Late Paleozoic extension in the Great Basin, western United States

Journal Article · Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1990 · Geology; (USA)

OSTI ID:6357328

Miller, E L; Smith, D L ^[1]

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1. Stanford Univ., CA (USA)

Geologic mapping in the Toiyabe Range in central Nevada has revealed the existence of normal faults of probable mid-Mississippian to Early Permian age that strike roughly east-west and dip northward. Additional evidence of uplift and erosion followed by mafic volcanism and subsidence suggests that much of the central and southern Toiyabe Range was affected by late Paleozoic extension. Similar patterns of late Paleozoic uplift and subsidence, together with local basaltic volcanism, are widespread in the western United States, suggesting that the continental margin was dominated by extension or transtension in Mississippian to Permian time. This extension was coeval with convergence between North America and South America across the Ouachita and Marathon belts, and the dynamic interaction of these two margins may, by analogy with the Cenozoic tectonics of Asia, has given rise to complex late Paleozoic deformation in the Ancestral Rocky Mountains and adjacent areas of the interior western United States.

• OSTI ID: 6357328
• Journal Information: Geology; (USA), Vol. 18:8; ISSN 0091-7613
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
GREAT BASIN
STRATIGRAPHY
TECTONICS
AGE ESTIMATION
CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD
CONTINENTAL MARGIN
DEFORMATION
EROSION
GEOLOGIC FAULTS
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
GEOLOGIC MODELS
GROUND SUBSIDENCE
GROUND UPLIFT
MAPPING
NEVADA
NORTH AMERICA
ORIENTATION
PALEOZOIC ERA
PERMIAN PERIOD
ROCKY MOUNTAINS
SOUTH AMERICA
VOLCANISM
FEDERAL REGION IX
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC FRACTURES
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GEOLOGY
LATIN AMERICA
MOUNTAINS
USA
580000* - Geosciences