206 Strain and Displacement: Patterns, Gradients, Partitioning, and Reconstructions
This session aims to bring together researchers from structure-related disciplines to facilitate discussions of approaches that inform our understanding of strain and displacement. We welcome contributions from observations, experiments, theory, and modeling that characterize deformation from micro to tectonic scales.
Tuesday, 21 October 2025
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
HBGCC, 217C
Rotation of crustal extension and narrowing of rift faulting in the southern Rio Grande rift, Trans-Pecos Texas
Paper number: 206-7
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 3:25 PM – 3:40 PM
Authors
-
Jesse KelschSull Ross State University, Alpine, TX
-
Georgina Rodriguez-GonzalezThe University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX
-
Lin MaUniversity of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX
-
Patricia DickersonAmerican Geological Institute, Austin, TX
Abstract
Rates and directions of crustal extension in a continental rift vary in time and space as the rift evolves, and these geologic records are often preserved along fault planes. Some fault- kinematic studies have been undertaken in the central to northern segments of the Rio Grande rift, but similar studies from the southern part of the Rio Grande rift of western Texas, USA, and northern Mexico are fewer. We present new fault- kinematic data from six locations in the southern Rio Grande rift of Trans- Pecos Texas, combined with U-Pb dating of calcite slickenlines, a constrain the directions and time scales of extension. All locations preserve NE-SW– oriented extension, and locations within the Sunken Block graben preserve a more complex kinematic history of multiple extension directions. Four U-Pb ages range from 30.1 ± 3.1 Ma to 13.7 ± 0.9 Ma. Combined with fault- kinematic data and assuming a constant stress regime between 30 Ma and 14 Ma, these data support the interpretation that earliest extension in the southern rift was oriented NE-SW, and extension rotated clockwise to E-W and NW-SE after 13.7 ± 0.9 Ma. Based on available data, this rotation was broadly coincident with rotation in the extension direction in the southern Española basin and in the Basin and Range Province. These differences suggest that extension in the Rio Grande rift responded to the evolving western boundary of the North American plate but included initial underlying driving forces that were supplanted by lateral forces as the transform margin lengthened. Additionally, geochronologic and kinematic data across the Sunken Block graben of the southern Rio Grande rift indicate that the locus of rifting concentrated with time toward the center of this basin; such structural narrowing has previously been demonstrated in the northern segment of the rift. This study provides a much-needed comparison between the southern and northern segments of the rift but highlights the need for more collection of combined kinematic and geochronologic data.
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 57, No. 6
doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-413052
© Copyright 2025 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.