ABSTRACT Porphyry copper provinces are time-space clusters of porphyry copper deposits (PCDs) that form in magmatic arcs. The evolution of the Laramide arc of southwestern North America, which hosts the Laramide porphyry copper province—the second-largest in the world—provides insight into factors contributing to its transient and localized metallogenic fertility. Regional-scale patterns are evident based on new and compiled U-Pb geochronological and whole-rock geochemical data, collected as part of an ongoing study. The migration of the locus of PCD formation coupled with shut-off of the magmatic arc and other geological evidence suggest localization of PCD formation near the southern margin of a shallowly subducting portion of the Farallon plate. Trends in increasing maximum size of PCDs and increasing SiO 2 content of magmas with time correlate with the duration of arc activity in a given locale. Collectively, these trends suggest a variety of processes, including (1) uncertain ones related to local tectonic configuration, and (2) variations in crustal assimilation and/or metasomatism, which are correlated to the local duration of arc magmatism, contributed to the richness of the Laramide porphyry copper province.

ABSTRACT A growing body of evidence suggests that continental arc lower crust and underlying mantle wedge assemblages native to the Mojave Desert (i.e., the southern California batholith) were displaced eastward during Laramide shallow-angle subduction, and reattached to the base of the Colorado Plateau Transition Zone (central Arizona) and farther inboard. On this field trip, we highlight two xenolith localities from the Transition Zone (Camp Creek and Chino Valley) that likely contain remnants of the missing Mojave lithosphere. At these localities, nodules of garnet clinopyroxenite, the dominant xenolith type at both studied localities, yield low jadeite components in clinopyroxene, chemically homogeneous “type-B” garnet, and peak conditions of equilibration at 600–900 °C and 9–28 kbar. These relations strongly suggest a continental arc residue (“arclogite”), rather than a lower-plate subduction (“eclogite”), origin. Zircon grains extracted from these nodules yield a bimodal age distribution with peaks at ca. 75 and 150 Ma, overlapping southern California batholith pluton ages, and suggesting a consanguineous relationship. In contrast, Mesozoic and early Cenozoic igneous rocks native to SW Arizona, with age peaks at ca. 60 and 170 Ma, do not provide as close a match. In light of these results, we suggest that Transition Zone xenoliths: (1) began forming in Late Jurassic time as a mafic keel to continental arc magmas emplaced into the Mojave Desert and associated with eastward subduction of the Farallon plate; (2) experienced a second ca. 80–70 Ma pulse of growth associated with increased magmatism in the southern California batholith; (3) were transported ~500 km eastward along the leading edge of the shallowly subducting Farallon plate; and (4) were reaffixed to the base of the crust at the new location, in central Arizona. Cenozoic zircon U-Pb, garnet-whole rock Sm-Nd, and titanite U-Pb ages suggest that displaced arclogite remained at elevated temperature (>700 °C) for 10s of m.y., following its dispersal, and until late Oligocene entrainment in host latite. The lack of arclogite and abundance of spinel peridotite xenoliths in Miocene and younger mafic volcanic host rocks (such as those at the San Carlos xenolith locality), and the presence of seismically fast and vertically dipping features beneath the western Colorado Plateau, suggest that arclogite has been foundering into the mantle and being replaced by upwelling asthenosphere since Miocene time.

ABSTRACT The Great Valley forearc basin records Jurassic(?)–Eocene sedimentation along the western margin of North America during eastward subduction of the Farallon plate and development of the Sierra Nevada magmatic arc. The four-dimensional (4-D) basin model of the northern Great Valley forearc presented here was designed to reconstruct its depositional history from Tithonian through Maastrichtian time. Based on >1200 boreholes, the tops of 13 formations produce isopach maps and cross sections that highlight the spatial and temporal variability of sediment accumulation along and across the basin. The model shows the southward migration of depocenters within the basin during the Cretaceous and eastward lapping of basin strata onto Sierra Nevada basement. In addition, the model presents the first basement map of the entire Sacramento subbasin, highlighting its topography at the onset of deposition of the Great Valley Group. Minimum volume estimates for sedimentary basin fill reveal variable periods of flux, with peak sedimentation corresponding to deposition of the Sites Sandstone during Turonian to Coniacian time. Comparison of these results with flux estimates from magmatic source regions shows a slight lag in the timing of peak sedimentation, likely reflecting the residence time from pluton emplacement to erosion. This model provides the foundation for the first three-dimensional subsidence analysis on an ancient forearc basin, which will yield insight into the mechanisms driving development of accommodation along convergent margins.

ABSTRACT The upper Middle Eocene to Lower Miocene Sespe Formation is the youngest part of an ~7-km-thick Cretaceous–Paleogene forearc stratigraphic sequence in coastal southern California. Whereas Upper Cretaceous through Middle Eocene strata of southern California record a transition from local (i.e., continental-margin batholith) to extraregional (i.e., cratonal) provenance resulting from Laramide deformation (75–35 Ma), the Sespe Formation records the reversal of this process and the re-establishment of local sediment sources by Middle Miocene time. In contrast to underlying dominantly marine strata, the Sespe Formation primarily consists of alluvial/fluvial and deltaic sandstone and conglomerate, which represent terminal filling of the forearc basin. Prior to Middle Miocene dissection and clockwise rotation, the Sespe basin trended north-south adjacent to the west side of the Peninsular Ranges. The integration of paleocurrent, accessory-mineral, conglomerate, sandstone, and detrital zircon data tightly constrains provenance. Sespe sandstone deposited in the Late Eocene was supplied by two major rivers (one eroding the Sonoran Desert, to the east, and one eroding the Mojave Desert, Colorado River trough area, and Transition Zone, to the north), as well as smaller local drainages. As the Farallon slab rolled back toward the coast during the Oligocene, the drainage divide also migrated southwestward. During deposition of the upper Sespe Formation, extraregional sources diminished, while the Peninsular Ranges provided increasing detritus from the east and the Franciscan Complex provided increasing detritus from the west (prerotation). As the overall flux of detritus to the Sespe basin decreased and deposition slowed, nonmarine environments were replaced by marine environments, in which the Miocene Vaqueros Formation was deposited. The provenance and paleogeographic information presented herein provides new insights regarding the unique paleotectonic setting of the Sespe forearc from the Late Eocene through earliest Miocene. Nonmarine sedimentation of the Sespe Formation initiated soon after cessation of coastal flat-slab subduction of the Laramide orogeny and terminated as the drainage divide migrated coastward. Competing models for movement along the Nacimiento fault system during the Laramide orogeny (sinistral slip versus reverse slip to emplace the Salinian terrane against the Nacimiento terrane) share the fact that the Peninsular Ranges forearc basin was not disrupted, as it lay south and southwest of the Nacimiento fault system. The northern edge of the Peninsular Ranges batholith formed a natural conduit for the fluvial system that deposited the Sespe Formation.