Style and magnitude of Mesozoic thrust faulting in the hinterland of the Sevier thrust belt Pequop Mountains-Wood Hills-East Humboldt Range region, northeast Nevada
- Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie, WY (United States). Dept. of Geology and Geophysics
The Pequop Mountains (PM), Wood Hills (WH) and East Humboldt Range (EHR), NE Nevada, provide evidence that the hinterland of the Sevier thrust belt experienced large-magnitude Mesozoic shortening ([>=]55 km) and crustal thickening ([>=] 30 km). These ranges expose a structurally continuous crustal cross section of unmetamorphosed to high pressure upper amphibolite facies Triassic to Precambrian miogeoclinal strata. This sequence lies structurally beneath unmetamorphosed extensional klippen that omit metamorphic grade and crustal section, but also repeat stratigraphic units. Because they repeat stratigraphic units, the underlying miogeoclinal section, or footwall, must have once lain beneath a thrust fault (herein named the Windermere thrust). The footwall of the Windermere thrust was exhumed by two generations of top-to-the-W-NW low-angle normal faults that are distinguished by whether they are depositionally overlapped by Eocene volcanic rocks or if they cut the volcanic rocks in their hanging walls. The latter phase is associated with development of the mid-Tertiary extensional mylonitic shear zone in the EHR. An integration of geobarometric, metamorphic, and map data suggest (1) a NW dip of the footwall of the Windermere thrust with metamorphic facies belts trending perpendicular to dip direction and metamorphic grade increasing down dip, and (2) a top-to-the-SE sense-of-slip for the Windermere thrust. Assuming that the Windermere thrust comprised a flat on the youngest rocks exposed in the footwall (Triassic), the Mesozoic depth to the Windermere thrust in the northern PM is [>=] 7 km, in WH is [approximately]10--16 km, and in the EHR[>=]30 km. The Windermere thrust accommodated a minimum of 50 km of shortening associated with the Independence thrust is [>=] 5 km. These data indicate that the amount of hinterland shortening in NE Nevada greatly exceeds that to the south in the Eureka belt.
- OSTI ID:
- 5421996
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9305259-; CODEN: GAAPBC
- Journal Information:
- Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Vol. 25:5; Conference: 89. annual meeting of the Cordilleran Section and the 46th annual meeting of the Rocky Mountain Section of the Geological Society of America (GSA), Reno, NV (United States), 19-21 May 1993; ISSN 0016-7592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Mesozoic and Cenozoic structures of Pocatello region: transition from thrust belt to hinterland, southeast Idaho
Constraints on the tectonics of the Mule Mountains thrust system, southeast California and southwest Arizona