Pull-Apart Basins at Releasing Bends of the Sinistral Late Jurassic Mojave-Sonora Fault System
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
spe393-03 page 97 Geological Society of America Special Paper 393 2005 Pull-apart basins at releasing bends of the sinistral Late Jurassic Mojave-Sonora fault system Thomas H. Anderson* Department of Geology and Planetary Science, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA Jonathan A. Nourse Geological Sciences Department, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, California 91768, USA ABSTRACT A 200–500-km-wide belt along the southwestern margin of cratonic North America is pervaded by northwest- and east-trending faults that fl ank basins con- taining thick deposits of locally derived conglomerate and sedimentary breccia. These deposits that crop out mainly in the northern part of mainland Mexico, or southern parts of Arizona and New Mexico are unconformable at their bases, have similar Upper Jurassic and/or Lower Cretaceous stratigraphic ages, and commonly preserve volcanic components in the lower parts of upward-fi ning sections. We argue that these basins share a common structural origin, based on: (1) the presence of faults, locally preserved, that generally defi ne the basin margins, (2) similar basal units comprised of coarse conglomeratic strata derived from adjacent basement, and (3) locally preserved syntectonic relationships to bounding faults. Fault orientations, and our observation that the faults (and their associated basins) extend south to the inferred trace of the Late Jurassic Mojave-Sonora megashear, suggest that the basins formed in response to transtension associated with sinistral movement along the megashear. Northwest-striking left-lateral strike-slip faults that terminate at east-striking normal faults defi ne releasing left steps at which crustal pull-apart structures formed. These faults, plus a less-developed set of northeast-striking right-lateral faults, appear to comprise a cogenetic system that is kinematically linked with the Mojave-Sonora megashear; that is, the maximum principal stress trends east and the plane contain- ing maximum sinistral shear stress strikes northwesterly. Late Jurassic structural anisotropies imposed upon crystalline basement north- east of the Mojave-Sonora megashear controlled or strongly infl uenced the regional distribution of the pull-apart basins as well as the orientation and style of younger structures and intrusions. Most Late Jurassic faults were modifi ed during subse- quent episodes of deformation. N60°E-directed contraction during the Late Creta- ceous (Laramide) orogeny reactivated older east-striking normal faults as sinistral strike-slip faults; northwest-striking sinistral faults were reactivated as steep reverse faults. Some stratigraphically low units were thrust across basin margins as a result of inversion. Many of the pull-apart basins encompass outcrops of Late Jurassic igne- *[email protected]. Anderson, T.H., and Nourse, J.A., 2005, Pull-apart basins at releasing bends of the sinistral Late Jurassic Mojave-Sonora fault system, in Anderson, T.H., Nourse, J.A., McKee, J.W., and Steiner, M.B., eds., The Mojave-Sonora megashear hypothesis: Development, assessment, and alternatives: Geological Society of America Special Paper 393, p. 97–122. doi: 10.1130/2005.2393(03). For permission to copy, contact [email protected]. ©2005 Geological Society of America. 97 spe393-03 page 98 98 T.H. Anderson and J.A. Nourse ous rocks and/or mineralized Laramide or Tertiary plutons. Some northwesterly faults appear to have infl uenced the position of breakaway zones for early Miocene detachment faults. Despite the common and locally strong structural and magmatic overprinting, remnants of the Late Jurassic faults are recognizable. Keywords: pull-apart, Late Jurassic, Sonora, sinistral. INTRODUCTION Numerous other conglomerate bodies are linked to the Glance by virtue of similarities of texture, depositional environment, and Statement of Hypothesis and Objectives stratigraphic position. These Upper Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous conglomerates lie northeast (Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona), At its type locality near Bisbee, Arizona (Figs. 1, 2, 3; Plate 1 southeast (Mina Plomosas–Placer de Guadalupe and Valle San [on the CD-ROM accompanying this volume]), the Upper Juras- Marcos, northeastern Mexico), southwest (Imuris and Sierra El sic and Lower Cretaceous Glance Conglomerate occurs within Batamote–Sierra del Alamo, northwestern Mexico) and west an elongate, fault-bounded basin. The long sides of this crudely (McCoy, Palen, and Plomosa Mountains, southern California) of rhomb-shaped basin coincide with steep northwest-trending the Glance Conglomerate at its type locality (Figs. 1, 2; Plate 1). faults, and the basin is terminated by east-trending normal faults. All were deposited within a 200–500-km-wide region northeast 34 New Mexico 116 McCoy B asin Arizona Area of Plate 1 Comobabi Texas Basin Burro Bisbee Diablo Artesa Basin Basin Uplift Platform Area of Cananea High Hill side Faul San Chihuahua Figure 2 Batamote t Antonio Basin Tex Basin Trough as Aldama Zone M BasePlomosas o Platfo El Burro- ja m Frio ve rm Plomosasent Salado- Rive -S She o r Line Sonora no Uplift ar Peyotes Baja Califor ra L a Ba 28 m bia Platform e Fau 116 ga sh lt ea La Mula Coahuila r Island Pic Area of PlateChihuahua 1 San Mar La Mula achos nia Coahuila cos Fault Arc Basinh Island Nuevo Parras Basin Leon Tamaulipas High 0 100 200 km 24 98 Figure 1. Map of the Mojave-Sonora fault system, showing traces of major lineaments or faults with known or inferred Late Jurassic displace- ments. Regions of important Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous uplift or subsidence are highlighted with plus pattern or gray tone, respectively. Note locations of Figure 2 and Plate 1, which detail fault patterns and pre-Cretaceous geology. Late Jurassic regional transtension is implied by linked networks of northwesterly sinistral faults and east-striking normal faults. Geesaman Fault ComobabiComobabi Dos Cabezas BasinBasin Apac he Was Mountains Comobabi Area of Tucson h Fault Figure 7 faultsystem Mojave-Sonora LateJurassic bendsofthesinistral Pull-apart basinsatreleasing Mountains BisbeeBisbee + Sierrita + + Chiricahua Mountains Empire Santa Rita Baboquivari Whetstone Dragoon Artesa Mountains Mountains Mountains Sa Duval Fault wmill Canyon Faul Mountains Swisshelm Mountains Mountains Mountains BisbeeBisbeeult rompter Fa t P ArtesaArtesa Mustang BasinBasin Tombstone Mountains Babocomari Hills Fault B Pedregoso Kino Spr isb Fault Mountains ing Fault Government Butte Canelo ee Mountains W Mule BasinBasin e Huachuca st Fau Mountains Patagonia Divide Hills Mountains nd Faul Pajarito lt t Mountains Bisbee BasinBasin Gol Abrigo Fa Gla ult Fault d Hill Fa Mountains nce Sierra La Bell Nogales Sierra ult Area of Figure 3 San Jose ota Las Avispas Fa Agua Prieta ult Sierra Sierra Sierra + Cibuta El Pinito Sierra de + Cananea La Gloria los Ajos BatamoteBatamote Sierra El Sierra Lower Cretaceous siltstone, sandstone, limestone, and shale Sierra El Guacomea (distinguished from Glance Conglomerate in Sonora) Batamote Azul Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous Glance Conglomerate Imuris Sierra (includes Lower Cretaceous siltstone, sandstone, shale, Caborca Altar San and limestone members of the Bisbee Group in Arizona) BasinBasin SanSan AntonioAntonio Antonio Mojave Jurassic intrusive and volcanic rocks Santa Ana Magdalena BasinBasin Paleozoic platform or miogeoclinal strata Sonora Proterozoic crystalline basement fault with inferred Late Jurassic left-lateral displacement fault with inferred Late Jurassic normal displacement concealed or postulated traces of the Late Jurassic Megas Mojave-Sonora fault system 99 spe393-03 page hea r city or town paved highway 99 + Figure 2. Generalized geologic map of southern Arizona, showing present-day outcrops of Upper Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous sedimentary strata in relation to exposures of Jurassic arc and older rocks. Also highlighted are major faults with known or inferred Late Jurassic displacements, mountain ranges, and towns described in the text. The movement histories of most of the faults shown have been complicated by reactivation during northeast-directed Cretaceous contraction. Data in Arizona digitized from Arizona Geological Survey Map 35 (Richard et al., 2000). Geology in Sonora modifi ed from Nourse (1995, 2001). spe393-03 page 100 100 T.H. Anderson and J.A. Nourse La Negrita Peak Figure 3. Geologic map of part of southern Arizona and adjacent northern Sonora from Taliaferro (1933), Drewes (1981), González-León and Lawton (1995), and McKee et al. (this volume) that shows postulated pull-apart basins in the Mule Mountains, Dragoon Mountains, and near Tombstone. Kine- matic diagram (inset) shows inferred transtensional stress regime for Late Jurassic time and compressional stress regime during Late Cretaceous time. spe393-03 page 101 Pull-apart basins at releasing bends of the sinistral Late Jurassic Mojave-Sonora fault system 101 of the Mojave-Sonora megashear (Silver and Anderson, 1974; In many cases we cannot unequivocally prove that sedi- Anderson and Schmidt, 1983; Anderson and Silver, 1979, this mentation was synchronous with sinistral and normal fault volume), extending from southeastern California and northwest- displacements, but the pattern of faulting that we can observe ern Sonora to the Frio River line in southern Texas (Fig. 1). We (or reasonably infer) suggests that the basins are pull-aparts in propose the following hypothesis: The Glance Conglomerate the classic sense (Mann et al., 1983; Fig. 4). Throughout the and related coarse clastic sections represent