Analysis and correlation of strata in ancient basins are commonly difficult due to a lack of high-resolution age control. This study tackled this problem for the latest Mississippian to middle Pennsylvanian Ely–Bird Spring basin. Here, 1095 new carbon isotope analyses combined with existing biostratigraphy at six sections throughout the basin constrain changes in relative sediment accumulation rates in time and space. The Ely–Bird Spring basin contains dominantly shallow-water carbonates exposed in eastern and southern Nevada, western Utah, and southeastern California. It formed as part of the complex late Paleozoic southwestern Laurentian plate margin. However, the detailed evolution of the basin, and hence the tectonic driver(s) of deformation, is poorly understood. The combined isotopic and biostratigraphic data were correlated using the Match-2.3 dynamic programming algorithm. The correlations show a complex picture of sediment accumulation throughout the life of the Ely–Bird Spring basin. Initially, the most rapid sediment accumulation was in the eastern part of the basin. Throughout Morrowan time, the most rapid sediment accumulation migrated to the northwestern part of the basin, culminating in a peak of sediment accumulation in Atokan time. This peak records tectonic loading at the north or northwest margin of the basin. Basin sedimentation was interrupted by early Desmoinesian time in the north by formation of northwest-directed thrust faults, folds, uplift, and an associated unconformity. Deposition continued in the south with a correlative conformity and increased clastic input. The combination of isotopic and biostratigraphic data for correlation is therefore a valuable tool for elucidating temporal basin evolution and can be readily applied to tectonically complex carbonate basins worldwide.

ABSTRACT We addressed fundamental questions about the lithology, age, structure, and thermal evolution of the deep crust of the retroarc hinterland of the North American Cordilleran orogen through systematic investigation of zircons from Cretaceous plutons in the Snake Range and Kern Mountains of east-central Nevada. Geochronological (U-Pb) and geochemical (trace element, O and Hf isotopes) characterization of pre- and synmagmatic growth domains of zircons, coupled with traditional petrologic methods (petrography, field relationships, and whole-rock major-element, trace-element, and Sr-Nd and Pb isotope geochemistry), fingerprinted temporal variations in crustal contributions to magmatism. The samples are typical felsic, peraluminous Cordilleran interior granitoids that formed between 102 ± 2 Ma and 71 ± 1 Ma (95% confidence). Over the entire time span of magmatism, 87 Sr/ 86 Sr initial , εNd ( t ) , 208 Pb/ 204 Pb, and εHf ( t ) exhibit incrementally more “crustal” ratios. The oldest and youngest samples, respectively, predate and postdate all published timing constraints of Cretaceous peak metamorphism in the region and exhibit the least and most radiogenic whole-rock isotopic results in the study ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr initial = 0.7071 vs. 0.7222; εNd ( t ) = −3.4 vs. −18.8; 208 Pb/ 204 Pb = 38.8 vs. 40.1). Accordingly, the least intrasample variability of εHf ( t ) , δ 18 O Zrc , and trace-element ratios in magmatic zircon domains is also observed in these oldest and youngest samples, whereas greater intrasample variability is observed in intermediate-age samples that intruded during peak metamorphism. The geochemistry of zircon growth in the intermediate-age samples suggests assimilation of partially molten metasedimentary crust led to increased heterogeneity in their magma chemistry. Interaction of magmas with distinctive crust types is indicated by contrasts between four categories of inherited zircon observed in the studied intrusions: (1) detrital zircon with typical magmatic trace-element ratios; (2) zircon derived from high-grade 1.8–1.6 Ga basement; (3) zircon with anomalously low δ 18 O of uncertain origin, derived from 1.7/2.45 Ga basement (or detritus derived thereof); and (4) zircon from variably evolved Jurassic–Early Cretaceous deep-seated intrusions. The progression of zircon inheritance patterns, correlated with evolving geochemical signatures, in Late Cretaceous granitic plutons is best explained by early, relatively primitive intrusions and their penecontemporaneously metamorphosed country rock having been tectonically transported cratonward and superposed on older basement, from which the later, more-evolved Tungstonia pluton was generated. This juxtaposition consequentially implies tectonic transport of synorogenic plutonic rocks occurred in the Cordilleran hinterland during the Sevier orogeny as a result of the interplay of retroarc magmatism and convergent margin tectonism.

ABSTRACT The highest-grade Barrovian-type metamorphic rocks of the North American Cordillera exposed today are Late Cretaceous in age and found within an orogen-parallel belt of metamorphic core complexes for which the tectonic histories remain controversial. Thermobarometric studies indicate that many of these Late Cretaceous metamorphic assemblages formed at pressures of >8 kbar, conventionally interpreted as >30 km depth by assuming lithostatic conditions. However, in the northern Basin and Range Province, detailed structural reconstructions and a growing body of contradictory geologic data in and around the metamorphic core complexes indicate these metamorphic rocks are unlikely to have ever been buried any deeper than ~15 km depth (~4 kbar, lithostatic). Recent models controversially interpret this discrepancy as the result of “tectonic overpressure,” whereby the high-grade mineral assemblages were formed under superlithostatic conditions without significant tectonic burial. We performed several detailed studies within the Snake Range metamorphic core complex to test the possibility that cryptic structures responsible for additional burial and exhumation might exist, which would refute such a model. Instead, our data highlight the continued discordance between paleodepth and paleopressure and suggest the latter may have reached nearly twice the lithostatic pressure in the Late Cretaceous. First, new detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology combined with finite-strain estimates show that prestrain thicknesses of the lower-plate units that host the high-pressure mineral assemblages correspond closely to the thicknesses of equivalent-age units in adjacent ranges rather than to those of the inferred, structurally overridden (para) autochthon, inconsistent with cross sections and interpretations that assume a lower plate with a deeper origin for these rocks. Second, new Raman spectroscopy of carbonaceous material of upper- and lower-plate units identified an ~200 °C difference in peak metamorphic temperatures across the northern Snake Range detachment but did not identify any intraplate discontinuities, thereby limiting the amount of structural excision to motion on the northern Snake Range detachment itself, and locally, to no more than 7–11 km. Third, mapped geology and field relationships indicate that a pre-Cenozoic fold truncated by the northern Snake Range detachment could have produced ~3–9 km of structural overburden above Precambrian units, on the order of that potentially excised by the northern Snake Range detachment but still far short of expected overburden based on lithostatic assumptions. Fourth, finite-strain measurements indicate a shortening (constrictional) strain regime favorable to superlithostatic conditions. Together, these observations suggest that pressures during peak metamorphism may have locally reached ~150%–200% lithostatic pressure. Such departures from lithostatic conditions are expected to have been most pronounced above regions of high heat flow and partial melting, and/or at the base of regional thrust-bounded allochthons, as is characteristic of the spatial distribution of Cordilleran metamorphic core complexes during the Late Cretaceous Sevier orogeny.

ABSTRACT Determining the origin and evolution of basin-and-range geomorphology and structure in the western United States is a fundamental problem with global implications for continental tectonics. Has the extensional tectonic development of the Great Basin been dominated by steeply dipping (horst and graben) faulting or detachment faulting? The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence that attenuation due to multiple coalescing detachment faults has been a significant or dominant upper-crustal process in at least some areas of the Great Basin. We present mapping at a scale of 1:3000 and seismic refraction profiling of an area at the discontinuity between the White Pine and Horse Ranges, east-central Nevada, USA, which indicate the existence of a detachment rooted in an argillaceous ductile unit. This fault, which we call the Currant Gap detachment, coalesces with the previously mapped regional White Pine detachment. Our data suggest that the Currant Summit strike-slip fault at the surface, previously proposed to explain a nearly 2500 m east-west surface offset between the two ranges, likely does not exist. If a discontinuity exists at depth, it could be manifested at the surface by the undulating topography of the two coalescing detachments. On the other hand, offset domal uplifts in the two ranges would obviate the need for any lateral discontinuity at depth to explain the observed surface features. Our previous mapping of the White Pine detachment showed that it extends over the White Pine, Horse, and Grant Ranges and into Railroad Valley (total of 3000 km 2 ). Accordingly, we propose a model of stacked, coalescing detachments above the metamorphic infrastructure; these detachments are regional and thus account for most of the basin-range relief and upper-crust extension in this area. An essential feature of our model is that these detachments are rooted in ductile units. Detachments that have been observed in brittle units could have initiated at a time when elevated temperatures or fluid flow enhanced the ductility of the rocks. The Currant Gap and White Pine detachments exhibit distinctive types of fluid-genetic silicified rocks. Study of such rocks in fault contacts could provide insights into the initiation and early history of detachment faulting as well as the migration of fluids, including petroleum.