Abstract The Josephine Ophiolite is a large complete ophiolite flanked by arc complexes, including rifted arc facies, and overlain by volcanopelagic and volcaniclastic sedimentary rocks. The extrusive sequence and sheeted dyke complex record a wide range in magma types and degree of fractionation. The upper part of the extrusive sequence, as well as late dykes in the ophiolite, have mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) affinities and include unusual highly fractionated Fe-Ti basalts. The sheeted dyke complex and lower pillow lavas are dominated by transitional island-arc tholeiite (IAT) to MORB, but about 10% consist of low-Ti, high-Mg basalts and andesites. Whole-rock chemistry and Cr-spinel compositions indicate that the low-Ti rocks range from boninite (BON) to primitive arc basalt. The low-Ti samples have trace element characteristics indicating a greater subduction component than the IAT-MORB or MORB samples, as well as derivation from a wide range of sources ranging from depleted to enriched relative to an average N-MORB mantle source. Mixing of low-Ti and MORB magmas may have produced the IAT-MORB magma type that is most characteristic of the ophiolite. Podiform chromites and late magmatic features in the mantle peridotite, described by previous workers, appear to have been formed from the low-Ti magmas. Regional geological relationships and the presence of boninitic magmas suggest that arc rifting and initial sea-floor spreading to form the Josephine Ophiolite occurred in the forearc of a west-facing arc built on edge of the North American plate. Arc magmatism appears to have jumped westward, at which time the Josephine basin became situated in a back-arc setting, analogous to the inferred evolution of the modern Lau back-arc basin. Alternatively, the Josephine Ophiolite may have formed in a setting analogous to the north end of the Tonga Trench or the south end of the North Fiji basin, both sites of modern boninites, where a back-arc spreading centre has propagated across an arc into the forearc. Rift propagation during formation of the Josephine Ophiolite is consistent with the presence of highly fractionated Fe-Ti basalts.

The polygenetic Ingalls ophiolite complex in the central Cascades, Washington, is one of several Middle to Late Jurassic ophiolites of the North American Cordillera. It consists primarily of mantle tectonites. High-temperature mylonitic peridotite, overprinted by serpentinite mélange (Navaho Divide fault zone), separates harzburgite and dunite in the south from lherzolite in the north. Crustal units of the ophiolite occur as steeply dipping, kilometer-scale fault blocks within the Navaho Divide fault zone. These units are the Iron Mountain, Esmeralda Peaks, and Ingalls sedimentary rocks. Volcanic rocks of the Iron Mountain unit have transitional within-plate–enriched mid-ocean-ridge basalt affinities, and a rhyolite yields a U-Pb zircon age of ca. 192 Ma. Minor sedimentary rocks include local oolitic limestones and cherts that contain Lower Jurassic (Pliensbachian) Radiolaria. This unit probably formed as a seamount within close proximity to a spreading ridge. The Esmeralda Peaks unit forms the crustal section of the ophiolite, and it consists of gabbro, diabase, basalt, lesser felsic volcanics, and minor sedimentary rocks. U-Pb zircon indicates that the age of this unit is ca. 161 Ma. The Esmeralda Peaks unit has transitional island-arc–mid-ocean ridge basalt and minor boninitic affinities. A preferred interpretation for this unit is that it formed initially by forearc rifting that evolved into back-arc spreading, and it was subsequently deformed by a fracture zone. The Iron Mountain unit is the rifted basement of the Esmeralda Peaks unit, indicating that the Ingalls ophiolite complex is polygenetic. Ingalls sedimentary rocks consist primarily of argillite with minor graywacke, conglomerate, chert, and ophiolite-derived breccias and olistoliths. Radiolaria from chert give lower Oxfordian ages. The Ingalls ophiolite complex is similar in age and geochemistry to the Josephine ophiolite and its related rift-edge facies and to the Coast Range ophiolite of California and Oregon. The Ingalls and Josephine ophiolites are polygenetic, while the Coast Range ophiolite is not, and sedimentary rocks (Galice Formation) that sit on the Josephine and its rift-edge facies have the same Radiolaria fauna as Ingalls sedimentary rocks. Therefore, we correlate the Ingalls ophiolite complex with the Josephine ophiolite of the Klamath Mountains. Taking known Cretaceous and younger strike-slip faulting into account, this correlation implies that the Josephine ophiolite either continued northward ~440 km—thus increasing the known length of the Josephine basin—or that the Ingalls ophiolite was translated northward ~440 km along the continental margin.

The Upper Jurassic Galice Formation of the Klamath Mountains, Oregon-California, overlies the ca. 162-Ma Josephine ophiolite and the slightly younger Rogue–Chetco volcano-plutonic arc complex. The Galice Formation that overlies the Josephine ophiolite consists of a siliceous hemipelagic sequence, which grades upward into a thick turbidite sequence. Bedded hemipelagic rocks and scarce sandstone, however, also occur at several localities within the Josephine ophiolite pillow basalts. Corrected paleoflow current data suggest that the Galice Formation was derived predominantly from the east and north. Detrital modes of sandstones from the Galice Formation indicate an arc source as well as a predominantly chert-argillite source with minor metamorphic rocks. A sandstone located ∼20 m below the top of the Josephine ophiolite has detrital modes and heavy mineral suites similar to the turbidite sandstones. Detrital Cr-spinel compositions from the turbidite and intra-pillow lava sandstones are also similar, indicating supra-subduction zone mantle peridotite and volcanic sources. Published detrital zircon data from a turbidite sandstone chiefly give a bimodal age distribution of 153 Ma and ca. 227 Ma but with a minor Proterozoic component. Whole-rock geochemistry from intra-pillow lava sedimentary rocks, the hemipelagic sequence, and the turbidites suggest a mixture between mafic and cratonic sources. It is suggested that the source area for the intra-pillow lava sedimentary rocks, hemipelagic sequence, and turbidites resulted from the mixing of arc and accreted terranes. These data indicate that the source areas for the Galice Formation were already established by ca. 162 Ma, probably during a Middle Jurassic orogeny that predated formation of the Josephine basin.

The western Jurassic belt of the Klamath Mountains represents one of the Earth's best-preserved exposures of ancient marginal ocean basin lithosphere and chiefly consists of the coeval Rogue–Chetco volcanic-plutonic oceanic arc and Josephine ophiolite. This Late Jurassic ocean basin is hypothesized to have formed in response to rifting that initiated at ca. 165 Ma along the western margin of North America, disrupting a Middle Jurassic arc that had been constructed on older Klamath terranes and forming a marginal ocean basin with an active arc, inter-arc basin, and remnant arc. Previous workers characterized a “rift-edge” facies in the remnant-arc region. This chapter describes field, age, and geochemical data that suggest that a similar rift-edge facies exists in the vicinity of the active arc, on the opposite side of the marginal basin. The rift-edge facies in the active arc setting consists of two main lithotectonic units, herein named informally as the Onion Camp complex and Fiddler Mountain olistostrome. The Onion Camp complex is partly composed of a characteristic metabasalt and red chert association. Red chert yielded scarce radiolarians of Triassic(?) and Early Jurassic age. A distinct chert-pebble conglomerate occurs at scarce localities within metasedimentary rocks. Concordant, composite bodies of amphibolite and serpentinized peridotite represent another distinctive feature of the Onion Camp complex. The metamorphic and lithologic features of the Onion Camp complex are similar to the lower mélange unit of the Rattlesnake Creek terrane, and the units are interpreted to be correlative. The Fiddler Mountain olistostrome is composed of Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian?) pelagic and hemipelagic rocks interlayered with ophiolite-clast breccia and megabreccia, similar in character to olistostromal deposits associated with the rift-edge facies of the remnant arc. The occurrence of the Rattlesnake Creek terrane and an associated olistostromal deposit within the western Jurassic belt of southwestern Oregon may therefore represent the rift-edge facies in the active arc setting, at the transition between the Rogue–Chetco arc and Josephine ophiolite, further corroborating previous models for the Late Jurassic tectonic evolution of the Klamath Mountains.

Early Mesozoic arc magmatism of the southern Sierra Nevada region records the onset of plate convergence–driven magmatism resulting from subduction initiation near the end of Permian time along a prior transform margin. We provisionally adopt the term California-Coahuila transform for this complex boundary transform system, which bounded the southwest margin of the Cordilleran passive margin, its offshore marginal basin, and fringing island arc. In Pennsylvanian–Early Permian time, this transform cut into the arc-marginal basin and adjacent shelf system, calved off a series of strike-slip ribbons, and transported them differentially southward through ∼500–1000-km-scale sinistral displacements. These strike-slip ribbons constitute the principal Neoproterozoic–Paleozoic metamorphic framework terranes for the superposed Mesozoic batholithic belt in the Sierra Nevada and Mojave plateau regions. The southern Sierra Nevada batholith intruded along the transform truncation zone where marginal basin ribbons were juxtaposed against the truncated shelf. Strike-slip ribbons, or blocks, liberated from the truncated shelf occur today as the Caborca block in northwest Mexico, and possibly parts of the Chortis block, farther south. The oldest arc plutons in the Sierra region were emplaced between 256 and 248 Ma, which matches well with ca. 255 Ma high-pressure metamorphism recorded in the western Sierra Foothills ophiolite belt, interpreted to approximate the time of subduction initiation. The initial phases of arc plutonism were accompanied by regional transpressive fold-and-thrust deformation, kinematically marking the transition from transform to oblique convergent plate motion. Early arc volcanism is sparsely recorded owing to fold-and-thrust–driven exhumation having accompanied the early phases of arc activity. By Late Triassic time, the volcanic record became quite prolific, owing to regional subsidence of the arc into marine conditions, and the ponding of volcanics in a regional arc graben system. The arc graben system is but one mark of regional suprasubduction-zone extension that affected the early SW Cordilleran convergent margin from Late Triassic to early Middle Jurassic time. We interpret this extension to have been a dynamic consequence of the subduction of exceptionally aged Panthalassa abyssal lithosphere, which is well represented in the Foothills ophiolite belt and other ophiolitic remnants of the SW Cordillera. Middle and Late Jurassic time was characterized by important tangential displacements along the SW Cordil-leran convergent margin. In Middle Jurassic time, dextral impingement of the Insular superterrane intra-oceanic arc drove a migrating welt of transpressional deformation through the SW Cordillera while the superterrane was en route to its Pacific Northwest accretionary site. Dextral transtensional spreading in the wake of the obliquely colliding and translating arc opened the Coast Range and Josephine ophiolite basins. In Late Jurassic time, a northwestward acceleration in the absolute motion of the North American plate resulted in an ∼15 m.y. period of profound sinistral shear along the Cordilleran convergent margin. This shear is recorded in the southern Cordillera by the Mojave-Sonora megashear system. Late Jurassic intrusive units of the southern Sierra region record sinistral shear during their magmatic emplacement, but we have not observed evidence for major Late Jurassic sinistral displacements having run through the Sierran framework. Possible displacements related to the megashear in the California to Washington regions are likely to have: (1) followed preexisting transforms in the Coast Range ophiolite basin and (2) been accommodated by oblique closure of the Josephine ophiolite basin, and the northern reaches of the Coast Range ophiolite basin, proximal to the southern Insular superterrane, which in Late Jurassic–earliest Cretaceous time was obliquely accreting to the inner Cordillera terranes of the Pacific Northwest.

Sedimentary rocks occurred throughout much of the Late Jurassic Cordilleran margin of Laurasia. Their tectonic setting and provenance are critical to understanding the evolution of the Cordilleran margin during this time. We review published detrital zircon ages and new and published whole-rock geochemistry of the Peshastin Formation and Darrington Phyllite, Cascade Mountains, Washington State, with the goal of better understanding the tectonic development of the Cordillera and strengthening regional correlations of these sedimentary units. The Peshastin Formation conformably overlies the ca. 161 Ma Ingalls ophiolite complex. Published dating of detrital zircons from a Peshastin Formation sandstone provided a youngest U-Pb age distribution of ca. 152 Ma and a significant U-Pb age distribution of ca. 232 Ma. The Darrington Phyllite is structurally above the Shuksan Greenschist; however, this unit also occurs interbedded with the Shuksan Greenschist. The Darrington Phyllite and Shuksan Greenschist have been grouped into the Easton Metamorphic Suite. Published detrital zircons from a Darrington Phyllite metasandstone have a youngest U-Pb age distribution of ca. 155 Ma and a significant U-Pb age distribution of ca. 238 Ma. New major- and trace-element geochemistry and previously published sandstone petrography suggest that these units were derived from Late Jurassic volcanic arc sources that were predominantly transitional between mafic and intermediate compositions. Middle to Late Triassic detrital zircon ages and detrital modes suggest that some recycling of older accreted arc terranes also contributed to these sediments; however, this Middle to Late Triassic component could also be first cycle. These units consistently plot on geochemical diagrams in fields defined by modern back-arc basin turbidites. The youngest detrital zircon age distributions, detrital sandstone petrography, and geochemistry of these units suggest they formed in Late Jurassic arc-fed basins. We suggest that the Peshastin Formation and Darrington Phyllite are age correlative and formed in an arc-proximal back-arc basin that could have initiated by forearc rifting. Postulated restoration of latest Cretaceous to Cenozoic faulting places these Late Jurassic basins near the Galice Formation and underlying Josephine ophi-olite, Klamath Mountains, Oregon-California. The Galice Formation and underlying Josephine ophiolite have been correlated with the Peshastin Formation and Ingalls ophiolite complex. After postulated Late Jurassic accretion to the North American margin, the Peshastin Formation and Darrington Phyllite were dextrally displaced to the north before they were emplaced in their current position by thrust faulting during the Late Cretaceous.

Abstract Volcanic-associated massive sulfide (VMS) deposits in ophiolites are generally considered to be ancient analogs to sulfide deposits forming today at 350°C hot springs, hot smokers, on mid-ocean ridges and in back-arc basins (Fornari and Embley, 1995; Ishibashi and Urabe, 1995). Most ophiolites appear to have formed in supra-subduction zone settings (back-arc, fore-arc, or nascent arc), a conclusion based largely on the common presence of lavas having arc-like magmatic affinities and, in a number of lavas, affinities to boninites (e.g., Pearce et al., 1984; Meffre and Crawford, 1996). Ophiolites provide an opportunity to observe the pathways of hot-smoker fluids, providing that alteration resulting from interaction with such fluids can be recognized. Epidosites (granoblastic epidote + quartz + chlorite + titanite ± magnetite) in sheeted dike complexes have been inferred to record the pathways of such fluids (Richardson et al., 1987; Shiffman and Smith, 1988; Schiffman et al., 1990; Harper et al., 1988; Nehlig et al., 1995). The intense Ca metasomatism, high-variance assemblages, and complete textural reconstitution to granoblastic textures of epidosites suggest interaction with large volumes of highly reacted seawater-derived fluids. Epidosites in the Josephine ophiolite appear to represent more diffuse discharge during periods when faulting was poorly developed (high magma supply). Large volumes of epidosites (tens of km 3 ) occur beneath VMS deposits in the Troodos Cyprus and Oman ophiolites (Richardson et al., 1987; Schiffman and Smith, 1988; Nehlig et al., 1995). More recently, fault-controlled discharge has been documented in the Josephine ophiolite as a distinct structural style that generally postdates epidosites (Alexander and Harper, 1992; Alexander et al., 1993). Some of the oceanic fault zones are characterized by mineralized breccias and thus appear to have been highly permeable pathways for hot smoker-like discharging fluids. VMS deposits in the Josephine ophiolite appear to have been formed by discharge and venting along fault zones (Kuhns and Baitis, 1987; Zierenberg et al., 1988).

The Mojave-Sonora megashear, which bounded the Jurassic southwestern margin of the North America plate from 170 to 148 Ma, may be linked northward to Alaska via the previously recognized discontinuity between the Insular and Intermontane terranes and co-genetic regional elements such as transtensional basins, transpressional uplifts, and overlapping correlative magmatic belts. The longer, continental-scale fault thus defined, which is called the Mexico-Alaska megashear, separated the North America plate from a proto-Pacific plate (the Klamath plate) and linked the axis of ocean-floor spreading within the developing Gulf of Mexico with a restraining bend above which mafic rocks were obducted eastward onto Alaskan sialic crust that converged against the Siberian platform. The fault, about 8000 km long, lies among more than a dozen large basins (and numerous smaller ones) many of which formed abruptly at ca. 169 Ma. The basins, commonly containing Middle and Late Jurassic and Cretaceous clastic and volcanic units, distinguish a locally broad belt along the western and southwestern margin of the North America plate. The basin margins commonly coincide with easterly striking normal and northwesterly striking sinistral faults although most have been reactivated during multiple episodes of movement. The pattern of intersecting faults and the rarely preserved record of displacements along them suggest that the basins are structural pull-aparts formed at releasing steps of a sinistral continental margin transform and are therefore transtensional. The width of the zone delineated by the basins is a few hundred km and extends west-northwesterly from the Gulf of Mexico across northern Mexico to southern California where it curves northward probably coincident with the San Andreas fault. Principal basins included within the southern part of the transtensional belt are recorded by strata of the Chihuahua trough, Valle San Marcos and La Mula uplift (Coahuila, Mexico), Batamote and San Antonio basins (Sonora, Mexico), Little Hatchet and East Potrillo Mountains and Chiricahua Mountains basins (New Mexico), Baboquivari Mountains Topawa Group (Arizona), regional Bisbee basin (Arizona, New Mexico, and Sonora, Mexico), Bedford Canyon, McCoy Mountains, Inyo Mountains volcanic complex and Mount Tallac basin (California). The latter probably extend into Nevada as part of the Pine Nut assemblage. At the southern margin of the Sierra Nevada of California, the inferred fault steps west then north, roughly along the Coast Range thrust and into the Klamath Mountains. The Great Valley (California) and Josephine ophiolites (Oregon) record these two major, releasing steps along the Mexico-Alaska megashear. From the northwestern Klamath Mountains, the Mexico-Alaska megashear turns east where Jurassic contractional structures exposed in the Blue Mountains indicate a restraining bend along which transpression is manifest as the Elko orogeny. Near the border with Idaho the fault returns to a northwest strike and crosses Washington, British Columbia, and southern Alaska. Along this segment the fault mainly coincides with the eastern limit of the Alexander-Wrangellia composite terrane. West of the fault trace in Washington, the Ingalls and Fidalgo ophiolites record separate or dismembered, co-genetic, oceanic basins. Correlative sedimentary units include Nooksack, Constitution, and Lummi Formations and the Newby Group, within the Methow basin. In British Columbia, the Relay Mountain Group of the Tyaughton basin, and Cayoosh, Brew, Nechako, Eskay, and Hotnarko strata record accumulation from Bajocian through Oxfordian within a northwestward-trending zone. From southern Alaska and northwestward correlative extension is recorded in basins by sections at Gravina, Dezadeash-Nutzotin, Wrangell Mountains, Matanuska Valley (southern Talkeetna Mountains), Tuxedni (Cook Inlet), and the southern Kahiltna domain. The pull-apart basins began to form abruptly after the Siskiyou orogeny that interrupted late Early to Middle Jurassic subduction-related magmatism. Convergence had begun at least by the Toarcian as an oceanic proto-Pacific plate subducted eastward beneath the margin of western North America. As subduction waned following collision, sinistral faulting was initiated abruptly and almost synchronously within the former magmatic belt as well as in adjacent oceanic and continental crust to the west and east, respectively. Where transtension resulted in deep rifts, oceanic crust formed and/or volcanic eruptions took place. Sediment was accumulating in the larger basins, in places above newly formed crust, as early as Callovian (ca. 165 Ma). The belt of pull-apart basins roughly parallels the somewhat older magmatic mid-Jurassic belt. However, in places the principal lateral faults obliquely transect the belt of arc rocks resulting in overlap (southern British Columbia; northwestern Mexico) or offset (northern Mexico) of the arc rocks of at least several hundreds of kilometers. The trace of the principal fault corresponds with fault segments, most of which have been extensively reactivated, including the following: Mojave-Sonora megashear, Melones-Bear Mountain, Wolf Creek, Bear Wallows–South Fork, Siskiyou and Soap Creek Ridge faults, Ross Lake fault zone, as well as Harrison Lake, Bridge River suture, Lillooet Lake, and Owl Creek faults. Northward within the Coast Range shear zone, pendants of continental margin assemblages are interpreted to mark the southwest wall of the inferred fault. Where the inferred trace approaches the coast, it corresponds with the megalineament along the southwest edge of the Coast Range batholithic complex. The Kitkatla and Sumdum thrust faults, which lie within the zone between the Wrangellia-Alexander-Peninsular Ranges composite terrane and Stikinia, probably formed initially as Late Jurassic strike-slip faults. The Denali fault and more northerly extensions including Talkeetna, and Chilchitna faults, which bound the northeastern margin of Wrangellia, coincide with the inferred trace of the older left-lateral fault that regionally separates the Intermontane terrane from the Wrangellia-Alexander-Peninsular Ranges composite terrane. During the Nevadan orogeny (ca. 153 ± 2 Ma), strong contraction, independent of the sinistral fault movement, overprinted the Mexico-Alaska megashear fault zone and induced subduction leading to a pulse of magmatism.

ABSTRACT The Klamath Mountains province and adjacent Franciscan subduction complex (northern California–southern Oregon) together contain a world-class archive of subduction-related growth and stabilization of continental lithosphere. These key elements of the North American Cordillera expanded significantly from Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous time, apparently by a combination of tectonic accretion and continental arc– plus rift-related magmatic additions. The purpose of this field trip is twofold: to showcase the rock record of continental growth in this region and to discuss unresolved regional geologic problems. The latter include: (1) the extent to which Mesozoic orogenesis (e.g., Siskiyou and Nevadan events plus the onset of Franciscan accretion) was driven by collision of continental or oceanic fragments versus changes in plate motion, (2) whether growth involved “accordion tectonics” whereby marginal basins (and associated fringing arcs) repeatedly opened and closed or was driven by the accretion of significant volumes of material exotic to North America, and (3) the origin of the Condrey Mountain schist, a composite low-grade unit occupying an enigmatic structural window in the central Klamaths—at odds with the east-dipping thrust sheet regional structural “rule.” Respectively, we assert that (1) if collision drove orogenesis, the requisite exotic materials are missing (we cannot rule out the possibility that such materials were removed via subduction and/or strike slip faulting); (2) opening and closure of the Josephine ophiolite-floored and Galice Formation–filled basin demonstrably occurred adjacent to North America; and (3) the inner Condrey Mountain schist domain is equivalent to the oldest clastic Franciscan subunit (the South Fork Mountain schist) and therefore represents trench assemblages underplated >100 km inboard of the subduction margin, presumably during a previously unrecognized phase of shallow-angle subduction. In aggregate, these relations suggest that the Klamath Mountains and adjacent Franciscan complex represent telescoped arc and forearc upper plate domains of a dynamic Mesozoic subduction zone, wherein the downgoing oceanic plate took a variety of trajectories into the mantle. We speculate that the downgoing plate contained alternating tracts of smooth and dense versus rough and buoyant lithosphere—the former gliding into the mantle (facilitating slab rollback and upper plate extension) and the latter enhancing basal traction (driving upper plate compression and slab-shallowing). Modern snapshots of similarly complex convergent settings are abundant in the western Pacific Ocean, with subduction of the Australian plate beneath New Guinea and adjacent island groups providing perhaps the best analog.