Thick continental lithosphere (tectosphere) beneath African cratons has been stable for ~2.5 b.y. despite its mechanical interaction with sublithospheric mantle. Water is known to have significant influence on mechanical stiffness, and the depletion of water is often considered to be a key to preserving the thick lithosphere. Although water-rich environments indicated by the present water content of cratonic xenoliths appear to contradict this hypothesis, these water contents might have been modified at later stages due to the high diffusivity of hydrogen in minerals. Deformation microstructures such as lattice-preferred orientation indicate water-poor conditions (<200 ppm H/Si) during long-term plastic deformation in the continental lithosphere. Analysis of convective instability further constrains the water content to be less than 100 ppm H/Si. We suggest that the continental tectosphere beneath southern Africa must have a low water content, at least one order of magnitude less than oceanic upper mantle, and that the present-day water content of cratonic xenoliths most likely reflects localized metasomatism before eruption.

The Grizzly Creek shear zone is a newly discovered Proterozoic structure coincident with the southern margin of the Laramide White River uplift in west-central Colorado. The shear zone includes a 10-15 m basal mylonite oriented 255/44°NW that truncates foliation and magmatic fabrics in the footwall. The mylonite is overlain by >400 m of moderately north-dipping tectonites dominated by protomylonitic to mylonitic gneiss intercalated with mainly concordant pseudotachylyte veins and cmscale ultramylonite bands. At the upper boundary of the shear zone, the high-strain tectonic fabrics grade into relatively undeformed rocks of the hanging wall. The shear zone separates supracrustal gneisses and coarse-to-megacrystic granitoids in the footwall (south block) from fine-grained, foliated granite and supracrustal gneisses in the hanging wall (north block). Mutually overprinting brittle and plastic fault rocks, including cataclasites, pseudotachylyte fault veins, mylonitized pseudotachylyte, and ultramylonite bands, record cyclic deformation by both seismogenic rupture and plastic creep within the shear zone. Mineral lineations on mylonitic foliation surfaces plunge N-NE, and a variety of microscopic and mesoscopic shear-sense indicators indicate top-to-south reverse displacement.The Grizzly Creek shear zone is truncated by the Cambrian-Precambrian nonconformity, which is underlain by a 1-2-m-thick paleoregolith containing altered pseudotachylyte. We interpret the shear zone to record cyclic seismogenic faulting and aseismic plastic flow at the brittle-plastic transition during Proterozoic ~N-S shortening. The age, kinematics, and tectonic style of the Grizzly Creek shear zone are consistent with the 1.4 Ga Colorado mineral belt shear zone system; a NE-trending intracontinental deformation zone that formed under a regional strain field involving N-S shortening, E-W extension, and complex transpression on subvertical shear zones 55 km to the southeast. The Grizzly Creek shear zone was brittley reactivated as a Laramide, south-vergent reverse fault with a displacement of > 200 m. We suggest that the Proterozoic Grizzly Creek shear zone represents a persistent zone of weakness in the lithosphere that significantly impacted the Cenozoic structural evolution and present geomorphology of the region.Keywords: pseudotachylyte, ultramylonite, brittle-plastic deformation, tectonic inheritance, White River uplift, Glenwood Canyon.

This field trip highlights various stages in the evolution of the Snake River Plain- Yellowstone Plateau bimodal volcanic province, and associated faulting and uplift, also known as the track of the Yellowstone hotspot. The 16 Ma Yellowstone hotspot track is one of the few places on Earth where time-transgressive processes on continental crust can be observed in the volcanic and tectonic (faulting and uplift) record at the rate and direction predicted by plate motion. Recent interest in young and possible renewed volcanism at Yellowstone along with new discoveries and synthesis of previous studies, i.e., tomographic, deformation, bathymetric, and seismic surveys, provide a framework of evidence of plate motion over a mantle plume.This 3-day trip is organized to present an overview into volcanism and tectonism in this dynamically active region. Field trip stops will include the young basaltic Craters of the Moon, exposures of 12–4 Ma rhyolites and edges of their associated collapsed calderas on the Snake River Plain, and exposures of faults which show an age progression similar to the volcanic fields. An essential stop is Yellowstone National Park, where the last major caldera-forming event occurred 640,000 years ago and now is host to the world’s largest concentration of hydrothermal features (>10,000 hot springs and geysers). This trip presents a quick, intensive overview into volcanism and tectonism in this dynamically active region. Field stops are directly linked to conceptual models related to hotspot passage through this volcano-tectonic province. Features that may reflect a tilted thermal mantle plume suggested in recent tomographic studies will be examined. The drive home will pass through Grand Teton National Park, where the Teton Range is currently rising in response to the passage of the North American plate over the Yellowstone hotspot.KeywordsYellowstone, hotspot, track, volcanism, faulting, uplift.