Paleomagnetism of the Miocene dikes in Bare Mountain, southwest Nevada: Implications for regional tectonics
- Univ. of Nevada, Reno, NV (United States). Dept. of Geological Sciences
Paleomagnetic studies of N-striking Miocene quartz latite dikes (13.9 Ma), within Proterozoic and Paleozoic sedimentary rocks of Bare Mountain, have been conducted in an effort to determine the sense of post-middle Miocene tectonic tilting and rotation in the Bare Mountain region. A total of 56 oriented samples of dikes and wallrocks were collected from Tarantula Canyon (TC) and south of Joshua Hollow (JH), where the dikes intruded N-dipping Mississippian-Devonian limestone beds. Progressive thermal demagnetization and principal component analyses reveal a stable high temperature component of remanent magnetization that is carried by magnetite or hematite in different samples. Petrographic investigations, combined with thermal demagnetization analysis, indicate that magnetite is a primary phase and that hematite is secondary. Hematitic alteration in both wallrocks and dikes is probably hydrothermal following intrusion as the mean direction of both minerals overlap. The in situ mean magnetization directions from all dikes exhibit negative inclinations that correspond to a Tertiary reversed field. The data indicate that magnetization acquisition in the wallrocks and dikes postdates tilting of the beds and the no major remagnetization event has occurred since the intrusion. The results from TC imply that there has been no significant rotation of the northeast part of Bare Mountain since [minus]14 Ma. The authors further suggest that the E-W structural trends of Proterozoic and Paleozoic rocks at Bare Mountain are older than the middle Miocene dikes. Paleomagnetic data from dikes of JH show steeper inclinations and westerly declinations compared to the dike of TC. There are two interpretations to explain the differences: The dikes may have formed at different times in the same magmatic event and the directional differences are due to secular variation. Alternatively, the dikes at JH were tilted slightly to the north around a sub-horizontal axis.
- OSTI ID:
- 5099131
- 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
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