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Geochemical transition from Miocene–Pliocene to Quaternary arc volcanism in the northern Sierra Nevada, California
ABSTRACT Miocene–Pliocene volcanism around Lake Tahoe, California/Nevada, USA, part of the Southern Ancestral Cascades arc, ceased at around 3 Ma as the southern edge of the subducting Juan de Fuca plate migrated north of the region. Post–3 Ma, arc volcanism continued north of Lake Tahoe, but modern subduction and arc volcanism now occur only north of the Lassen volcanic center. Miocene–Pliocene Tahoe arc lavas appear to include an older mantle source component that is not common in Quaternary Lassen arc rocks. The goal of this work was to investigate how magma sources and/or volcanic processes transitioned in the northern Sierra Nevada between Lake Tahoe and Lassen. The Sierra Nevada between Lake Tahoe and Lassen, or the North Sierra segment of the Ancestral Cascades, includes eroded remnants of Ancestral Cascades volcanic rocks, including lava flow complexes, intrusions, and landslide/debris-flow deposits. Lava samples from the North Sierra segment include calc-alkaline basalts to dacites, with rare rhyolites. All North Sierra segment lavas exhibit normalized incompatible-element patterns with negative Nb, Ta, and Ti anomalies and positive Pb, Sr, and Ba anomalies. The North Sierra segment is geochemically split into two parts: a northern group including lavas from the Susanville area, and a southern group consisting of arc rocks from the Portola, Sierraville, Henness Pass, and Sagehen areas. With the exception of the Sagehen area, the North Sierra segment shows little variation in radiogenic isotope ratios with SiO 2 , indicating that assimilation of crustal rocks was outweighed by liquid-crystal crystallization during magma evolution. Trace-element and isotopic ratios in mafic rocks of the northern group are more typical of Lassen area Quaternary volcanic rocks, whereas those of southern group mafic rocks are more typical of Miocene–Pliocene arc lavas of the Lake Tahoe area. The isotopic distinction between Lassen-like and Tahoe-like arc lavas is likely controlled by basement age and lithology, where Lassen-like magmas were derived largely by mantle wedge melting and Tahoe-like magmas were primarily partial melts of metasomatized Sierran lithospheric mantle. The Susanville area represents the “transition zone” between these two geochemically distinct primary magma sources.
ABSTRACT Hafnium isotope ratios in Late Jurassic zircon from the Summit Gabbro provide geochemical evidence for rifting at ca. 148 Ma through the southern Sierra Nevada arc crust. Previous evidence for intra-arc extension includes a linear distribution of early Mesozoic volcano-sedimentary deposits located within the regional footprint of the ~600-km-long Independence dike swarm. In this study, latest Jurassic rifting through the entire thickness of the arc crust is supported by an abrupt, 40-εHf i -unit isotopic pull-up that records the incorporation of depleted-mantle partial melts into basaltic magmas that rapidly migrated into the upper arc crust. Isotopic context for this latest Jurassic pull-up is provided by Permian through Cretaceous zircon xenocrysts sampled by ca. 85–78 Ma dikes and sills that sampled the crust underlying the eastern Sierra Nevada range crest. Summit Gabbro bodies define a northwest-trending lineament paralleling the Kern Plateau shear zone, a geometry consistent with previous interpretations that the Kern Plateau shear zone originated as a late Paleozoic sinistral transform fault that evolved to a normal fault accommodating early Mesozoic intra-arc extension. New zircon U-Pb geochronology data coupled with field observations and whole-rock geochemistry serve as the basis to reclassify Summit gabbros and diorites as latest Jurassic and to motivate definition of the bimodal Summit igneous complex (151.0 ± 1.7–146.1 ± 1.2 Ma; N = 15) as also including coeval gabbro-granite dikes of the Osa Creek ring complex and the newly defined Tübatulabal hypabyssal-volcanic series. Tight age constraints support correlation of the Summit igneous complex to the regionally extensive, ca. 148 Ma Independence dike swarm. Multiple lines of evidence support latest Jurassic Sierran arc magmagenesis within a north-northwest–trending, sinistral transtensional regime, including: (1) subparallel orientations of the Independence dike swarm and aligned Summit Gabbro intrusions; (2) overlapping and bimodal compositions in both suites; and (3) the dramatic Hf isotope pull-up in zircons from Summit gabbro-diorites, recording a short-lived increase in the proportion of isotopically primitive mafic magmas intruding into the shallow arc crust. Though clearly differentiated, the composition of one gabbroic dike is the most primitive composition reported in the Sierra Nevada arc to date. The footprint of an intra-arc graben produced by early Mesozoic extension in eastern California is constrained by the Independence dike swarm, the Kern Plateau shear zone, and the Summit igneous complex, along with distributions of Triassic–Jurassic volcano-sedimentary deposits. Coupling the history of motion along the Kern Plateau shear zone with evidence for local extension beginning in the Permian–Triassic arc, we hypothesize that Mesozoic intra-arc faulting was strongly influenced by north-northwest–trending structures inherited from a mid- to late Paleozoic sinistral transpressional-transtensional plate boundary that extended for thousands of kilometers along the western boundary of Laurentia. We assemble a Permian–Jurassic time line of intra-arc extension within the plate margin locally transitioning from sinistral transform to convergent, one that culminated in latest Jurassic rifting through the entire crust underlying the Kern Plateau.
ABSTRACT The volcanic stratigraphy of the central Gulf of California margin of the Baja California peninsula preserves a valuable record of the transition from subduction of the Farallon plate (24–12 Ma) to oblique rifting (<12 Ma). Although strike-slip faults (as well as normal faults) are common in oblique rifts and are abundant on the new (younger than 6 Ma) seafloor in the Gulf of California, none has been previously reported in the onshore central Baja California margin. This study focused on a previously unmapped region in the central Baja California margin near Mulegé, where we identified a strike-slip fault, termed the Potrero fault, and described the regional magmatic and structural context for this fault. We did this by using geologic mapping of volcanic-volcaniclastic lithofacies, supported by petrography, geochemistry, and 40Ar/39Ar geochronology. The Potrero fault is a vertical fault that strikes N10°W, with dextral-oblique (down-to-the-east) slip. This fault juxtaposes older rocks on the west with younger rocks on the east. The older rocks on the west side of the Potrero fault are assigned to the Middle Comondú Group, which is early Miocene in age. They consist largely of a >800 m red bed sequence of coarse-grained andesitic volcanic debris-flow deposits (proximal facies) that transition westward into fluvial conglomerates and sandstones (distal facies). The proximal facies has interstratified coarse-grained trachyandesite block-and-ash-flow tuffs with a 40Ar/39Ar age of 18.72 ± 0.24 Ma. This section is cut by mafic- to intermediate-composition dikes, with lesser plugs, that have 40Ar/39Ar ages of 16.88 ± 0.30 Ma to 14.85 ± 0.05 Ma. This early Miocene assemblage is truncated by an angular unconformity and overlain by Pliocene high-Sr/Y trachyandesite lavas, with an 40Ar/39Ar age of 4.02 ± 0.04 Ma. The younger rocks on the east side of the Potrero fault are assigned to the Upper Comondú Group, which is middle to late Miocene in age. This unit is dominated by small lava shields, with diameters of 2–9 km and thicknesses up to 300 m. The lava shields have basaltic andesite, basaltic trachyandesite, andesite, high-Sr/Y trachyandesite, and dacite compositions, with 40Ar/39Ar ages of 13.39 ± 0.03 Ma to 10.74 ± 0.08 Ma (four samples). At two localities in the map area, the Upper Comondú Group lava shields rest in angular unconformity on the Middle Comondú Group red beds and dikes, and the eruptive equivalents of the dikes are missing along this unconformity. We correlated this unconformity with the unconformity at the top of the Middle Comondú Group on the west side of the Potrero fault to estimate a vertical component of slip of at least 800 m down-to-the-east across the Potrero fault. The lateral component of slip is not known, because the regions to the north and south are unmapped, so piercing points cannot be identified. The Middle Comondú Group in the Mulegé–La Trinidad area forms part of a regionally extensive, early Miocene lithostratigraphic unit, hundreds of meters thick, that outcrops for a distance of 500 km along the central to southern Gulf of California margin. It thickens and coarsens eastward, through what is now the Concepción Peninsula, where it also contains early Miocene dikes and hypabyssal intrusions and is similarly capped by an angular unconformity, with eruptive equivalents of the dikes and intrusions missing along the unconformity. We propose that the laterally extensive Middle Comondú Group was deposited in a rift basin, bounded by a west-dipping normal fault system that lay to the east of what is now the Concepción Peninsula, in the present-day offshore Gulf of California. We infer that the thick, coarse-grained volcanic andesitic debris-flow deposits of the Middle Comondú Group were shed from large andesite arc stratovolcanoes (Comondú arc) that also lay to the east in the present-day Gulf of California. We interpret the volumetrically minor block-and-ash-flow tuffs, dikes, and hypabyssal intrusions of the Middle Comondú Group to record minor magmatism in a forearc position. We also suggest that the angular unconformity at the top of the Middle Comondú Group records thermal uplift that occurred as the arc axis swept westward (trenchward) into the region, at ca. 14 Ma, due to continued slab rollback that began in the Oligocene under western Mexico. The Upper Comondú Group lavas in the Mulegé–La Trinidad area form part of a Middle to Upper Miocene lithostratigraphic unit, hundreds of meters thick, which outcrops for a distance of 700 km along the central to southern Gulf of California margin. This unit consists largely of andesite and basaltic andesite lavas erupted from stratovolcanoes in the axis of the Comondú arc. The Upper Comondú Group lavas thicken dramatically eastward toward the Bahía Concepción fault, a down-to-the-west normal fault that bounds the Concepción Peninsula on its west side. We thus infer that this fault became active in middle Miocene time (14 Ma). This fault records westward encroachment of normal faulting concurrent with the westward sweep of the arc axis, from the Gulf of California into Baja California. The Pliocene high-Sr/Y basaltic trachyandesite lavas that form the structurally highest part of the Mulegé–La Trinidad area form an erosional escarpment that does not extend to the Potrero fault, so the lavas cannot be used to determine whether the Potrero fault was active before, during, or after their eruption. The Pliocene high-Sr/Y basaltic trachyandesite lavas are a previously unidentified part of the regional postsubduction suite of “bajaites,” attributed to slab window magmatism.
ABSTRACT A plethora of fauna and flora of uncertain age was recently discovered in fluvial sedimentary rocks of the Mokelumne River drainage of the western Sierra Nevada foothills (California, USA). These fossils are preserved in the Mokelumne paleochannel and show great biodiversity containing mastodon, gomphothere, camel, rhino, horse, dog, rodent, mustelid, tapir, peccary, tortoise, turtle, fish, bird, and abundant tree fossils. Prior to this study, biochronology loosely constrained the age of the fossils to 15–5 Ma and the stratigraphy to either the Valley Springs Formation or Mehrten Formation. This project sampled a fossiliferous stratigraphic section for detrital zircons and used UPb laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry isotopic dating to establish the most probable age of the fossils at 8.2 ± 0.1 Ma (late Miocene). This age is consistent with UPb detrital zircon ages on samples taken from below and above the fossils, which bracket the depositional age of the fossils to younger than 8.23 ± 0.08 Ma and older than 7.24 ± 0.07 Ma, respectively. The detrital zircons were likely sourced from contemporaneous Ancestral Cascades arc volcanism that occurred uppaleochannel, near the present-day Sierra Nevada range crest.
Triassic stratigraphy of the Saddlebag Lake pendant, California, USA: Implications for the character of earliest arc volcanism and the role of upper-plate lithosphere in a young-arc subduction setting
ABSTRACT Basal Triassic strata in the Saddlebag Lake pendant in the eastern Sierra Nevada, California, preserve a record of magmatism and sedimentation that marks the maturation of the early Mesozoic Cordilleran arc at this latitude. Facies analysis, geochemistry, and U-Pb geochronology provide the basis for a model that shows ways in which the types of volcanism and the geochemistry of magmatism reflect the presence and evolution of continental crust in the upper plate of a young subduction zone. Facies analysis of the breccia of Frog Lakes, an andesitic dome complex within the Saddlebag Lake pendant, demonstrates a subaqueous environment of deposition that is inferred to be characteristic of the interbedded tuff of Greenstone Lake and underlying rhyolitic tuff of Saddlebag Lake and conglomerate of Cooney Lake. This subaqueous volcanism and sedimentation suggest that subduction drag on the continental upper plate had greater effect than the buoyancy imparted by the felsic crust. Geochemistry of ignimbrites and dome deposits together with U-Pb isotopic and geochemical analyses of zircon from ignimbrites and the conglomerate of Cooney Lake and from similar-age strata from the Mount Morrison pendant to the south demonstrate the nature of upper-plate continental crust in the period between ca. 250 and ca. 220 Ma. Breccia clasts are medium-K tholeiitic arc basalt, basaltic andesite, and andesite, and they broadly overlap in bulk composition with underlying mafic hypabyssal intrusions. Minor- and trace-element geochemistry of tuff and detrital zircon grains indicates that Triassic silicic melts were relatively cool and fractionated, consistent with late zircon saturation in Zr-poor melts. We infer that the eruption and welding of thick, rhyolitic ignimbrites are, to first order, unique to magmas derived from subduction under continental crust.
ABSTRACT The Santa Rosalía basin (Baja California Sur, México) contains a rich record of late Cenozoic volcanism, faulting, and sedimentation that provides a crucial constraint on the timing of marine flooding from the Pacific Ocean into the nascent Gulf of California oblique rift, yet the precise age of the basin is uncertain. Previous studies used reconnaissance paleomagnetic data and a 40Ar/39Ar age of 6.76 ± 0.90 Ma on the intrabasinal Cinta Colorada tuff to estimate a depositional age of ca. 7.2–6.3 Ma for the marine Boleo Formation and initial flooding of the central Gulf of California. Here, we present a large (n = 2091) detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology data set from the Boleo Formation that indicates a maximum depositional age of 6.35 ± 0.21 Ma for pumiceous sandstone at the base (below the basal limestone), a revised age of 5.86 ± 0.06 Ma for the Cinta Colorada tuff in the middle, and a maximum depositional age of 5.70 ± 0.21 Ma for the top. Detrital zircon age spectra suggest a local provenance for the Boleo Formation involving recycling from underlying Oligocene–Miocene strata in proximal source areas. Integration of detrital zircon ages with existing paleomagnetic data suggests that the lower ~30 m of the Boleo Formation accumulated during normal-polarity subchron C3An.1n (6.27–6.02 Ma), and the middle to upper Boleo Formation was deposited entirely during reverse-polarity chron C3r (6.02–5.24 Ma). We therefore reassign the depositional age span of the Boleo Formation to ca. 6.3–5.7 Ma. Although not preferred, a minimum-duration depositional model from ca. 6.1 to 5.8 Ma is also permissible if a consistently high sedimentation rate of ~0.4– 1.0 mm/yr is inferred. This revised younger age for the Boleo Formation implies marine incursion in the central Gulf of California at ca. 6.3 Ma, ~1 m.y. younger than previously thought. We envision that regional marine flooding occurred during a very short (<100 k.y.) event that inundated a narrow tectonic trough over a distance of at least ~1000 km along the plate boundary from the central Gulf of California to the Salton Trough and reaching into the present-day Lower Colorado River Valley. This study also demonstrates the utility of large-volume and large-n detrital zircon studies in establishing the ages of sedimentary successions deposited over very short time spans (<1 m.y.) and/or during relative lulls in magmatism and geomagnetic reversals.
ABSTRACT Three Silurian basin fills, the Llandovery–Wenlock Croagh Patrick and Killary Harbour–Joyce Country successions and the Ludlow–Pridoli Louisburgh–Clare Island succession, overstep the tectonic contacts between elements of the Grampian (Taconic) accretionary history of the Caledonian-Appalachian orogeny in western Ireland. New U-Pb detrital zircon data from lower strata of these Silurian rocks provide insight into basin evolution and paleogeography. The shallow-marine Croagh Patrick succession unconformably overlies the Clew Bay Complex and the northern part of the Ordovician South Mayo Trough. Two samples have zircon populations dominated by Proterozoic grains typical of the Laurentian margin, with few younger grains. Up to 13% of the grains form a cluster at ca. 950–800 Ma, which is younger than known Grenville magmatism on the local Laurentian margin and older than known magmatism from Iapetan rifting; these may be recycled grains from Dalradian strata, derived from distal Tonian intrusions. The Killary Harbour–Joyce Country succession overlies the structural contact between the Lough Nafooey arc and the Connemara Dalradian block and records a transgressive-regressive cycle. Four samples of the Lough Mask Formation show contrasting age spectra. Two samples from east of the Maam Valley fault zone, one each from above Dalradian and Nafooey arc basement, are dominated by Proterozoic grains with ages typical of a Laurentian or Dalradian source, likely in north Mayo. One sample also includes 8% Silurian grains. Two samples from west of the fault overlie Dalradian basement and are dominated by Ordovician grains. Circa 450 Ma ages are younger than any preserved Ordovician rocks in the region and are inferred to represent poorly preserved arc fragments that are exposed in northeastern North America. Cambrian to late Neoproterozoic grains in association with young Ordovician ages suggest derivation from a peri-Gondwanan source in the late stages of Iapetus closure. The Louisburgh–Clare Island succession comprises terrestrial red beds. It unconformably overlies the Clew Bay Complex on Clare Island and is faulted against the Croagh Patrick succession on the mainland. The Strake Banded Formation yielded an age spectrum dominated by Proterozoic Laurentian as well as Ordovician–Silurian ages. Although the basin formed during strike-slip deformation along the Laurentian margin in Ireland and Scotland, sediment provenance is consistent with local Dalradian sources and contemporaneous volcanism. Our results support ideas that Ganderian continental fragments became part of Laurentia prior to the full closure of the Iapetus Ocean.
Front Matter
Petrology and volcanology of the Mesoproterozoic igneous rocks of the Saint Francois Mountains terrane, southeast Missouri, USA
ABSTRACT The Saint Francois Mountains are the physiographic expression of the central part of the Ozark Dome of southeastern Missouri. The mountains are made up of a quaquaversal-dipping series of Paleozoic units cored by the Mesoproterozoic-aged rocks of the broader Saint Francois Mountains terrane. The Saint Francois Mountains terrane lies within the Eastern Granite-Rhyolite province along the eastern margin of Laurentia and contains at least four mapped caldera complexes (Eminence, Lake Killarney, Butler Hill, and Taum Sauk), associated volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks, and four distinct types of intrusive units. The Mesoproterozoic rocks represent two major pulses of magmatic activity: (1) an older 1.48–1.45 Ga episode of caldera-forming volcanism and associated subvolcanic to massif-type granitic intrusions; and (2) a younger 1.33–1.28 Ga episode of bimodal intrusions. Volcanism included primarily high-silica rhyolite and volcaniclastic sediments associated with caldera-forming volcanism with lesser amounts of basalt and basaltic andesite that formed as flows and subvolcanic intrusions. The older (ca. 1.4 Ga) intrusive rocks can be divided into three broad categories: (1) granite massifs including the Butler Hill/Breadtray massif-type granites, (2) caldera ring–type granites such as the Silvermine Granite, and (4) mafic- to intermediate-composition intrusive rocks such as the Silver Mines Mafic Series. The younger (ca. 1.3 Ga) bimodal intrusions are represented by the highly evolved felsic Graniteville-types granites and the gabbros of the Skrainka Mafic Group. This field guide provides an overview of the magmatic history of the Mesoproterozoic rocks exposed in the eastern Saint Francois Mountains. Field-trip stops are divided into two days, highlighting well-known stops and lesser-known localities that illustrate the magmatic activity of one the premier igneous locations in the midcontinent region. The field trip is focused on two main areas. Day 1 focuses on the rhyolite sequence and associated caldera-forming eruption of the Taum Sauk caldera. Day 2 focuses on the volcanic rocks and granitic intrusions related to the Butler Hill caldera and ends with a visit to one of the youngest granitoids in the terrane, the Graniteville Granite. The field guide presents a summary of the volcanic history and petrogenesis of the Saint Francois Mountains rhyolites and granites.
ABSTRACT Here we present an overview of the geology of the Manhattan Prong and a specific guide for field stops in northern Central Park. This guide is intended to provide a brief introduction to these complex rocks for researchers, undergraduate students, and teachers. Given the easy access to Central Park and numerous schools and institutions nearby, these outcrops provide ideal teaching outcrops for students of all levels. We also present new geochemical and isotopic results for the Manhattan and Hartland Schists. Previous work has focused primarily on field mapping, structural relationships, or infrastructure-related mapping, whereas our new geochemistry data allow for more detailed discussions of provenance and overall tectonic history of these rocks. Our results suggest that all of the rocks in northern Central Park (regardless of mapped unit) are derived from Laurentia.
ABSTRACT Georgia’s coastline is composed of a series of short, wide, mixed-energy (tide-dominated) barrier islands, each backed by extensive marsh, topped with mobile dunes, and flanked by deep inlets. Many of the islands, particularly those along the southern Georgia coast, consist of Pleistocene cores surrounded by mobile deposits that attached during the Holocene sea-level transgression. Positioned within the head of the funnel-shaped South Atlantic Bight, tidal ranges here commonly reach ~2–3 m. As a result, inlets are numerous and the back-barrier environment hosts nearly 400,000 acres of salt marsh. Today, many of the barriers are transgressive, and hard structures such as revetments and groins are becoming increasingly more common to stabilize shorelines along the four developed islands. This field guide presents evidence of island formation, modern ecologic function, and likely future changes for three island groups: (1) Blackbeard, Cabretta, and Sapelo Islands; (2) Sea Island and St. Simons Island; and (3) Jekyll Island. The field trip provides evidence of the Pleistocene-age island cores, the natural southward migration of the mobile Holocene-age sandy shorelines, and the impacts of storm erosion and hard structures built to combat that erosion. This field guide serves as the static, print companion to an online virtual field trip ( https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/0aa3fd921cc4458da0a19a928e5fa87c ).
The blast, the quake, and the bomb: A guide to high-energy events in western Nevada, USA
ABSTRACT This guide presents an eight-hour, in-person tour of intersecting geologic and human history in western Nevada, USA. A 25 megaton phreatomagmatic blast created a mile-wide (1.6-km-wide) maar, now filled by Soda Lake. The magnitude 7 Dixie Valley earthquake ripped along more than 45 km of the Stillwater Range front in 1954. The 12 kiloton Shoal nuclear test in 1963 created a 50-m-wide cavity in solid granite.
An Upper Cretaceous paleodrainage system on the Coastal Plain unconformity of Alabama-Georgia
ABSTRACT Rocks of the Upper Cretaceous Tuscaloosa Formation (Cenomanian) and Eutaw Formation (Santonian) in southwestern Georgia and southeastern Alabama record an interval of fluvial and nearshore marine deposition. In the vicinity of Columbus, Georgia, basal units of the Tuscaloosa Formation consist of a residual paleosol built on crystalline rocks of the Appalachian Piedmont covered by conglomeratic sandstones deposited in braided stream systems flowing across the mid-Cenomanian Coastal Plain unconformity. The unconformity, which separates Cretaceous detrital rocks from underlying metamorphic rocks and residual paleosols built on those metamorphic rocks, lies primarily within the Tuscaloosa Formation in this region and is marked at the modern surface by the geomorphic Fall Line. Mapping of the unconformity across the region reveals areas of significant paleorelief associated with a number of distinct paleovalleys incised into the mid-Cenomanian surface. The most distinct of these lie immediately east of the Alabama-Georgia state line, within 15 km of the modern Lower Chattahoochee River Valley. Spatially, these distinct paleovalleys lie immediately north of a Santonian estuarine environment recorded in the Eutaw Formation, disconformably above the Tuscaloosa Formation. Collectively, paleo-valleys in the mid-Cenomanian surface, the fluvial nature of the Tuscaloosa Formation in southwestern Georgia and southeastern Alabama, and the estuarine environment in the younger Eutaw Formation suggest a persistent (~10 m.y.) paleodrainage system that may be a forerunner to the modern Chattahoochee River.
Geohydrology of the four largest spring systems in the Ozarks of Missouri and Arkansas, USA
ABSTRACT The four largest spring systems in the mid-continent receive recharge through large interconnected voids in fractured and solution-weathered dolostones of the Ordovician and Cambrian systems. Cumulative thickness of the carbonate bedrock aquifer ranges up to 700 m in the Ozark region. Recharge from the surface occurs through weathered overburden, sinkholes, and losing streams and has been traced up to 60 km (straight-line horizontal distance) using fluorescent dyes. Mean discharge of the combined flow of these four spring systems is ~1400 cubic feet/second (ft 3 /s) or 40 m 3 /second (m 3 /s). All four spring systems will be visited while discussing the karst terrane that recharges them. Environmental and engineering challenges in the region will be discussed, such as wastewater treatment systems, solid waste disposal, and failed reservoirs. Hodgson Mill Spring represents a branch of the Rainbow/North Fork/Hodgson Mill System. While it receives base flow from the main system, it also receives local recharge that Rainbow and North Fork springs do not. A portion of the Mammoth Spring recharge system will be viewed at Grand Gulf State Park in Missouri, where a cave collapse has created cliffs and a natural bridge and exposed a small losing tributary that flows into a cave that has been traced to the spring. Mammoth Spring State Park in Arkansas offers a historical perspective of the development and use of large springs. Greer Spring in Missouri was used as a power source for grist, flour, and lumber mills, but has now largely returned to its predevelopment state and is managed by the U.S. Forest Service. Big Spring, featured in a former state park in Missouri, is now part of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways.
ABSTRACT This field trip traverses the Sahwave and Nightingale Ranges in central Nevada, USA, and northward to Gerlach, Nevada, to the Granite, northern Fox, and Selenite Ranges. Plutonic bodies in this area include the ca. 93–89 Ma Sahwave nested intrusive suite of the Sahwave and Nightingale Ranges, the ca. 106 Ma Power Line intrusive complex of the Nightingale Range, the ca. 96 Ma plutons in the Selenite Range, and the ca. 105–102 Ma plutons of the Granite and Fox Ranges. Collectively these plutons occupy nearly 1000 km 2 of bedrock exposure. Plutons of the Sahwave, Nightingale, and Selenite Ranges intrude autochthonous rocks east of the western Nevada shear zone, while plutons of the Granite and Fox Ranges intrude displaced terranes west of the western Nevada shear zone. Integrated structural, geochemical, and geochronological studies are used to better understand magmatic and deformation processes during the Early Cretaceous, correlations with Cretaceous plutons in adjacent areas of Idaho and California, and regional implications. Field-trip stops in the Sahwave and Nightingale Ranges will focus on: (1) microstructure and orientation of magmatic and solid-state fabrics of the incrementally emplaced granodiorites-granites of the Sahwave intrusive suite; and (2) newly identified dextral shear zones hosted within intrusions of both the Sahwave and Nightingale Ranges. The Sahwave intrusive suite exhibits moderate to weak magnetic fabrics determined using anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility, with magnetic foliations that strike NW-NE and magnetic lineations that plunge moderately to steeply. Microstructural analysis indicates that these fabrics formed during magmatic flow. The older Power Line intrusive complex in the Nightingale Range is cross-cut by the Sahwave suite and contains a N-S–trending solid-state foliation that reflects ductile dextral shearing. Field-trip stops in the plutons of the Gerlach region will focus on composition, texture, and emplacement ages, and key differences with the younger Sahwave suite, including lack of evidence for zoning and solid-state fabrics. The field trip will utilize StraboSpot, a digital data system for field-based geology that allows participants to investigate the relevant data projects in the study areas.
Hypogenic karst of the Great Basin
ABSTRACT Discoveries in the 1980s greatly expanded speleologists’ understanding of the role that hypogenic groundwater flow can play in developing caves at depth. Ascending groundwater charged with carbon dioxide and, especially, hydrogen sulfide can readily dissolve carbonate bedrock just below and above the water table. Sulfuric acid speleogenesis, in which anoxic, rising, sulfidic groundwater mixes with oxygenated cave atmosphere to form aggressive sulfuric acid (H 2 SO 4 ) formed spectacular caves in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, USA. Cueva de Villa Luz in Mexico provides an aggressively active example of sulfuric acid speleogenesis processes, and the Frasassi Caves in Italy preserve the results of sulfuric acid speleogenesis in its upper levels while sulfidic groundwater currently enlarges cave passages in the lower levels. Many caves in east-central Nevada and western Utah (USA) are products of hypogenic speleogenesis and formed before the current topography fully developed. Wet climate during the late Neogene and Pleistocene brought extensive meteoric infiltration into the caves, and calcite speleothems (e.g., stalactites, stalagmites, shields) coat the walls and floors of the caves, concealing evidence of the earlier hypogenic stage. However, by studying the speleogenetic features in well-established sulfuric acid speleogenesis caves, evidence of hypogenic, probably sulfidic, speleogenesis in many Great Basin caves can be teased out. Compelling evidence of hypogenic speleogenesis in these caves include folia, mammillaries, bubble trails, cupolas, and metatyuyamunite. Sulfuric acid speleogenesis signs include hollow coralloid stalagmites, trays, gypsum crust, pseudoscallops, rills, and acid pool notches. Lehman Caves in Great Basin National Park is particularly informative because a low-permeability capstone protected about half of the cave from significant meteoric infiltration, preserving early speleogenetic features.
ABSTRACT A succession of Ordovician and Mississippian carbonates, separated unconformably, is exposed across the southern flank of the Ozark Dome in southwest Missouri. Deposits of both periods exemplify typical facies of the Midwestern United States: carbonate tidal-flat assemblages for the Early Ordovician and carbonate shelf environments for the Early–Middle Mississippian. The basic stratigraphic sequence of these deposits has been known for over a century, but interesting features remain to be addressed. Thin discontinuous sandstones are present within the Early Ordovician Cotter Dolomite, but the informal Swan Creek sandstone member seems anomalous. This sandstone can exceed 5 m in thickness and is fairly continuous across southwest Missouri. Most Ordovician sandstones in Missouri mark major transgressions above regional unconformities, but not the Swan Creek, and there is no obvious source of the sand. Therefore, we hypothesize that the Swan Creek represents reworked eolian dunes blown across the broad peritidal environment. Clastic sandstone dikes, apparently sourced from the Swan Creek, cut across beds of Cotter Dolomite near faults. We propose that these dikes are evidence of local faulting and seismicity during the Early Ordovician. Early and Middle Mississippian limestones comprise a sequence of shelf deposits, although mud mounds and other facies changes near the Missouri-Arkansas line mark the edge of the Mississippian shelf and the transition to a ramp setting. Early Mississippian carbonate deposition was interrupted by a short and localized influx of siliciclastic sediment comprising the Northview Formation. The Northview has additional characteristics consistent with a river-dominated deltaic deposit, which we suggest as its origin. If correct, this hypothesis implies that the history of tectonic features in the Midwest is more complicated than yet known. Finally, facies changes within and between the local Mississippian formations may record an early crustal response to the impending Ouachita orogeny farther to the south.
Tectonism and metamorphism along a southern Appalachian transect across the Blue Ridge and Piedmont, USA
ABSTRACT The Appalachian Mountains expose one of the most-studied orogenic belts in the world. However, metamorphic pressure-temperature-time ( P-T-t ) paths for reconstructing the tectonic history are largely lacking for the southernmost end of the orogen. In this contribution, we describe select field locations in a rough transect across the orogen from Ducktown, Tennessee, to Goldville, Alabama. Metamorphic rocks from nine locations are described and analyzed in order to construct quantitative P-T-t paths, utilizing isochemical phase diagram sections and garnet Sm-Nd ages. P-T-t paths and garnet Sm-Nd ages for migmatitic garnet sillimanite schist document high-grade 460–411 Ma metamorphism extending south from Winding Stair Gap to Standing Indian in the Blue Ridge of North Carolina. In the Alabama Blue Ridge, Wedowee Group rocks were metamorphosed at biotite to staurolite zone, with only local areas of higher-temperature metamorphism. The Wedowee Group is flanked by higher-grade rocks of the Ashland Supergroup and Emuckfaw Group to the northwest and southeast, respectively. Garnet ages between ca. 357 and 319 Ma indicate that garnet growth was Neoacadian to early Alleghanian in the Blue Ridge of Alabama. The P-T-t paths for these rocks are compatible with crustal thickening during garnet growth.