Tectonic History of the Western United States

GEOL 5690, Fall 2005

Meets: Monday and Wednesday, 11-11:50 pm, Friday 1:00 - ~2:30 pm, BESC 355

Instructor: Craig Jones, ESCI 440C, x2-6994, cjones@cires.colorado.edu

Text: Turcotte and Schubert, Geodynamics, 2nd edition.
      Baldridge, Geology of the American Southwest is optional

News:

• Readings are in a box marked GEOL5690 Jones in the mailroom.
• Rheology handout online

What's here now:

• Syllabus (includes most basic information about the course)
• Announcement of the course
• Links of use for background:
  • Animation of paleogeography of the western U.S., in the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic (these require the Shockwave plugin from Macromedia and the files are rather large)
  • Ron Blakely's original images at Northern Arizona.
  • Tectonics of the Western U.S. site developed by GEOL5700 in 1999, 2002 and 2003.

Schedule

• 11/11 1 pm: Basin and Range driving forces; term topic due
• 11/14 11 am: Sierra Nevada I
• 11/16 11 am: Sierra Nevada II; paleoelevation
• 11/18 1 pm: Paleoelevation; Cenozoic plate reorganization
• 11/21 11 am: Neogene volcanism
• 11/23 1-3 pm: Neotectonics
• 11/28 11 am-1 pm: First set of term project presentations
• 11/30 11 am: Second set of term project presentations
• 12/2 1-3 pm: FINAL
• 12/9 5 pm: Term project websites due

Handouts:

• Radiometric dating handout
• Plate flexure (similar to material scattered in Turcotte and Schubert)
• Paleomag
• Coulomb Wedge (fold-and-thrust belt)
• Stress inversion
• Rheology of the lithosphere
• Gravity, refraction, heat flow overview

November 16 and 18: Elevation in the Cenozoic

Required Readings:

• Wolfe, J. A., H. E. Schorn, C. E. Forest, and P. Molnar, Paleobotanical evidence for high altitudes in Nevada during the Miocene, Science, 276, 1672-1675, 1997. A pdf version of the article is accessible from campus computers.]
• Sahagian, D., A. Proussevitch, and W. Carlson, Timing of Colorado Plateau uplift: Initial constraints from vesicular basalt-derived paleoelevations, Geology, 30 (9), 807-810, 2002. PDF version available through GSA

Additional Readings:

• Chamberlain, C. P., and M. A. Poage (2000), Reconstructing the paleotopography of mountain belts from the isotopic composition of authigenic minerals, Geology (Boulder), 28 (2), 115-118. [Use of oxygen isotopes in clays suggests Sierra high long time]
• Horton, T. W., D. K. Sjostrom, M. J. Abruzzese, M. A. Poage, J. R. Waldbauer, M. Hren, J. Wooden, and C. P. Chamberlain (2004), Spatial and temporal variation of Cenozoic surface elevation in the Great Basin and Sierra Nevada, American Journal of Science, 304 (10), 862-888.
• Axelrod, D. I., Paleoelevation estimated from Tertiary floras, in Integrated Earth and Environmental Evolution of the Southwestern United States: The Clarence A. Hall, Jr. Volume, edited by W. G. Ernst and C. A. Nelson, pp. 70-79, Bellweather Publ., Columbia, Maryland, 1998.[Very different interpretation from Wolfe et al.]
• England, P., and P. Molnar, Surface uplift, uplift of rocks, and exhumation of rocks, Geology, 18, 1173-1177, 1990.
  • Hatfield, C. B., Surface uplift, uplift of rocks, and exhumation of rocks: Comment, Geology, 19, 1051, 1991.
  • England, P., and P. Molnar, Surface uplift, uplift of rocks, and exhumation of rocks: Reply, Geology, 19, 1051-1052, 1991.
  • Pinter, N., and E. A. Keller, Surface uplift, uplift of rocks, and exhumation of rocks: Comment, Geology, 19, 1053, 1991.
  • England, P., and P. Molnar, Surface uplift, uplift of rocks, and exhumation of rocks: Reply, Geology, 19, 1053-1054, 1991.
• Wolfe, J. A., C. E. Forest, and P. Molnar, Paleobotanical evidence of Eocene and Oligocene paleoaltitudes in midlatitude western North America, Geological Society of America Bulletin, 110, 664-678, 1998.
• Small, E. E., and R. S. Anderson, Geomorphically driven Late Cenozoic uplift in the Sierra Nevada, California, Science, 270, 277-280, 1995.
• Gregory, K. M., and C. G. Chase, Tectonic significance of paleobotanically estimated climate and altitude of the late Eocene erosion surface, Colorado, Geology, 20, 581-585, 1992.
• Montgomery, D. R., Valley incision and the uplift of mountain peaks, Journal of Geophysical Research, B, Solid Earth and Planets, 99, 13,913-13,921, 1994.
• Small, E. E., and R. S. Anderson, Pleistocene relief production in Laramide mountain ranges, western United States, Geology, 26, 123-126, 1998.
  • Schaffer, J. P., E. E. Small, and R. S. Anderson, Pleistocene relief production in Laramide mountain ranges, Western United States: Discussion and reply, Geology (Boulder), 26, 1150-1152, 1998.

November 21: Cenozoic plate tectonics and western U.S.

Required readings

Additionally you can view Tanya Atwater's movies of the development of the plate margin, one showing the hemisphere over the past 80 m.y. (about 5 Mb) and one showing the details of the San Andreas development (15 Mb):

• Atwater, T., and J. Stock, Pacific-North America plate tectonics of the Neogene southwestern United States: An update, International Geology Review, 40, 375-402, 1998 [also in Integrated Earth and Environmental Evolution of the Southwestern United States: The Clarence A. Hall, Jr. Volume, edited by W. G. Ernst and C. A. Nelson, pp. 393-420, Bellweather Publ., Columbia, Maryland, 1998].
• Dickinson, W. R., Tectonic implications of Cenozoic volcanism in coastal California, Geological Society of America Bulletin, 109, 936-954, 1997.

Additional References:

• Ormerod, D. S., C. J. Hawkesworth, N. W. Rogers, W. P. Leeman, and M. A. Menzies, Tectonic and magmatic transitions in the Western Great Basin, USA, Nature, 333, 349-353, 1988. [Potential effect of triple junction passage in western Great Basin]
• Atwater, T., Implications of plate tectonics for the Cenozoic tectonic evolution of western North America, Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., 81, 3513-3536, 1970. [Classic early interpretation of WUS in terms of plate tectonics].
• Stock, J., and P. Molnar, Uncertainties and implications of the Late Cretaceous and Tertiary position of North America relative to the Farallon, Kula, and Pacific plates, Tectonics, 7, 1339-1384, 1988. [How to do plate reconstructions with uncertainties]
• Atwater, T. M., Plate tectonic history of the northeast Pacific and western North America, The Geology of North America, vol. N, Geological Society of America, 21-72, 1989. [overview of methods and chief results to late 1980s].

November 21: Neogene volcanism

Required Readings

Also note Dickinson 1997 addresses this

• Geist, D., and M. Richards, Origin of the Columbia Plateau and Snake River plain: Deflection of the Yellowstone plume, Geology, 21, 789-792, 1993.

Additional Readings

• Hooper, P.R., G. B. Binger, and K. R. Lees, Ages of the Steens and Columbia River flood basalts and their relationship to extension-related calc-alkalic volcanism in eastern Oregon, Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 114, 43-50, 2002.
• Carlson, R. W., and W. K. Hart, Crustal Genesis on the Oregon Plateau, J. Geophys. Res., 92, 6191-6206, 1987. [Back-arc origin for Columbia River basalts?]
• Christiansen, R. L., and R. S. Yeats, Post-Laramide geology of the U.S. Cordilleran region, in The Geology of North America, vol.G-3, Geol. Soc. Am., 261-406, 1992. [esp. pp. 378-383; contrary view of hotspot origin to Yellowstone and Columbia Plateau]

November 23: Erosion (may change)

Required Readings

• Christiansen, R. L., and R. S. Yeats, Post-Laramide geology of the U.S. Cordilleran region, in The Geology of North America, vol.G-3, Geol. Soc. Am., pp. 350-357, 1992. [summary of traditional evidence for uplift/erosion]
• Dumitru, T. A., I. R. Duddy, and P. F. Green, Mesozoic-Cenozoic burial, uplift, and erosion history of the west-central Colorado Plateau, Geology, 22, 499-502, 1994.

Additional Readings

• Holm, R. F., Cenozoic paleogeography of the central Mogollon Rim-southern Colorado Plateau region, Arizona, revealed by Tertiary gravel deposits, Oligocene to Pleistocene lava flows, and incised streams, Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 113, 1467-1485, 2001.
• Elston, D. P., and R. A. Young, Cretaceous-Eocene (Laramide) landscape development and Oligocene-Pliocene drainage reorganization of transition zone and Colorado Plateau, Arizona, J. Geophys. Res., 96, 12,389-12,406, 1991. [A rather different view, suggesting erosion is much older than usually thought]
• Steidtmann, J. R., and L. T. Middleton, Fault chronology and uplift history of the southern Wind River Range, Wyoming; implications for Laramide and post-Laramide deformation in the Rocky Mountain foreland, Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 103, 472-485, 1991. [One off several fission-track papers on the Rocky Mtns.]

November 23: Neotectonics and geodesy

Required Readings

• Bennett, R. A., J. L. Davis, and B. P. Wernicke, Present-day pattern of Cordilleran deformation in the Western United States, Geology, 27, 371-374, 1999.
• Flesch, L. M., W. E. Holt, A. J. Haines, and B. M. Shen-Tu, Dynamics of the Pacific-North American plate boundary in the western United States, Science, 287, 834-836, 2000. (online from CU computers)

Additional references

• Wesnousky, S. G., and C. H. Jones, Slip partitioning, spatial and temporal changes in the regional stress field, and the relative strength of active faults in the Basin and Range, Geology, 22, 1031-1034, 1994.
• Shen-Tu, B. M., W. E. Holt, and A. J. Haines, Deformation kinematics in the western United States determined from Quaternary fault slip rates and recent geodetic data, J. Geophys. Res.-Solid Earth, 104, 28927-28955, 1999. [full scale integration of geologic and geodetic information for displacement field]
• McCaffrey, R., Oblique plate convergence, slip vectors, and forearc deformation, J. Geophys. Res., 97, 8905-8915, 1992. [More rigorous examination of force balance in slip partitioning and global analysis]
• Jones, C. H., and S. G. Wesnousky, Variations in strength and slip rate along the San Andreas Fault system, Science, 256, 83-86, 1992. [provides background for Wesnousky and Jones and applies to San Andreas system]

Previous readings this year

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Last modified at November 18, 2005 12:42 PM