Geology of Central San Clemente Island, California
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PAUL M. MERIFIELD Lamar-Merifield, Geologists-Geopbysicists, 1)18 Second Street, Suite 27, Santa D. L. LAMAR J Monica, California 90401 M. L. STOUT Geology Department, California State College at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90032 Geology of Central San Clemente Island, California terraces. Terraces are poorly developed on the ABSTRACT northeastern slope of the island. Previous geo- Central San Clemente Island is underlain logic descriptions of San Clemente Island have primarily by nonmarine volcanic rocks. A been presented by Lawson (1893), Smith 1,200-ft core hole, drilled near sea level on the (1898), and Olmsted (1958). west coast of the island, penetrated a homo- As the initial phase of this study, two 4 sq mi geneous sequence of basaltic andesite flows areas surrounding Eel Point and Lost Point varying in thickness from 11 to 169 ft. Whole- (Fig. 2) were mapped in detail (scale: 1 in. to rock potassium-argon dates of samples taken 400 ft) to determine the suitability of these near the top and bottom of the core hole indi- locations for a Rock-Site installation (Merifield cate that the cored sequence was extruded in and Lamar, 1967). The Rock-Site concept and less than 1 m. y. during Miocene time. Uncon- its applications to offshore petroleum produc- formably overlying the andesitic flows are da- tion have been described by Austin (1966, citic flows reaching a total thickness of about 1967), and the related offshore geology is de- 300 ft. A distinctive volcanic breccia, which is scribed by Ridlon (1968). The remainder of in part of sedimentary origin, is commonly pre- the area shown on Figure 2 was mapped at 1 in. sent at the base of the dacites. Miocene sedi- to 2,000 ft on the San Clemente Island central ments and Quaternary beach sands overlie the quadrangle, published by the U.S. Geological volcanic rocks. Survey in 1950. The Tertiary rocks are folded into a north- During the mapping, detailed observations west-trending anticline. The axis of the anti- were made of the orientation of joints in bed- cline corresponds approximately to the rock, the attitudes of remarkably well-exposed topographic crest of the island located about .5 fault zones, and the rake of Striations within the mi inland from the eastern shoreline. North- fault zones. The San Clemente fault (Shepard northeast to northeast-trending faults cut the and Emery, 1941, p. 24) is situated directly Miocene rocks but do not displace the promi- northeast of San Clemente Island; this fault is nent surf-cut terraces. Striations within well- believed to have a major component of right- exposed fault zones indicate that most slip and may continue to the southeast in Baja movement has been oblique, with a principally California as the Agua Blanca fault (Allen and horizontal component. The faults may be left- others, I960; Krause, 1965). Because of the lateral, secondarily related to major right-slip excellent exposures and the detailed observa- movement along the northwest-trending San tions required to determine the engineering Clemente fault. properties of the bedrock, a unique oppor- tunity was provided to consider the structural INTRODUCTION relationship between the San Clemente fault San Clemente Island is situated about 60 mi and the fault and joint pattern in an immedi- (96 km) off the coast of Southern California ately adjacent area. (Fig. 1). The long axis of the island trends N. Subsequent to the mapping, continuous 40° W., roughly parallel to the major physio- cores from a 1,200-ft hole drilled at Eel Point graphic and structural features of the Peninsu- were logged and studied in thin section (Lamar lar Range province of Southern California. The and others, 1968). Whole-rock potassium- southwestern slope of the island is character- argon dates were obtained for two samples near ized by a remarkable development of surf-cut the top and bottom of the hole. These are the Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 82, p. 1989-1994, 6 figs. July 1971 1989 Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/82/7/1989/3417915/i0016-7606-82-7-1989.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 1990 MERIFIELD AND OTHERS—CENTRAL SAN CLEMENTE ISLAND, CALIFORNIA Figure 1. Index map showing location of San Cle- Allen and others (1960). mente Island and San Clemente fault. Redrawn from first dates reported for the volcanic rocks of San This range of 14.8 to 16.5 m.y., plotted on Clemente Island and bear on the tectonic his- Figure 1 of Yeats (1968), fits his observation tory of Southern California. that the age of Cenozoic rocks decreases, from west to east, southwest of the San Andreas fault DESCRIPTIVE PETROLOGY in California. Yeats has suggested that this is the Bedrock of the island consists of andesite result of migration of the East Pacific Rise to the flows overlain unconformably by dacite; a present site of the Gulf of California. In con- breccia up to 30 ft thick occurs locally at the trast, Hawkins (1970) reviewed data on the base of the dacite. Patches of Miocene marine ages of Cenozoic volcanic rocks in Southern sediments and Pleistocene beach sand rest un- California and northwestern Mexico and noted conformably on the volcanic rocks. Landslide that over this larger area the locus of volcanic debris is present on the steep northeastern side activity appears to have shifted westward. He of the island. suggests a relationship between volcanism, faulting, and crustal dilation. Under his Potassium-Argon Age Determinations hypothesis, the San Clemente Island volcanic Geochron Laboratories, Inc., performed rocks and San Clemente Island fault may be whole-rock potassium-argon age determina- related. tions on samples from near the top and bottom Nature of Andesite Flows of the core hole. The results are as follows: Previous descriptions of the volcanic rocks Depth Age and marine sediments exposed on San Cle- 40' 15.7 ±0.8 m.y. mente Island are presented by Smith (1898) 1,158' 15-5 ±0.7 m.y. and Olmsted (1958). However, the core hole These results indicate that the rocks were ex- penetrated rocks which, for the most part, are truded in about 1 m.y. during the Miocene. not exposed on the island. In the drill core, 29 Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/82/7/1989/3417915/i0016-7606-82-7-1989.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 DESCRIPTIVE PETROLOGY 1991 32° 57'30" JOINT STRIKES 658 measurements FAULT STRIKES in Eel Point and 181 measurements Lost Point ,— r- •35' II8° 27'30" Figure 2. Geologic map of the central San Clemente Island quadrangle, California. andesite flows were separated, varying in thick- rock in the interior. Flow breccias consisting of ness from 169 ft (depth 762-931) to 11 ft blocks of andesite up to 1 50 cm in diameter are (depth 931-942). As expected for a series of characteristic of the tops and bottoms of some flows that were extruded in a brief geologic flows. In thin section, the rocks near the flow interval, the individual flows are remarkably margins commonly have a hyalopilitic texture similar in composition and texture. Variations of feldspar and pyroxene phenocrysts set in a are largely related to position within individual matrix of feldspar microlites and opaque to flows rather than to compositional differences dark gray tachylitic glass. The central portions between flows. The flows are unusually fresh; of the flows are lighter in color due to a matrix minor alteration is restricted to a few flows and which is predominantly feldspar and pyroxene. within about 70 ft of the surface. The microlitic plagioclase is usually andesine The andesite near the flow boundaries is usu- ally darker in color and more vesicular than the The percentage of phenocrysts in the solid Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/82/7/1989/3417915/i0016-7606-82-7-1989.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 1992 MERIFIELD AND OTHERS—CENTRAL SAN CLEMENTE ISLAND, CALIFORNIA rock (omitting voids) ranges from 25 to 70 percent and averages 40 percent. The pheno- crysts display no significant variations in mineralogy or texture throughout the core hole. The largest phenocrysts are generally plagioclase feldspar ranging from 3 to 5 mm in longest dimensions. Pyroxene phenocrysts are somewhat smaller. The plagioclase phenocrysts are commonly oscillatory zoned with core val- ues as high as An 73 and rim values as low as An4?; thus, the rocks may be termed basaltic andesites. The percent of pyroxene in the phenocrysts ranges from 5 to 25 percent and averages 15 percent. Both clinopyroxene and orthopyroxene are present. The clinopyroxene 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 is augite and diopsidic augite; the orthopyrox- Dip, in degrees. ene is hypersthene. The orthopyroxene is usu- ally not greater than 5 percent of the total Figure 3. Magnitude of dips measured in cores. Con- pyroxene and was absent in several thin sec- tacts: solid. Flat-floored vesicles: cross-hatched. tions. Streaked-out vesicles and other flow-banding: blank. GEOLOGIC STRUCTURE ble that the dips in the cores are similarly ori- Attitude of Flows ented with individual flows dipping an average The flows are folded into an anticline; the of 30 degrees to the southwest. The reason for axis corresponds approximately with the north- the discrepancy between the surface and sub- westerly trending topographic crest of the is- surface dips is unknown but it may indicate land and is located about .5 mi inland from the initiation of folding of the island before the east coast. Limited observations along the steep youngest flows were extruded. east slope of the island suggest that the east flank of the anticline dips 10 to 30 degrees Faults northeastward.