Superposition of two kinematically distinct extensional phases in southern Death Valley: Implications for extensional tectonics

Geologic mapping in southern Death Valley, California, demonstrates Mesozoic contractional structures overprinted by two phases of Neogene extension and contemporaneous strike-slip deformation. The Mesozoic folding is most evident in the middle unit of the Noonday Formation, and these folds are cut by a complex array of Neogene faults. The oldest identified Neogene faults primarily displace Neoproterozoic units as young as the Johnnie Formation. However, in the northernmost portion of the map area, they displace rocks as young as the Stirling Quartzite. Such faults are seen in the northern Ibex Hills and con­sist of currently low- to moderate-angle, E-NE– dipping normal faults, which are folded about a SW-NE–trending axis. We interpret these low-angle faults as the product of an early, NE-SW extension related to kinematically similar deformation recognized to the south of the study area. The folding of the faults postdates at least some of the extension, indicating a component of syn-exten­sional shortening that is probably strike-slip related. Approximately EW-striking sinistral faults are mapped in the northern Saddlepeak Hills. However, these faults are kinematically incompatible with the folding of the low-angle faults, suggesting that folding is related to the younger, NW-SE extension seen in the Death Valley region. Other faults in the map area include NW- and NE-striking, high-angle normal faults that crosscut the currently low-angle faults. Also, a major N-S–striking, oblique-slip fault bounds the eastern flank of the Ibex Hills with slickenlines showing rakes of <30°, which together with the map pattern, suggests dextral-oblique movement along the east front of the range. The exact timing of the normal faulting in the map area is hampered by the lack of geochronology in the region. However, based on the map relationships, we find that the older extensional phase predates an angular unconformity between a volcanic and/or sedimentary succession assumed to be 12–14 Ma based on correlations to dated rocks in the Owlshead Mountains and overlying rock-avalanche deposits with associated sedimentary rocks that we correlate to deposits in the Amargosa Chaos to the north, dated at 11–10 Ma. The mechanism behind the folding of the northern Ibex Hills, including the low- angle faults, is not entirely clear. However, transcurrent systems have been proposed to explain extension-parallel folding in many extensional terranes, and the geometry of the Ibex Hills is consistent with these models. Collectively, the field data support an old hypothesis by Troxel et al. (1992) that an early period of SW-NE extension is prominent in the southern Death Valley region. The younger NW-SE extension has been well documented just to the north in the Black Mountains, but the potential role of this earlier extension is unknown given the complexity of the younger deformation. In any case, the recognition of earlier SW-NE extension in the up-dip position of the Black Mountains detachment system indicates important questions remain on how that system should be reconstructed. Collectively, our observations provide insight into the stratigraphy of the Ibex Pass basin and its relationship to the extensional history of the region. It also highlights the role of transcurrent deformation in an area that has transitioned from extension to transtension.

Chapter 34: The Paleoproterozoic (Rhyacian) Gold Deposits of West Africa

Paleoproterozoic terranes of the Man-Leo Shield in the southern part of the West African craton host one of the world’s largest gold provinces with an overall endowment >10,000 metric tons (t). Although gold deposition commenced by ca. 2170 Ma, most deposits formed later, either during the inversion and metamorphism of intraorogenic sedimentary basins between ca. 2110 and 2095 Ma, or during later transcurrent deformation and associated widespread high K plutonism following docking of Archean and Paleoproterozoic domains within the craton at ca. 2095 Ma. Deposits formed between ca. 2110 and 2095 Ma include those with free gold in quartz veins and refractory gold in arsenopyrite and/or pyrite, and are associated with halos of carbonate, sericite, chlorite, and albite alteration. Most are located in bends and intersections between shear zones, minor faults, folds, and entrained blocks of relatively reactive igneous rock. Conglomerate-hosted gold deposits of the Tarkwa district formed early in the 15-m.y.-long period. Gold deposits that formed subsequently between ca. 2095 and 2060 Ma have a wider variety of styles, geologic settings, and metal assemblages. District-scale albite, carbonate, and tourmaline alteration, hydrothermal breccias, and a close relationship to high K granitoids characterize some of these deposits, whereas others are more typical orogenic gold deposits that are similar to those formed earlier during the craton evolution.

Terrane accretion in the internal zone of the Ungava orogen, northern Quebec. Part 2: Structural and metamorphic history

The tectonic history of the early Proterozoic Ungava orogen is marked by structural–metamorphic episodes that both predate and postdate a collision between a magmatic arc terrane and the northern continental margin of the Superior Province. Distinct precollisional tectonic histories are documented for the rocks forming the lower plate of the Ungava orogen (the Archean Superior Province basement and an Early Proterozoic rift-to-drift margin sequence) and the orogenic upper plate (Early Proterozoic ophiolitic and magmatic arc units). The lower-plate units preserved in the external part of the orogen (Cape Smith Thrust Belt) record the development of a foreland thrust belt characterized by south-verging faults ramping up from a basal décollement located at the basement–cover contact. The plutonic core of the magmatic arc contains structures and metamorphic assemblages indicative of an episode of dextral transcurrent deformation contemporaneous with granulite-facies metamorphism and arc plutonism. The "tectonically suspect" ophiolitic and arc units were accreted to the thrust belt along south-verging faults, which reimbricated the foreland thrust belt and which resulted in at least 100 km of displacement of upper-plate units with respect to the autochthonous basement. Collisional thickening and consequent exhumation resulted in relatively high-pressure, greenschist- to amphibolite-facies metamorphism of lower-plate cover units, and in the retrogression of high-grade assemblages in the arc rocks. Postaccretion shortening resulted in folding of both the allochthonous rocks and the footwall basement.

Evidence from aeromagnetics on the configuration of Matachewan dykes and the tectonic evolution of the Kapuskasing Structural Zone, Ontario, Canada

By digital image processing of federal–provincial aeromagnetic survey data for the south-central Superior Province, we have obtained an improved picture of the distribution of dykes in the huge Matachewan mafic dyke swarm (2454 Ma). We deduce from it a picture of post-emplacement deformation in the vicinity of the uplifted granulite gneisses of the Kapuskasing Structural Zone (KSZ). Matachewan dykes are emplaced in three subswarms. The two easterly subswarms are clearly truncated by the KSZ's eastern boundary faults. The western subswarm shows an open Z-bend as it crosses the KSZ, but it does not reveal any major fault offset. On the plausible assumption (supported by paleomagnetic data) that the subswarms were originally intruded radially, the horizontal strain suffered by the KSZ since emplacement of the dykes is mainly a northeast–southwest-trending band of dextral transcurrent deformation, which in the northeast is discontinuous and concentrated in a fault (horizontal offset 60–80 km) and in the southwest widens through a series of horsetail splays into an ~80 km wide zone of distributed strain. The KSZ is believed to have formed by a major, crustal-scale, thrust uplift along the KSZ's southeastern margin. Some thrusting is recorded by the dyke pattern, but this can account for only part of the ~20 km of differential uplift seen in the KSZ. Most likely, the mainly transcurrent deformation recorded by the dykes is a secondary event, and the primary period of thrust uplift predated dyke injection.

Compositional variation in Lower Old Red Sandstone detrital garnets from the Midland Valley of Scotland and the Anglo-Welsh Basin

Compositional variation in Lower Old Red Sandstone (ORS) detrital garnets can be used to evaluate potential source areas and to trace the pattern of early Devonian sediment dispersal. Garnets in northwesterly derived fans along the northern flank of the Midland Valley appear to duplicate spatial variation in the compositions of garnets in the adjacent Dalradian block. Whilst metamorphic clasts ‘resembling’ Dalradian lithologies occur in these fanglomerates, the strike-extent of Dalradian-type crust (c. 1000 km) makes simply matching the clasts a rather imprecise way of constraining source–basin displacement. The garnet data imply that the Ordovician separation inferred for crustal blocks juxtaposed along the Highland Boundary was removed by early Devonian times. Major Silurian displacements are thus invoked along the Highland Boundary with amalgamation largely achieved prior to the ‘Acadian’ transcurrent deformation seen in the slate belts to the south. Vertical changes in the composition of garnets in the thick Lower ORS sequence in the northeast Midland Valley are slight and it is not known to what extent these reflect migration of a differentiated source block or the involvement of recycled additions which become increasingly important towards the base of the ORS succession. The axially dispersed sandstones which interdigitate with the northwesterly derived fans are dominated by spessartine-rich almandines which resemble garnets fed laterally to the basin in the northwest Midland Valley. Although the large scale inferred for the axial fluvial system suggests that its drainage basin extended outside Scotland, almandine-pyropes which might have come from exhumed eclogites in western Norway are absent. Such compositions are widespread in Mesozoic sandstones in the northern North Sea and it is evident that these sediments do not represent the final repository for the 'lost' sediment stripped from Caledonian metamorphic terranes in Scotland. Garnet populations from the Anglo-Welsh Basin do not resemble those in the coeval axial sandstones of the Midland Valley, suggesting that the two basins were not linked at this time. The scale of the Midland Valley axial sandbodies are inconsistent with internal drainage of central Scotland and a route to the early Devonian shoreline must be sought. It may be that 'Acadian' strike-slip motions have displaced the Scottish basins from the coastal alluvial plains they originally fed.