7 Cordilleran Tectonics from the Basin and Range to Alaska and the Arctic: A Celebration of Elizabeth Miller’s Career (2018 GSA Structure and Tectonics Division Career Contribution Award) (Posters)

Wednesday, 15 May 2019
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Exhibit Hall B


DETACHMENT FAULTING IN THE NORTHERN BRISTOL MOUNTAINS, CALIFORNIA

Paper number: 7-3
Program: Theme Sessions
Time: 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM


Authors


Abstract

The crust of the Mojave Desert has been dramatically rearranged by at least three distinct episodes of low-angle faulting since the Cretaceous, resulting in a relatively thin upper plate of felsic plutonic rocks underlain by subduction-channel schist. However, the faults responsible for this mess have only been mapped in a handful of areas. Recent study, including a January 2019 Cal Poly Pomona field class, has revealed the presence of a previously unrecognized detachment fault in the northern Bristol Mountains, east of Broadwell Mesa. This area within the Kelso Dunes Wilderness was geologically mapped on foot at a scale of 1:6000, with the aid of satellite imagery. The detachment fault, which generally dips shallowly to the west, separates a footwall of relatively homogeneous K-spar-phyric granodiorite from a more heterogeneous complex of intermediate, amphibolite-facies meta-plutonic rocks in the hanging wall. Along with a poorly-exposed meter-scale gouge layer, the shear zone is marked by an anastomosing mylonite layer, which varies from just a few meters to over 100 m thick, with lineations that generally trend WSW. Observed sense-of-shear indicators, most notably S-C fabrics, consistently indicate top-to-the-west motion. Fault corrugations run parallel to the mylonitic lineation, with a wavelength of 300-400 m and an amplitude of 20-40 m. In turn, these structures are affected by gentle to open folding along NNW axes and are cut by steep, WNW-trending dip-slip faults. Because both the footwall and hanging wall of this detachment contain high-grade rocks, it is likely that both underlie an as-of-yet unmapped master detachment. The age of detachment faulting is unknown, but may be early Neogene, based on the occurrence of calcite-ankerite-siderite veins similar to mineralization associated with the also structurally similar early Neogene Central Mojave Metamorphic Core Complex, ~100 km to the west. Future mapping, geochronology, and petrology may clarify this fault's significance to Mojave tectonics.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 51, No. 4

doi: 10.1130/abs/2019CD-329457

© Copyright 2019 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.