Geologic framework, tectonic evolution, and displacement history of the Alexander Terrane

The Alexander terrane consists of upper Proterozoic(?)-Cambrian through Middle(?) Jurassic rocks that underlie much of southeastern (SE) Alaska and parts of eastern Alaska, western British Columbia, and southwestern Yukon Territory. A variety of geologic, paleomagnetic, and paleontologic evidence indicates that these rocks have been displaced considerable distances from their sites of origin and were not accreted to western North America until Late Cretaceous-early Tertiary time. Our geologic and U-Pb geochronologic studies in southern SE Alaska and the work of others to the north indicate that the terrane evolved through three distinct tectonic phases. During the initial phase, from late Proterozoic(?)-Cambrian through Early Devonian time, the terrane probably evolved along a convergent plate margin. Arc-type(?) volcanism and plutonism occurred during late Proterozoic(?)-Cambrian and Ordovician-Early Silurian time, with orogenic events during the Middle Cambrian-Early Ordovician (Wales orogeny) and the middle Silurian-earliest Devonian (Klakas orogeny). The second phase is marked by Middle Devonian through Lower Permian strata which accumulated in tectonically stable marine environments. Devonian and Lower Permian volcanic rocks and upper Pennsylvanian-Lower Permian syenitic to dioritic intrusive bodies occur locally but do not appear to represent major magmatic systems. The third phase is marked by Triassic volcanic and sedimentary rocks which are interpreted to have formed in a rift environment. Previous syntheses of the displacement history of the terrane emphasized apparent similarities with rocks in the Sierra-Klamath region and suggested that the Alexander terrane evolved in proximity to the California continental margin during Paleozoic time. Our studies indicate, however, that the geologic record of the Alexander terrane is quite different from that in the Sierra-Klamath region, and we conclude that the two regions were not closely associated during Paleozoic time. The available geologic, paleomagnetic, and paleontologic data are more consistent with a scenario involving (1) early Paleozoic origin and evolution of the Alexander terrane along the paleo-Pacific margin of Gondwana, (2) rifting from this margin during Devonian time, (3) late Paleozoic migration across the paleo-Pacific basin in low southerly paleolatitudes, (4) residence in proximity to the paleo-Pacific margin of South America during latest Paleozoic(?)-Triassic time, and (5) Late Permian(?)-Triassic rifting followed by northward displacement along the eastern margin of the Pacific basin

Paleomagnetism of the Duke Island, Alaska, ultramafic complex revisited

The Duke Island ultramafic intrusion was emplaced into the Alexander terrane immediately preceding development of a regional mid-Cretaceous thrust belt. Paleomagnetic samples were collected from exposures of ultramafic rock with cumulate layering northwest of Judd Harbor and northwest of Hall Cove. Thermal demagnetization results were analyzed using principal component analysis to isolate the characteristic remanent magnetization. Site-mean characteristic directions determined from 16 sites fail the fold test at 95% confidence, indicating that cumulate layering attitudes were highly contorted at the time of magnetization, at least on a scale of tens of meters. Variations in cumulate layering attitudes probably resulted from the combined effects of thermal convection phenomena during crystallization and deformation following crystallization but prior to magnetization. Analysis of cumulate layering over larger structural domains indicates that kilometer-scale deformation produced southwest plunging folds within the Hall Cove and Judd Harbor bodies. Bogue et al. [1995] proposed that a compound structural correction involving unplunging of fold axes followed by unfolding of average cumulate layering could restore cumulate layering to horizontal. However, using the full set of 21 site-mean paleomagnetic directions from Duke Island (16 from the current study and 5 from Bogue et al. [1995]), the compound structural correction yields mean paleomagnetic directions from the Judd Harbor and Hall Cove areas that are statistically distinguishable at 99% confidence. This result indicates that even on the kilometer-scale, cumulate layering within the Duke Island ultramafic intrusion was neither coplanar nor horizontal at the time of magnetization. Observations of cumulate layering in other ultramafic intrusive rocks indicate that this layering can significantly depart from horizontal by 10°–20° even on the kilometer scale. Therefore use of cumulate layering of ultramafic rocks as a proxy for paleohorizontal is not justified, and paleomagnetic directions from the Duke Island ultramafic intrusion cannot be used to infer the Cretaceous paleolatitude of the Insular superterrane

Ordovician-Silurian volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits on the southern Prince of Wales Island and the barrier islands, southeastern Alaska

Several pyritic massive sulfide deposits have been recognized in an Ordovician-Silurian volcano-plutonic complex in the southern Prince of Wales Island region (Fig. 1). These deposits have been studied as part of a U.S. Geological Survey-California Institute of Technology investigation into the geologic and mineralization history of southern Prince of Wales Island (south of 55° North Latitude; Fig. 1). This report describes the geologic setting of the deposits and presents preliminary chemical analyses of the mineralization

Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous basinal strata along the Cordilleran Margin: Implications for the accretionary history of the Alexander-Wrangellia-Peninsular Terrane

Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous basinal strata are preserved in a discontinuous belt along the inboard margin of the Alexander-Wrangellia-Peninsular terrane (AWP) in Alaska and western Canada, on the outboard margin of terranes in the Canadian Cordillera accreted to North America prior to Late Jurassic time, and along the Cordilleran margin from southern Oregon to southern California. Nearly all of the basinal assemblages contain turbiditic strata deposited between Oxfordian and Albian time. Arc-type volcanic rocks and abundant volcanic detritus in many of the assemblages suggest deposition within or adjacent to a coeval arc complex. On the basis of the general similarities between the basinal sequences, we propose that they record involvement of the AWP in the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous evolution of the Cordilleran margin. A geologically reasonable scenario for the accretion of the AWP includes (1) Middle Jurassic accretion to the Cordilleran margin, in particular the Stikine and Yukon-Tanana terranes, in a dextral transpressional regime, (2) Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous overall northward translation of the AWP and evolution of a series of transtensional basins within a complex dextral strike-slip system along the Cordilleran margin, and (3) mid-Cretaceous structural imbrication of the AWP and inboard terranes that either terminated or resulted in a change in the character of deposition in the marginal basins. Mid-Cretaceous deformation along the inboard margin of the AWP was broadly synchronous with contractional deformation throughout the Cordillera and most likely due to changes in subduction zone parameters along the Cordilleran margin, outboard of the AWP, rather than collision of the AWP

Effects of the 1996 Welfare Reform Legislation on Families with Children on Reservations: What Have we Learned and What Questions Remain Unanswered? (Working Paper 5)

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Preliminary description of the Late Silurian-Early Devonian Klakas Orogeny in the southern Alexander terrane, southeastern Alaska

The Klakas orogeny is a Late Silurian-Early Devonian deformational, metamorphic, and mountain-building event that marks a major change in the geologic history of the southern Alexander terrane. During Ordovician-Silurian time this region was a marine volcano-plutonic province in which volcani-clastic strata and shallow-water limestones were deposited adjacent to andesitic and dacitic volcanic centers. After the Klakas orogeny, shallow-marine sedimentation prevailed with only local volcanism. Manifestations of this orogenic event included: 1) shallow-level brecciation of Ordovician-Silurian rocks on southern Prince of Wales Island, 2) deformation along with greenschist- and perhaps amphibolite-facies metamorphism of Ordovician-Silurian rocks on Annette and Gravina Islands, 3) structural uplift of at least several kilometers during or shortly after the deformation, 4) uplift of mountainous areas with kilometer-scale topographic relief, and 5) deposition of a subaerial to shallow-marine elastic wedge that was shed from these uplifted areas. Reconstructions of the paleogeography and tectonic history of the Alexander terrane during Ordovician through Devonian time reveal that: 1) the eastern (Annette) and western (Craig) subterranes of the Alexander terrane are part of the same tectonic fragment, 2) the deformational fabrics in Paleozoic rocks in the southern part of the terrane are primarily Late Silurian-Early Devonian in age, and not a product of the Late Cretaceous accretion of the terrane, and 3) northeastern Chichagof Island may have been adjacent to southern Prince of Wales Island during Silurian-Devonian time, which suggests that the Chatham Strait fault and related fault systems may have approximately 350 km of post-Devonian right-slip displacement

In search for the missing arc root of the Southern California Batholith: P-T-t evolution of upper mantle xenoliths of the Colorado Plateau Transition Zone

Xenolith and seismic studies provide evidence for tectonic erosion and eastward displacement of lower crust-subcontinental mantle lithosphere (LC-SCML) underlying the Mojave Desert Region (i.e. southern California batholith (SCB)). Intensified traction associated with the Late Cretaceous flattening of the subducting Farallon plate, responsible for deforming the SW U.S., likely played a key role in “bulldozing” the tectonically eroded LC-SCML ∼500 km eastwards, to underneath the Colorado Plateau Transition Zone (CPTZ) and further inboard. The garnet clinopyroxenite xenoliths from two CPTZ localities, Chino Valley and Camp Creek (central Arizona), provide a rare glimpse of the material underlying the CPTZ. Thermodynamic modeling, in addition to major and trace element thermobarometry, suggests that the xenoliths experienced peak conditions of equilibration at 600-900 °C and 12-28 kbar. These peak conditions, along with the composition of the xenoliths (type “B” garnet and diopsidic clinopyroxene) strongly suggest a continental arc residue (“arclogite”), rather than a lower plate subduction (“eclogite”), origin. A bimodal zircon U-Pb age distribution with peaks at ca. 75 and 150 Ma, and a Jurassic Sm-Nd garnet age (154 ± 16 Ma, with initial εNd value of +8) overlaps eastern SCB pluton ages and suggests a consanguineous relationship. Cenozoic zircon U-Pb ages, REE geochemistry of zircon grains, and partially re-equilibrated Sm-Nd garnet ages indicate that displaced arclogite remained at elevated PT conditions (>700 °C) for 10s of Myr following its dispersal until late Oligocene entrainment in host latite. With a ∼100 Myr long thermal history overlapping that of the SCB and the CPTZ, these assemblages also contain evidence for late-stage hydration (e.g. secondary amphibole), potentially driven by de-watering of the Laramide slab. In light of these results, we suggest that the CPTZ arclogite originates from beneath the eastern half of the SCB, where it began forming in Late Jurassic time as mafic keel to continental arc magmas. The displacement and re-affixation of the arclogites further inboard during the Late Cretaceous flat slab subduction, might have contributed to the tectonic stability of the Colorado Plateau relative to adjacent geologic provinces through Laramide time and likely preconditioned the region to Cenozoic tectonism, e.g. present-day delamination beneath the plateau, high-magnitude extension and formation of metamorphic core complexes

Wastewater disposal and earthquake swarm activity at the southern end of the Central Valley, California

Fracture and fault zones can channel fluid flow and transmit injection-induced pore pressure changes over large distances (>km), at which seismicity is rarely suspected to be human induced. We use seismicity analysis and hydrogeological models to examine the role of seismically active faults in inducing earthquakes. We analyze a potentially injection-induced earthquake swarm with three events above M4 near the White Wolf fault (WWF). The swarm deviates from classic main aftershock behavior, exhibiting uncharacteristically low Gutenberg-Richter b of 0.6, and systematic migration patterns. Some smaller events occurred southeast of the WWF in an area of several disposal wells, one of which became active just 5 months before the main swarm activity. Hydrogeological modeling revealed that wastewater disposal likely contributed to seismicity via localized pressure increase along a seismically active fault. Our results suggest that induced seismicity may remain undetected in California without detailed analysis of local geologic setting, seismicity, and fluid diffusion

Marine Volcaniclastic Record of Early Arc Evolution in the Eastern Ritter Range Pendant, Central Sierra Nevada, California

Marine volcaniclastic rocks in the Sierra Nevada preserve a critical record of silicic magmatism in the early Sierra Nevada volcanic arc, and this magmatic record provides precise minimum age constraints on subduction inception and tectonic evolution of the early Mesozoic Cordilleran convergent margin at this latitude. New zircon Pb/U ages from the Ritter Range pendant and regional correlations indicate arc inception no later than mid‐Triassic time between 37 and 38°N. The regional first‐order felsic magma eruption rate as recorded by marine volcanic arc rocks was episodic, with distinct pulses of ignimbrite emplacement at ca. 221 to 216 Ma and 174 to 167 Ma. Ignimbrites range from dacite to rhyolite in bulk composition, and are petrographically similar to modern arc‐type, monotonous intermediate dacite or phenocryst‐poor, low‐silica rhyolite. Zircon trace element geochemistry indicates that Jurassic silicic melts were consistently Ti‐ and light rare earth‐enriched and U‐depleted in comparison to Triassic melts of the juvenile arc, suggesting Jurassic silicic melts were hotter, drier, and derived from distinct lithospheric sources not tapped in the juvenile stage of arc construction. Pulses of ignimbrite deposition were coeval with granodioritic to granitic components of the underlying early Mesozoic Sierra Nevada batholith, suggesting explosive silicic volcanism and batholith construction were closely coupled at one‐ to two‐million‐year time scales