The origin of detachment fault systems in core complexes
- Monash Univ., Clayton, Victoria (Australia). Dept. of Earth Sciences
At Planet Peak in the Buckskin Mountains, AZ, lower plate rocks are cut by numerous faults, the largest being moderate to gently, N to NE dipping normal faults with displacements from 10--100 meters. Superficially the structure of the lower plate appears similar to that of the upper plate, emphasizing the importance of brittle deformation in the evolution of the lower plate. This feature is inconsistent with recent models for core complexes in which the lower plate has low flexural strength. Mylonitic fabrics are best developed in the vicinity of Tertiary, mafic to intermediate intrusives. Where the intrusives are absent, lower plate rocks preserve the steeply dipping, NE-trending Proterozoic fabric. Typically the intrusives are far more intensely deformed than the adjacent wallrocks, indicating strain was localized within them. Local discordance between the mylonitic fabric in the intrusives and that in the wallrocks is the result of both intrusives cross-cutting earlier mylonitic fabrics and fault localization along intrusive contacts. The authors infer the association of mylonites and Tertiary intrusives to imply transient ductile deformation occurred in the thermal aureoles of shallow level intrusives, at less sand possibly much less than 10 km depth. Although thin igneous bodies implaced at shallow levels would be expected to cool extremely rapidly, the initial localization of strain may result in strain softening [+-] shear heating sufficient to enable further localized strain well after the initial heat input should have dissipated. Along the western Planet Peak, the Buckskin fault forms the upper contact to a thick suite of syn-extensional intrusives, lithologically similar to those of the Oligocene-Miocene lutonic complex that comprises 30% of the exposed lower plate in the Buckskin and Rawhide Mountains. They propose that core complex formation and detachment faulting are related to shallow level intrusion during Oligocene-Miocene extension of the region.
- OSTI ID:
- 5880069
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-921058-; CODEN: GAAPBC
- Journal Information:
- Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Vol. 24:7; Conference: 1992 annual meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA), Cincinnati, OH (United States), 26-29 Oct 1992; ISSN 0016-7592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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