The Yolla Bolly junction revisited
- Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Geology and Geophysics
- Western Washington Univ., Bellingham, WA (United States). Dept. of Geology
West of Red Bluff, California, rocks of the northern Coast Ranges, Klamath-Sierra Nevada, and Great Valley provinces come together at what has been called the Yolla Bolly junction. Mapping of the Red Bluff and Willows 1:100,000 quadrangles has greatly clarified the enigmatic features of this complex area. Terranes of the Klamath Mountains and their Cretaceous sedimentary cover have been thrust northwestward over the Elder Creek terrane and Franciscan rocks, north of the left-lateral Cold Fork fault zone. The Condrey Mountain window (Franciscan Pickett Peak terrane) provides a measure of the magnitude of this thrusting (ca 90 km). South of the Cold Fork fault zone, the Franciscan and Elder Creek terranes were driven southeastward as tectonic wedges onto Sierran-Klamath basement. Timing of this scissor-tectonics is not constrained near the junction, but further north in southwest Oregon, Lower Eocene strata were deformed by overthrusting of the Klamath block whereas Upper Eocene strata overlap the thrust, indicating that thrusting occurred between about 52 and 60 Ma. Plate reconstructions for this time interval indicate the close proximity of the Kula-Farallon-North America triple junction and that old (ca 100 m.y.) Farallon lithosphere was being subducted north of the junction whereas to the south, very young (ca 10 m.y.) Kula plate was presumably obducted onto North America.
- OSTI ID:
- 5437221
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9305259--
- Journal Information:
- Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Journal Name: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States) Vol. 25:5; ISSN GAAPBC; ISSN 0016-7592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Mesozoic petrotectonic development of the Sawyers Bar suprasubduction-zone arc, central Klamath Mountains, northern California
Geology of offshore central California