T276 New Insights into the Evolution and Geodynamics of Metamorphic Core Complexes in North America and Around the World (Posters)

Wednesday, 12 October 2022
2:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Exhibit Hall F

BASIN DEVELOPMENT DURING SLIP ON THE EAGLE PASS DETACHMENT FAULT, PINALEÑO METAMORPHIC CORECOMPLEX

Paper number: T276-7
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Authors

Abstract

Metamorphic Core Complexes (MCCs) are fundamental features associated with the redistribution of crustal mass following orogenic thickening. In southern Arizona, the Pinaleño Mountains are the northeastern-most MCC in an extension-parallel belt of three MCCs, a feature which is not observed elsewhere in the North American Cordillera. Despite long-term interest in the evolution of MCC systems in North America, the Pinaleño MCC, and the associated Eagle Pass detachment fault have been relatively under-investigated. In this study, we provide detailed stratigraphic and chronological constraints on a section of growth strata in the hanging wall of the Eagle Pass detachment fault in order to constrain the onset and duration of core complex-related faulting and exhumation. We present detailed stratigraphic sections and report clast counts from the volcaniclastic fanglomerate exposed in Crazy Horse Wash to characterize the depositional history of the growth strata and provide context for geochronologic analyses. Detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology of the volcaniclastic fanglomerate with mylonitic clasts from the middle of the section yields an age distribution with three main age modes at 1.8-1.6 Ga, 1.5-1.3 Ga, and 28-22 Ma. Based on the immaturity of sediments, older age modes, and inclusion of mylonitic clasts, we interpret the sediment to be locally sourced, with provenance ties to 1.8-1.6 Ga Yavapai/Mazatzal province rocks and 1.5-1.3 Ga granitoids in the footwall of the detachment. The 28 to 22 Ma age mode matches the crystallization ages of volcanic rocks in the breakaway zone to the MCC and provides a maximum depositional age of ~25 Ma for the upper unit of the growth strata, consistent with other known timing constraints for detachment faulting and core complex exhumation in southern Arizona. These data suggest that the three extension-parallel MCCs (the Pinaleños, Catalina-Rincon, and Coyote) were syn-tectonically active, analogous to the modern southern Tibetan Plateau, providing further evidence for a broad region of thick and hot plateau-like crust in southern Arizona prior to MCC extension.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 54, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2022AM-382111

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