Geologic Excursions in Southwestern North America

This volume, prepared as part of the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Phoenix, includes field guides covering aspects of the spectacular geology of southwestern North America. Field guides tackle the geology of the southern Colorado Plateau, from paleoenvironments of Petrified Forest National Park, to Jurassic sand dunes of southern Utah, to the San Francisco Volcanic Field, to awesome Grand Canyon. Appropriately for the 50th anniversary of the first lunar landing, one trip visits sites in northern Arizona that helped prepare astronauts for their missions. Several guides address aspects of the Proterozoic to Cenozoic tectonic development of the Transition Zone between the Colorado Plateau and the Basin and Range. Exploring the Basin and Range, guides feature Laramide tectonism and ore deposit development, features associated with large-magnitude Cenozoic extensional tectonism, large Miocene volcanic centers in northwestern Arizona, and tectonism and development of the lower Colorado River. Three field guides explore various aspects of northwestern Mexico, including tectonics and ore deposits of Sonora, fauna and paleoenvironments of Colorado River delta deposits, and volcanism in central Baja California. Finally, a guide analyzes anthropogenic earth fissures that have developed in the Phoenix metropolitan area.
Regional-scale evolution of the Laramide arc and porphyry copper province, southwestern North America
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Published:September 04, 2019
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 SiO2 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.