ABSTRACT The Laramide foreland belt comprises a broad region of thick-skinned, contractional deformation characterized by an anastomosing network of basement-cored arches and intervening basins that developed far inboard of the North American Cordilleran plate margin during the Late Cretaceous to Paleogene. Laramide deformation was broadly coincident in space and time with development of a flat-slab segment along part of the Cordilleran margin. This slab flattening was marked by a magmatic gap in the Sierra Nevada and Mojave arc sectors, an eastward jump of limited igneous activity from ca. 80 to 60 Ma, a NE-migrating wave of dynamic subsidence and subsequent uplift across the foreland, and variable hydration and cooling of mantle lithosphere during slab dewatering as recorded by xenoliths. The Laramide foreland belt developed within thick lithospheric mantle, Archean and Proterozoic basement with complex preexisting fabrics, and thin sedimentary cover. These attributes are in contrast to the thin-skinned Sevier fold-and-thrust belt to the west, which developed within thick passive-margin strata that overlay previously rifted and thinned lithosphere. Laramide arches are bounded by major reverse faults that typically dip 25°–40°, have net slips of ~3–20 km, propagate upward into folded sedimentary cover rocks, and flatten into a lower-crustal detachment or merge into diffuse lower-crustal shortening and buckling. Additional folds and smaller-displacement reverse faults developed along arch flanks and in associated basins. Widespread layer-parallel shortening characterized by the development of minor fault sets and subtle grain-scale fabrics preceded large-scale faulting and folding. Arches define a regional NW- to NNW-trending fabric across Wyoming to Colorado, but individual arches are curved and vary in trend from N-S to E-W. Regional shortening across the Laramide foreland was oriented WSW-ENE, similar to the direction of relative motion between the North American and Farallon plates, but shortening directions were locally refracted along curved and obliquely trending arches, partly related to reactivation of preexisting basement weaknesses. Shortening from large-scale structures varied from ~10%–15% across Wyoming and Colorado to <5% in the Colorado Plateau, which may have had stronger crust, and <5% along the northeastern margin of the belt, where differential stress was likely less. Synorogenic strata deposited in basins and thermochronologic data from basement rocks record protracted arch uplift, exhumation, and cooling starting ca. 80 Ma in the southern Colorado Plateau and becoming younger northeastward to ca. 60 Ma in northern Wyoming and central Montana, consistent with NE migration of a flat-slab segment. Basement-cored uplifts in southwest Montana, however, do not fit this pattern, where deformation and rapid inboard migration of igneous activity started at ca. 80 Ma, possibly related to development of a slab window associated with subduction of the Farallon-Kula Ridge. Cessation of contractional deformation began at ca. 50 Ma in Montana to Wyoming, followed by a southward-migrating transition to extension and flare-up in igneous activity, interpreted to record rollback of the Farallon slab. We present a model for the tectonic evolution of the Laramide belt that combines broad flat-slab subduction, stress transfer to the North American plate from end loading along a lithospheric keel and increased basal traction, upward stress transfer through variably sheared lithospheric mantle, diffuse lower-crustal shortening, and focused upper-crustal faulting influenced by preexisting basement weaknesses.

ABSTRACT The Buckskin-Rawhide and northern Plomosa Mountains in west-central Arizona are metamorphic core complexes that record NE-directed, large-magnitude extension in the early to middle Miocene. Both core complexes consist of mylonites exposed in the footwall of corrugated, low-angle detachment faults. The Late Cretaceous Orocopia Schist and early Miocene intrusions dominate the mylonitic footwall of the northern Plomosa Mountains. The Orocopia Schist was emplaced during low-angle subduction of the Farallon plate and exhibits the hallmarks of the underplated Laramide subduction complexes, including blocks of metasomatized peridotite encased in quartzofeldspathic schist. In the Buckskin-Rawhide Mountains, carbonate-rich metasedimentary rocks that were buried to midcrustal depths by Mesozoic thrust faults preferentially absorbed Miocene footwall strain and localized the Buckskin detachment fault. A correlation between distinct granodiorite in the footwall of the Buckskin detachment fault in the eastern Bouse Hills and a hanging-wall conglomerate sourced from this granodiorite provides constraints on middle Miocene displacement across the detachment fault and indicates that displacement increased northeastward in the slip direction. The termination of slip on the Buckskin detachment fault also younged northeastward, largely ending by ca. 19 Ma in the western Bouse Hills and ca. 17 Ma in the westernmost Buckskin Mountains, but continuing to <16 Ma in the southern Buckskin Mountains and to ca. 12 Ma in the eastern Buckskin Mountains. Late stages of slip on the detachment fault record minor NW-SE shortening during amplification of corrugation folds. Postdetachment faulting across the region was dominated by dextral and oblique-dextral slip on NW-striking faults influenced by the Pacific–North America plate boundary. Locations visited on this three-day field trip highlight the structural evolution of these metamorphic core complexes.

ABSTRACT The mid-Cenozoic succession in the northeast limb of the Mount Diablo anticline records the evolution of plate interactions at the leading edge of the North America plate. Subduction of the Kula plate and later Farallon plate beneath the North America plate created a marine forearc basin that existed from late Mesozoic to mid-Cenozoic times. In the early Cenozoic, extension on north-south faults formed a graben depocenter on the west side of the basin. Deposition of the Markley Formation of middle to late? Eocene age took place in the late stages of the marine forearc basin. In the Oligocene, the marine forearc basin changed to a primarily nonmarine basin, and the depocenter of the basin shifted eastward of the Midland fault to a south-central location for the remainder of the Cenozoic. The causes of these changes may have included slowing in the rate of subduction, resulting in slowing subsidence, and they might also have been related to the initiation of transform motion far to the south. Two unconformities in the mid-Cenozoic succession record the changing events on the plate boundary. The first hiatus is between the Markley Formation and the overlying Kirker Formation of Oligocene age. The succession above the unconformity records the widespread appearance of nonmarine rocks and the first abundant appearance of silicic volcanic detritus due to slab rollback, which reversed the northeastward migration of the volcanic arc to a more proximal location. A second regional unconformity separates the Kirker/Valley Springs formations from the overlying Cierbo/Mehrten formations of late Miocene age. This late Miocene unconformity may reflect readjustment of stresses in the North America plate that occurred when subduction was replaced by transform motion at the plate boundary. The Cierbo and Neroly formations above the unconformity contain abundant andesitic detritus due to proto-Cascade volcanism. In the late Cenozoic, the northward-migrating triple junction produced volcanic eruptive centers in the Coast Ranges. Tephra from these local sources produced time markers in the late Cenozoic succession.