Structural history of continental volcanic arc rocks, eastern Sierra Nevada, California: A case for extensional tectonics

Mesozoic metavolcanic rocks forming part of the continental volcanic arc along the eastern Sierra Nevada near Mt. Goddard and in the Ritter Range show a complex history related to extensional tectonics. The rocks comprise a thick section of tuffs, breccias, lava flows, sills, and ash-flow tuffs deposited in a subaerial to subaqueous environment, with some subvolcanic sill-like plutons. Pb/U ages of the rocks in the Mt, Goddard area range from ca. 130–160 Ma, while rocks in the Ritter Range have a somewhat wider age range as reported previously. Repetition of the section occurs by faulting, and with the exception of parts of the mid-Cretaceous Minarets Caldera, all the volcanic rocks show a regional slaty cleavage which was subsequently crenulated and/or folded locally. The first cleavage has well-developed stretching lineations, and does not appear to have been associated with significant folding. Finite strain measurements show considerable variation both in magnitude and symmetry. The Mt. Goddard rocks, however, tend to show slightly higher overall strain magnitude and greater constrictional component than the Ritter Range for rocks of comparable age. Calculations based on the strain data suggest the Mt. Goddard section has been thinned by about 50% normal to bedding, much as that documented previously for rocks in the Ritter Range. Deformation within this part of the continental arc was originally thought to have formed by regional compression during the late Jurassic (Nevadan) orogeny. However, our study indicates that (1) parts of the deformed volcanic section are younger than late Jurassic, (2) Nevadan-age breaks in deposition are not present, (3) large-scale folds expected during a regional compression event are not common, and (4) the beds were tilted to a high dip prior to internal deformation. An extensional model is proposed in which beds were rotated to high tilts early in the deformation as a result of listric normal faulting. This normal faulting is thought to have occurred above a regional tumescence related to voluminous magmatism at depth, with preservation of the steeply tilted Goddard and Ritter sections being facilitated by their downward transport along the margins of rising plutons. Flattening and steeply plunging constrictional fabrics superimposed on the tilted sections are related to strain induced by high-level inflation of magma chambers and downward return flow of the keellike pendants. The main tectonic fabric shown by the continental volcanic arc rocks in the eastern Sierra Nevada is largely of Cretaceous age, rather than Jurassic (Nevadan) as originally supposed. In addition, the deformation, both rotation of beds and subsequent tectonite fabric, appears to be genetically related to the dynamic evolution of the magmatic arc, and not the result of an externally imposed tectonic event

Paleotectonic and paleogeographic significance of the Calaveras Complex, western Sierra Nevada, California

The Calaveras Complex of the western Sierra Nevada, as defined here, consists of a 375 km long, 35 km wide belt of metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks, bounded on the west by the Melones fault zone and Kings-Kaweah suture, and on the east by the Sierra Nevada batholith. The Calaveras Complex forms a continuous northwest-trending belt between the Placerville area and the Merced River area. South of the Merced River the belt extends in numerous roof pendants at least as far south as the Tule River. A sequence of four lithologic units is recognized, each of which is thousands of meters thick. Precise original stratigraphic thicknesses cannot be measured because of intense soft-sediment and post-consolidation deformation. The lowest unit consists of mafic pillow lava, breccia, tuff, and argilllte, and may represent layer 2 of oceanic crust. This basal unit is overlain by a predominantly chaotic unit of argillite with variable amounts of chert and siltstone often occurring as clasts in a diamictite. Olistoliths of shallow water limestone are locally an important component of this argillite unit. The overlying chert unit contains abundant large olistoliths of rhythmically bedded chert and locally important limestone olistoliths in a matrix of streaky argillite and diamictite. The highest unit included within the Calaveras Complex contains abundant, well-bedded quartzite with abundant interbedded olistostromes containing quartzite clasts and limes tone olistoliths. Fossils from limestone olistoliths reported here indicate a maximum Permo-Carboniferous age for the upper part of the argillite unit, and a maximum late Permian age for the over lying chert unit. Published fossil data indicate the upper parts of the quartzite unit are late Triassic to early Jurassic. The argillite and chert units apparently comprise numerous olistostromes that accumulated on oceanic crust in a marginal basin that was broad enough to have been relatively free of elastic detritus derived from the basin margins. Olistostromes apparently were shed from tectonically elevated areas within the marginal basin that were denuded of their pelagic and hemi pelagic cover. The quartzite unit may represent an early Mesozoic northwestward progradation of mature continent-derived sand across the western end of the late Paleozoic marginal basin. The marginal basin is considered to have been situated between the Cordilleran miogeocline to the southeast and a volcanic arc terrane to the northwest. The late Paleozoic Havallah sequence of north-central Nevada is believed to have accumulated in the same marginal basin. The Melones fault zone and Kings-Kaweah suture represent a zone of early Mesozoic tectonic truncation a long which the Calaveras Complex is juxtaposed against upper Paleozoic ophiolitic rocks and Jurassic volcanic and epiclastic rocks. Thus, we infer that the Calaveras Complex represents the westernmost exposure of the late Paleozoic marginal basin

Deformation resulting from regional extension during pluton ascent and emplacement, central Sierra Nevada, California

Solid-state foliation, lineation, small-scale folds and domainal shear zones have developed in preexisting granitic and minor metasedimentary wallrock during a combined deformation involving a regional extensional strain and ascent and emplacement of the Mt Givens pluton (MGP). Mylonite is common throughout much of the ∼1–2 km wide, 10 km long shear zone, with ultramylonite best developed near the contact with the MGP, which itself lacks significant solid-state deformation. Migmatization accompanies ultramylonite formation in the northern half of the zone, but both these features are poorly developed or absent in its southern half where the shear zone is distributed over a wider area. Strain estimates across the shear zone using microgranitic enclaves as markers show a positive gradient and an increasing ratio of simple shear/pure shear towards the MGP. Microprobe analyses on hornblende and plagioclase yield pressure and temperature estimates of ∼3.5 kb and ∼680°C respectively, during shear zone formation, at least at its late stages of development. Zircon Pb/U and ^(40)Ar/^(39)Ar ages constrain timing of the high-temperature movement on the shear zone to ∼90 Ma, essentially the age of the MGP, although movement immediately prior to that time appears likely. We speculate that a regional extensional shear zone was developing prior to the emplacement of the MGP, which, as it ascended, heated the wallrock facilitating both further strain in the zone as well as buoyant rise of the pluton along the zone. The MGP was near its critical melt fraction during the last several kilometers (?) of its ascent, and could have possessed sufficient viscosity (strength) to impose a weak shear strain on the shear zone rocks, although most of the foliation and extensional features in the zone are probably related to the regional strain field. Late-stage folding of the foliation is attributed to shouldering aside of the wallrock by the MGP during the last increment of its ascent and final emplacement

Isotopic systematics of Pb/U (zircon) and ^(40)Ar/^(39)Ar (biotite-hornblende) from rocks of the central Foothills terrane, Sierra Nevada, California

Pb/U zircon and ^(40)Ar/^(39)Ar biotite-horn-blende studies in conjunction with detailed structural and textural studies clarify the age and structural relations of a unique cluster of plutons in the central Sierra Nevada western metamorphic belt. The plutons range from gabbro to tonalite/trondhjemite and include the Guadalupe Igneous Complex. Magmatic emplacement ages for the plutons are for the most part between ∼150 and ∼145 m.y., as recorded in both the zircon and hornblende isotopic systems. Additional ages of 138 and 123 m.y. were determined on small plutons having key structural settings. In general, the Pb/U and ^(40)Ar/^(39)Ar isotopic systems are well behaved. Second-order complications are locally present in the Pb/U systems, owing to the entrainment of older zircon from wall rocks, and in ^(40)Ar/^(39)Ar systems, owing to minor compositional differences in mica and amphibole phases. The age data and structural relations of the plutons in conjunction with ^(40)Ar/^(39)Ar metamorphic wall-rock biotite and hornblende age data constrain regional ductile deformation in the study area to have occurred between ∼150 and ∼125 Ma. Such deformation was accompanied by upper greenschist- to lower amphibolite-facies metamorphism and is at least in part closely related to pluton emplacement. Such deformation and metamorphism has in the past been attributed to the Late Jurassic Nevadan orogeny. This study shows clearly, however, that ductile deformation and metamorphism in the study area are post-Nevadan if modern concepts of the Nevadan orogeny are strictly adopted

Variations in deformation fields during development of a large-volume magmatic arc, central Sierra Nevada, California

Mid- to Late Cretaceous plutons in the central Sierra Nevada magmatic arc show widely preserved magmatic foliation, whereas regionally developed solid-state foliation is absent. Relatively slow cooling of these plutons and expected strain rates (10^(−14)) suggest that the plutons were emplaced in a neutral or weakly extensional deformation regime. Domains of solid-state ductile shear of only slightly younger age than the plutons, on the other hand, indicate a contractional regime. Timing of pluton emplacement and movement on the shear zones have been constrained using Pb-U (zircon) and ^(40)Ar/^(39)Ar (hornblende and biotite) geochronology. Both plutons and ductile shear zones become younger toward the east. The four more westerly shear zones, which were active between ca. 100 and 90 Ma, show steeply plunging stretching lineations, whereas the most easterly and/or youngest zones, active between ca. 88 and 78 Ma, show mostly oblique and/or subhorizontal stretching lineations, indicating a change in kinematics at ca. 90 Ma. The above events define a complex deformation pattern in which strain regimes fluctuated in time and space between neutral or weak extensional and contractional. We propose a tectonic model in which thenospheric mantle corner flow produced eddy pairs in the mantle corner that transmitted a neutral or weak extensional regime to the overlying crust and facilitated the movement of granitic magma to mid- and upper levels, probably as dikes via fractures. Slab flattening caused the neutral or weak extensional regime to move eastward away from the trench. Increased coupling between upper and lower plates induced by the slab flattening promoted contractional strain in the cooling plutons, and domains of ductile shear formed in progressively younger plutons to the east. The above events were accompanied by an oblique convergence vector between North America and Farallon plates (Engebretson et al., 1985), which imposed a relatively small component of right-lateral shear onto the arc that increased with time. We estimate that at ca. 100 Ma the convergence vector made an angle (Φ_(obl)) ≈ 20° to the arc normal, and we suggest that around ca. 90 Ma Φ_(obl) passed through a critical value, conceivably (20° < Φ_(oblcrit) < 30°). At this juncture, the component of right-lateral shear became sufficiently large to induce significant arc-parallel strike-slip movement on the most easterly shear zones; these kinematics continued as the dominant scheme, possibly as late as ca. 78 Ma

Steep tilting of metavolcanic rocks by multiple mechanisms, central Sierra Nevada, California

For ∼200 km along the eastern Sierra Nevada continental magmatic arc, Mesozoic metavolcanogenic rocks dip steeply to the southwest (∼80°), a feature that must reflect fundamental processes in magmatic-arc construction. Although tight folds can account for such steep bedding tilts, folds in the metavolcanogenic sections are sparse and small scale. We propose that the high bedding tilts were produced by a combination of thrusting, downward displacement, and ductile deformation of the beds. The last two processes accompanied emplacement of the Sierra Nevada batholith. The Ritter Range pendant lies within this ∼200 km belt and provides a relatively large and well exposed Mesozoic volcanic section ranging in age from Late Triassic to mid–Cretaceous. Detailed mapping and ages from U-Pb zircon dates and fossils within the volcanic section reveal five structural blocks (I–V) that are separated by bedding-parallel thrusts, some of which are cryptic. To explain the present difference in bedding orientations between blocks III and IV, we suggest that the thrusting may have had a duplex geometry, which produced a maximum bedding dip of ∼45° in some blocks. Downward displacement of wall rock and ductile strain account for the remaining ∼35° of the observed average bedding dip (∼80°SW). The exact time of thrusting and duplex formation of Late Triassic to Early Jurassic rocks in blocks I–IV is uncertain, but these structures developed either (1) between 105 and 164 Ma, well before the other rotational processes were active, or (2) mostly around 105 Ma, and closer to the time when other rotational processes were active. Much of the subsequent (ca. 91–76 Ma) bedding tilting is related to downward displacement of beds associated with the emplacement of voluminous Late Cretaceous plutons, and to regional ductile deformation of the wall rocks during that period: the majority of the tilting probably took place between ca. 91 and 86 Ma. Bedding tilts of early to mid-Cretaceous rocks in blocks IV and V is bracketed between ca. 98 and ca. 90 Ma. Comparisons with metavolcanic sections to the northwest near Tioga Pass and to the southeast in the Mount Morrison, Mount Goddard and Oak Creek pendants, suggest that bedding rotation by thrusting(?), downward displacement and ductile strain of wall rock may explain the steep dips along this entire ∼200 km segment of the continental arc. Similar mechanisms may operate at midcrustal levels in other continental arcs