Evolution of Extensional Basins and Basin and Range Topography West of Death Valley, California K.V
TECTONICS, VOL. 8, NO. 3, PAGES453-467, JUNE 1989 EVOLUTION OF EXTENSIONAL BASINS AND BASIN AND RANGE TOPOGRAPHY WEST OF DEATH VALLEY, CALIFORNIA K.V. Hodges,L.W. McKenna,J. Stock •, J. Knapp, L. Page,K. Sternlof, D. Silverberg,G. Wrist2, and J. D. Walker 3 Department of Earth, Atmospheric,and Planetary Sciences,Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge Abstract. Neogeneextension in the Death Valley system remained active during development of region, SE California, has produced a variety of PanamintValley and, thus, during developmentof sedimentarybasins. Diachronousmovements on an modernBasin and Rangetopography as well. These array of strike-slip and normal fault systemshave results indicate that large-scale extension in the resultedin the uplift andpreservation of olderbasins Death Valley region,accommodated by movementon in modernranges. One of the bestexposed of these low- to moderate-angle normal fault systemsand is the Nova basin on the western flank of the high-angle strike-slipfault systems,is a continuing Panamint Mountains. The Nova basin includes over process. Basin and Range topography in the 2000 m of sedimentaryand volcanicrocks deposited PanamintValley- Death Valley areawas generatedat during denudation of the Panamint Mountains least in part by displacements on low-angle metamorphiccore complex in late Miocene(?)- early detachmentsrather than high-angle normal faults. Pliocenetime. The principalgrowth structure for the basinwas the Emigrant detachment,which initiated andmoved at a low angle. Modern PanamintValley, INTRODUCTION west of the range, developedas a consequenceof Late Pliocene- Recent,kinematically linked move- The fact that topographyin the Basin and Range ment on the right-slip, high-angleHunter Mountain Province of the western United States is controlled fault zone and the low-angle Panamint Valley by normal faulting has been recognizedfor over a detachment.
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