Structural Geology of the Upper Plate of the Bullfrog Hills Detachment Fault System, Southern Nevada
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Structural geology of the upper plate of the Bullfrog Hills detachment fault system, southern Nevada FLORIAN MALDONADO U.S. Geological Survey, M.S. 913, Box 25046, Denver Federal Center, Denver, Colorado 80225 ABSTRACT strata; and an upper plate composed of Miocene volcanic, volcaniclastic, and sedimentary rocks. Rocks of the upper plate are widespread, but An extremely distended terrane containing two detachment faults exposures of lower- and middle-plate rocks are limited to poor scattered and an overlying complex of normal faults is exposed in the Bullfrog outcrops. Exposures of the detachment faults are also poor; however, the Hills, southern Nevada. Shallow crustal rocks have been extended geometry of the detachment faults is inferred to be low angle from several along the detachment faults by listric and planar-rotational normal measured exposures and from fault trace patterns (Fig. 2). The depths to faults. The detachment faults define three structurally discordant the detachment faults are projected and inferred from surface exposures plates. The lower detachment fault separates a lower plate of meta- and are queried in the geologic sections (Fig. 3). Although exposures of the morphosed Late Proterozoic rocks from an overlying middle plate, upper-plate faults merging with or truncated by the detachment faults are composed of slivers of lower and middle Paleozoic clastic and carbon- poor, exposed geologic and geometric relationships strongly indicate merg- ate rocks. The middle-plate rocks are brecciated and essentially ing or truncation of upper-plate faults. unmetamorphosed, and the stratigraphic succession is incomplete and The presence of a low-angle fault in the Bullfrog Hills has been highly attenuated. The upper detachment fault separates the middle- recognized and mapped by several geologists. The first to recognize the plate rocks from an upper-plate succession of block-faulted Miocene low-angle fault was Ransome and others (1907, 1910). In their study volcanic, volcaniclastic, and sedimentary rocks. (1910) of the eastern half of the Bullfrog Hills area, they mapped what Miocene rocks of the upper plate dip at moderate to steep angles they termed the "Original Bullfrog fault," a low-angle fault that separates into the upper detachment fault, or, where the middle plate has been underlying Paleozoic rocks from overlying Tertiary rocks. This fault corre- tectonically removed, into the lower detachment fault. The rocks are lates with the upper of the two detachment faults shown in Figure 2. broken, tilted, and repeated in blocks bounded by normal faults that Cornwall and Kleinhampl (1961b, 1964) also mapped this upper low- terminate against, or flatten and merge into, the upper detachment angle fault in the Bullfrog Hills area. On the basis of his detailed mapping fault or, where the middle plate has been removed, the lower detach- in and around the Grapevine Mountains, Reynolds (1969) recognized the ment fault. The normal faults in the upper plate are (1) planar- upper detachment fault in the Bullfrog Hills. Monsen (1983) also recog- rotational faults that form imbricate map patterns and (2) listric faults nized a low-angle normal fault in Fluorspar Canyon, at the north end of that are characterized by oval and horseshoe map patterns. These fault Bare Mountain, east of the Bullfrog Hills (Fig. 1). The Bullfrog Hills map patterns may be due to (1) curvilinear intersection of a listric or detachment fault system has been correlated (Carr and Monsen, 1988) planar fault with an antithetic fault, (2) complex intersection of two or with the Boundary Canyon (Reynolds, 1986) and Fluorspar Canyon fault more faults of different ages, (3) rotated listric faults, (4) extremely systems (Fig. 1). rotated planar normal faults that resemble listric faults, (5) nearly Ransome and others (1907,1910) interpreted the normal faults to be flat-lying normal faults, or (6) topographic and erosional effects. tectonic in origin and presented a classic discussion on the genesis of Attenuation of the Late Proterozoic and Paleozoic strata indi- normal faults. The normal faults have also been interpreted to be related to cates large movement on the detachment faults; the upper plate has a late Cenozoic caldera in the Bullfrog Hills (Cornwall, 1962; Cornwall been extended more than 100% and possibly more than 275% locally. and Kleinhampl, 1961b, 1964). Reynolds (1969) reinterpreted the upper The geometry of the normal faults and the repetition and dip direction fault in terms of low-angle faulting and doming. He stated (1969, p. 146), of the Miocene rocks indicate that major extension, at least of the "Pre-Tertiary rocks exposed in the center of the Bullfrog Hills structure are upper plate, was west-northwest-east-southeast and occurred mostly faulted against the welded tuffs along low-angle normal faults. These between about 10 and 8 Ma. pre-Tertiary rocks are the exposed center of a late structural dome, unre- lated to local volcanic activity. Weak Tertiary rocks probably slipped from INTRODUCTION the crest of the dome along low-angle faults against the older rocks." My detailed comparison of the Bullfrog Hills volcanic rocks with those of the The Bullfrog Hills, west of Beatty, Nevada (Fig. 1), comprise a com- Timber Mountain-Oasis Valley caldera complex (Byers and others, 1976) plex, structurally distended terrane that contains two detachment faults indicates that the Timber Mountain-Oasis Valley caldera complex is the (following usage of Reynolds and Spencer, 1985) that are herein referred source for most of the ash-flow tuffs in the Bullfrog Hills. Detailed map- to as the "Bullfrog Hills detachment fault system." This detachment fault ping (scale 1:24,000) (Maldonado, 1990; Maldonado and Hausback, system is overlain by a complex of listric and planar-rotational normal 1990) supports the interpretation that structural features in the Bullfrog faults (Maldonado, 1985, 1988). The detachment faults separate three Hills area resulted from regional extensional faulting and not from caul- structural plates: a lower plate composed of Late Proterozoic metamor- dron collapse or resurgent doming. phic rocks; a thin, discontinuous middle plate of Paleozoic miogeoclinal The Bullfrog Hills area is within the Walker Lane fault zone, which Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 102, p. 992-1006, 11 figs., 2 tables, July 1990. 992 Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/102/7/992/3381094/i0016-7606-102-7-992.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 BULLFROG HILLS DETACHMENT FAULT SYSTEM, NEVADA 993 Figure 1. Map show- ing location of the Bull- frog Hills study area (modified from Carr and Monsen, 1988). 30 KILOMETERS consists of northwest-striking, right-lateral strike-slip faults. The zone is not EXPLANATION recognizable in the upper plate in this area; however, the upper plate has been intensely fragmented by extensional normal faults. Strike-slip faults Quaternary and Tertiary alluvial deposits may be present deeper in the crust. A possible area for strike-slip faults is Cenozoic volcanic and sedimentary rocks beneath a wide alluvium-filled valley between the Bullfrog Hills and the Grapevine Mountains (Fig. 1). Paleozoic and Late Proterozoic sedimentary and metamorphic rocks STRUCTURAL PLATES Detachment fault—Dotted where inferred, queried where uncertain Rocks of the lower plate are exposed in two areas: in a structural culmination south of Bullfrog Mountain where they have been interpreted blages that indicate metamorphic amphibolite facies (Monsen, 1983). as a metamorphic core complex (McKee, 1983) and in the southeast These rocks have been penetratively foliated and lineated; principal folia- corner of the study area, south of Beatty (Figs. 2, 3, and 4). The lower- tions dip 25° to 60° eastward, and mineral lineations plunge east (M. D. plate rocks south of Bullfrog Mountain consist of mylonitic quartzofeld- Carr and S. A. Monsen, 1985, written commun.). The rocks have been spathic gneiss, biotite schist, marble, and amphibolite dikes that are tentatively correlated with the Johnnie(?) Formation of Late Proterozoic intruded by many granitic pegmatite dikes (M. D. Carr and S. A. Monsen, age (B. W. Troxel, 1986, oral commun.). Mineral separates of these rocks 1985, written commun.). The rocks contain staurolite and kyanite assem- have been dated and are as follows. Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/102/7/992/3381094/i0016-7606-102-7-992.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 116°55" Figure 2. Generalized geologic map, Bullfrog Hills, Nye County, Nevada. Geologic section lines along A-A', B-B', and C-C' shown in Figure 3; D-D' shown in Figure 10. Geology mapped by Florian Maldonado (1984,1985). Mapping of Paleozoic rocks from M. W. Reynolds (1984, written commun.). Mapping of Late Proterozoic rocks from Monsen (1983). Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/102/7/992/3381094/i0016-7606-102-7-992.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 EXPLANATION FAULT QTac Alluvium and colluvium QUATER- S NARY PALE- Unconiormity FVs Sedimentary rocks, undivided AND TER- OZOIC FAULT Tss Spearhead Member of Stonewall TIARY Tuff and basalt lava flow Zsm Sedimentary and metamorphic Unconformity rocks—Stirling and lower TI Latite lava flows member of Wood Canyon LATE Formation as mapped by Y PROTER- Unconformity Monsen (1983) OZOIC Trr Rhyoliie lava flows and tuffs of Zm Metamorphic rocks—Correlative Rainbow Mountain with the Johnnie (?) Formation^ Tld Latite, dacite,