Late Oligocene to Present Contractional Structure in and Around the Susitna Basin, Alaska—Geophysical Evidence and Geological GEOSPHERE; V
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Research Paper THEMED ISSUE: Geologic Evolution of the Alaska Range and Environs GEOSPHERE Late Oligocene to present contractional structure in and around the Susitna basin, Alaska—Geophysical evidence and geological GEOSPHERE; v. 12, no. 5 doi:10.1130/GES01279.1 implications R.W. Saltus1,*, R.G. Stanley2, P.J. Haeussler3, J.V. Jones III3, C.J. Potter4, and K.A. Lewis1 7 figures; 1 supplemental file 1U.S. Geological Survey, Denver Federal Center, Denver, Colorado 80225, USA 2U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA CORRESPONDENCE: rick .saltus@ noaa .gov 3U.S. Geological Survey, 4210 University Drive, Anchorage, Alaska 99508-4626, USA 4U.S. Geological Survey, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA CITATION: Saltus, R.W., Stanley, R.G., Haeussler, P.J., Jones, J.V., III, Potter, C.J., and Lewis, K.A., 2016, Late Oligocene to present contractional structure in ABSTRACT morphic rocks of the Talkeetna Mountains, and on the southeast by the Castle and around the Susitna basin, Alaska—Geophysical Mountain strike-slip fault. evidence and geological implications: Geosphere, The Cenozoic Susitna basin lies within an enigmatic lowland surrounded Existing structural information for the basin is sparse; aside from the Castle v. 12, no. 5, p. 1378–1390, doi:10.1130/GES01279.1. by the Central Alaska Range, Western Alaska Range (including the Tordrillo Mountain fault, none of the bounding structures are exposed. Subsurface data Mountains), and Talkeetna Mountains in south-central Alaska. Some previ- consist of a modest number of vintage seismic lines (e.g., Lewis et al., 2015) Received 1 October 2015 Revision received 8 June 2016 ous interpretations show normal faults as the defining structures of thebasin and a few wells, none of which drilled deep enough to reach crystalline base- Accepted 6 July 2016 (e.g., Kirschner, 1994). However, analysis of new and existing geophysical data ment. Other data include 1970s and newer gravity data, mostly collected by the Published online 11 August 2016 shows predominantly (Late Oligocene to present) thrust and reverse fault State of Alaska and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS; see Supplemental File1) geometries in the region, as previously proposed by Hackett (1978). A key ex- and aeromagnetic data from surveys collected in 2000 and 2012 by the USGS ample is the Beluga Mountain fault where a 50-mGal gravity gradient, caused (http:// mrdata .usgs .gov /magnetic /show -survey .php?id = 4247, http:// mrdata / ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ / XYZ EXPORT [10/01/2015] / DATABASE [.\SusitnaGravAll.gdb] / ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ by the density transition from the igneous bedrock of Beluga Mountain to .usgs .gov /magnetic /show -survey .php?id = 10001). / / NAME LON LAT Xutm5 Yutm5 ElevM FAA CBA CBAfix /============ =========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== / the >4-km-thick Cenozoic sedimentary section of Susitna basin, spans a hori- Based on access to early exploration data and models, Kirschner (1988, T628 -147.18000 62.98917 794620.7 6997531.1 786.09 35.61 -51.79 -51.79 01TK -147.68883 62.99867 768820.8 6996354.6 1158.25 78.92 -44.71 -44.71 01TK -147.68233 62.97767 769342.7 6994048.0 1005.85 75.65 -33.98 -33.98 T629 -147.45383 62.96550 781012.5 6993674.4 765.67 58.81 -25.54 -25.54 T596 -148.02450 62.98367 751986.5 6993326.6 809.56 17.66 -70.88 -70.88 zontal distance of ~40 km and straddles the topographic front. The location 1994) depicted the Susitna basin as bounded entirely by normal faults. How- T626 -147.01367 62.94200 803512.1 6993066.3 800.72 6.45 -82.96 -82.96 HS37 -148.55167 62.99700 725218.4 6992851.1 762.92 9.82 -67.39 -67.39 T601 -148.32083 62.98783 736965.2 6992661.5 979.33 50.33 -57.49 -57.49 99TM -148.27083 62.98533 739514.5 6992568.9 1170.45 61.24 -66.59 -66.59 and shape of the gravity gradient preclude a normal fault geometry; instead, ever, this depiction was inconsistent with an earlier gravity interpretation of T536 -148.56100 62.99467 724764.5 6992559.3 778.47 10.91 -69.29 -69.29 99TM -148.25300 62.98417 740425.8 6992506.5 1056.75 48.42 -68.92 -68.92 99TM -148.22050 62.97533 742142.9 6991645.6 978.42 34.33 -74.45 -74.45 01TK -148.99200 62.99333 702972.6 6990975.8 1575.84 83.71 -73.43 -73.43 it is best explained by a southwest-dipping thrust fault, with its leading edge Hackett (1977a, 1977b) that showed a reverse geometry for the Beluga Moun- FP25 -147.40500 62.93667 783761.5 6990685.7 838.21 53.33 -39.91 -39.91 T493 -148.88200 62.98733 708580.5 6990660.5 743.11 10.11 -65.68 -65.68 T489 -149.17633 62.98600 693694.7 6989591.4 708.36 -0.07 -67.20 -67.20 located several kilometers to the northeast of the mountain front, concealed tain fault that bounds Susitna basin to the southwest. 1Supplemental File. Gravity data in and around beneath the shallow glacial and fluvial cover deposits. Similar contractional The dip of the Beluga Mountain fault is an ideal target for gravity anomaly Susitna basin, Alaska. Please visit http://dx .doi .org fault relationships are observed for other basin-bounding and regional faults investigation. The significant lateral density contrast between the igneous bed- /10 .1130 /GES01279 .S1 or the full-text article on www as well. Contractional structures are consistent with a regional shortening rock of Beluga Mountain and the Cenozoic sedimentary deposits of the Susitna .gsapubs .org to view the Supplemental File. strain field inferred from differential offsets on the Denali and Castle Mountain basin creates an easily measurable gravity gradient. If the surface projection right-lateral strike-slip fault systems. of the presumed fault structure can be identified, then the overall dip of the OLD G structure can be uniquely determined from gravity modeling (e.g., Saltus and Blakely, 2011, and references therein). Hackett (1977b) showed a reverse fault INTRODUCTION geometry model for the Beluga Mountain fault based on an assumption of the surface fault projection at the topographic mountain front. In this report we OPEN ACCESS The Susitna basin of south-central Alaska (Figs. 1 and 2) consists of ~4–5 km present an update of his model, using best available gravity and airborne mag- of Cenozoic strata (Stanley et al., 2014). The basin is bounded on the southwest netic data for the Beluga Mountain fault. Using this well-constrained model, by the intrusive, metavolcanic, and sedimentary rocks of Mount Susitna and we point out other likely thrust or reverse structures based on similar gravity Beluga Mountain, on the northwest by the Kahiltna flysch sequence (Wilson anomaly-topographic front associations in the Susitna lowland region and dis- et al., 2012) that outcrops in low hills, on the northeast by igneous and meta- cuss the relevance of these features in the context of southern Alaska margin geodynamics. An improved structural model for Susitna basin is important for This paper is published under the terms of the *Now at Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, better understanding of hydrocarbon resources and modern seismic hazards CC‑BY license. Boulder, Colorado 80305, USA close to the population center of Anchorage, Alaska (e.g., Gillis et al., 2013). © 2016 The Authors GEOSPHERE | Volume 12 | Number 5 Saltus et al. | Susitna basin contractional structure Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geosphere/article-pdf/12/5/1378/3334604/1378.pdf 1378 by guest on 29 September 2021 Research Paper 153°W 150°W 147°W N BP 63°N Figure 1. South-central Alaska physiog- Alaska Range raphy. The Susitna lowland is surrounded by the Western Alaska Range, Central Central Alaska Range, and Talkeetna Mountains and is separated from the upper Cook Inlet basin by the Castle Mountain fault (CMF). The Susitna basin (SB) and Yentna basin (YB) fall within the lowland. A triangular Talkeetna Mtns inter- lowland region of higher relative YB topog raphy includes Beluga Mountain Susitna (BM), Mount Susitna (MS), and Little Mount Susitna (LMS). The small Beluga depo- lowland center (BD) lies to the southwest of the Western Alaska Range SB ele vated Beluga-Susitna triangle. The back- (including Tordrillo Mtns) BM ground topography is a shaded rendition of a 300-m digital elevation model. Gray lines indicate mapped faults by Haeussler (2008). MS CMF LMS ANC—Anchorage; BP—Broad Pass. BD t ANC 61°N Cook Inle 100 km GEOLOGIC AND GEOPHYSICAL SETTING Previous authors have stated that the Susitna basin is a northern continu- ation of the Cook Inlet forearc basin (e.g., Rouse and Houseknecht, 2012, p. 2; Geology Craddock et al., 2014, p. 48), but we disagree with this interpretation because the two basins differ from each other in significant ways. The Cook Inlet basin The Susitna basin is separated from the adjacent Cook Inlet basin by the is a 200-million-year-old forearc basin with Late Paleocene to Quaternary non- seismically active Castle Mountain fault (CMF, Fig. 1) with estimated right- marine strata up to 8 km thick (LePain et al., 2013); these strata rest unconform- lateral displacements of ~26 km since 35 Ma (Haeussler and Saltus, 2005) and ably on a pile of Late Triassic to Late Cretaceous marine strata more than 10 km ~110–130 km since the Late Jurassic (Trop et al., 2003). We suggest that the thick (included in the Peninsular terrane of Nokleberg et al., 1994). In contrast difference between these two estimates may indicate that tens of kilometers to the Cook Inlet basin, the Susitna basin is less than 60 million years old and of right-lateral movement occurred along the Castle Mountain fault during the consists of nonmarine strata of Late Paleocene to Quaternary age that have a Cretaceous and/or Paleogene.