak – Luning basin)
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By Late Jurassic, the Sevier thrust front has developed, including a very well developed foreland basin
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DeCelles, 2004 Questions?Questions?
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