An Overview of the Carlton Rhyolite Group: Cambrian A-Type Felsic Volcanism in the Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen
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An Overview of the Carlton Rhyolite Group: Cambrian A-type felsic volcanism in the Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen Richard E. Hanson1 and Amy M. Eschberger2 1School of Geology, Energy, and the Environment, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas 76129. [email protected]. Corresponding author. 2School of Geology, Energy, and the Environment, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas 76129. Current address: Colorado Department of Natural Resources, Division of Reclamation, Mining, and Safety, 1313 Sherman Street, Suite 215, Denver, Colorado 80203. [email protected]. GEOLOGIC SETTING lower Paleozoic sedimentary succession centered on the area previously occupied by the magmatically active rift Cambrian igneous rocks of the Southern Oklahoma zone. Thomas (1991, 2011, and this guidebook) has argued Aulacogen are widespread in the subsurface of southern against this interpretation and has instead proposed that the Oklahoma and adjacent parts of Texas (Fig. 1). Their ex- magmatism was associated with a leaky transform bound- tent was first documented in detail in the pioneering work ary developed along an offset in the continental margin es- of Ham et al. (1964). Those workers introduced the term tablished during initial stages in rifting. Wichita Province to refer both to the igneous rocks and Inversion of the Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen result- the Tillman Metasedimentary Group, which occurs in the ed in uplift of parts of the Cambrian igneous assemblage subsurface partly in the same area, and which Ham et al. in major compressional or transpressional structures while (1964) believed records the initial formation of a major ba- other parts were downwarped in linked basins (McConnell, sin tectonically linked to the igneous activity. More recent 1989; Perry, 1989), the largest and deepest of which is the work suggests that the Tillman Metasedimentary Group Anadarko Basin (Fig. 1). This deformation occurred primar- represents an older, Proterozoic episode of sedimentation ily in the Pennsylvanian, with limited tectonism extending unrelated to the Cambrian magmatism (Brewer et al., 1981; into the Early Permian (Ye et al., 1996), and is inferred to Van Schmus et al., 1993), and here we use the term Wichita have been related to collisional orogenesis in the Ouachita Igneous Province to focus specifically on the igneous rocks fold-and-thrust belt along the southern Laurentian margin emplaced during development of the Southern Oklahoma or to more distance events along the Cordilleran margin to Aulacogen. Part of the Precambrian basement assemblage the west (e.g., Granath, 1989; Ye et al., 1996). that the aulacogen cuts across is exposed in the eastern Surface exposures of the Wichita Igneous Province Arbuckle Mountains (Fig. 2). Ham et al. (1964) assigned are strongly bimodal, although recent work by Brueseke et these rocks to the Eastern Arbuckle Province in order to al. (this guidebook) indicates that rocks with intermediate differentiate them from the younger Wichita Province, but compositions occur in larger amounts in the subsurface than on a larger scale they represent part of the ~1.4 Ga South- in the available outcrops. The most extensive igneous out- ern Granite-Rhyolite Province that extends over consider- crops occur in the Wichita Mountains (Fig. 3) from which able areas in the subsurface in this part of the Midcontinent the province takes it name. Gabbroic rocks exposed there (Van Schmus et al., 1996; Rohs and Van Schmus, 2007). belong to the Raggedy Mountain Gabbro Group (Ham et Development of the Wichita Igneous Province was di- al., 1964), which consists of a large tholeiitic layered intru- rectly linked to opening of the southern part of the Iapetus sion termed the Glen Mountains Layered Complex (Powell Ocean along this part of the Laurentian margin. Hoffman et al., 1980; Cooper, 1991) and a series of smaller tholeiitic et al. (1974) interpreted the magmatism to have occurred gabbro plutons that intrude the layered complex and are within the failed arm of a rift-rift-rift triple junction. In compositionally unrelated to it; these younger intrusions are their model, rifting along the other two arms gave way to termed the Roosevelt Gabbro (Powell et al., 1980; Powell, seafloor spreading and continental breakup, while ther- 1986). Ham et al. (1964) interpreted the Raggedy Mountain mal subsidence following cessation of igneous activity in Gabbro Group to be the intrusive equivalent of the Navajoe the failed arm led to deposition of a thick, mostly marine Mountain Basalt-Spilite Group, a unit of altered basaltic 123 Hanson and Eschberger Figure 1. Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen in relation to early Paleozoic continental margin of North America. Extent of Wichita Igneous Province in the subsurface is shown by red and orange colors; approximate areas where these rocks crop out are outlined. Modified from Hanson et al. (2013); faults from Thomas (1991) and Northcutt and Campbell (1998); early Paleozoic continental margin from Keller and Stephenson (2007). A: location of subsurface Carlton Rhyolite outlier near Altus, Oklahoma; MVF: Mountain View Fault; WVF: Washita Valley Fault. 124 Oklahoma Geological Survey Guidebook 38 Overview of the Carlton Rhyolite Group Figure 2. Geologic map of the Arbuckle Mountains, modified from Ham (1973). Location of Frankfort 1 Sparks Ranch wellis indicated. Ham Arbuckle Mountains, modifiedfrom map of the 2. Geologic Figure Fault. Fault Zone; RF: Reagan Fault; SF: Sulphur Valley Washita WVFZ: Hills; Timbered Hills; ETH: East Timbered West WTH: Oklahoma Geological Survey Guidebook 38 125 Hanson and Eschberger Figure 3. Simplified geological map of the Wichita Mountains, modified from Powell et al. (1980) and Donovan (1995). to andesitic volcanic rocks present in the subsurface in the sode of extensional block faulting within the developing western parts of the Wichita Igneous Province. More spe- rift. The rhyolites crop out both in the Wichita Mountains cifically, Gilbert (1983) argued that the basaltic rocks were and in the Arbuckle Mountains ~100 km farther to the east extruded during the same magmatic episode that formed (Figs. 1, 2, and 3), and Denison (1958) and Ham et al. the Glen Mountains Layered Complex. At the time Ham et (1964) showed that the two outcrop areas are connected by al. (1964) published their work, the basaltic rocks had been an apparently continuous rhyolite succession in the subsur- penetrated by 11 wells. The maximum thickness drilled face. Ham et al. (1964) introduced the term Carlton Rhy- was 320 m, and the stratigraphic base of the unit was not olite Group for all the Cambrian rhyolitic volcanic rocks reached. Direct evidence bearing on the timing relations present in southern Oklahoma, and they referred to the as- between the Navajoe Mountain Basalt-Spilite Group and sociated granites as the Wichita Granite Group. In the area the intrusive gabbros is lacking, and the inference that the of the Wichita Mountains, the rhyolites were extruded onto basaltic rocks and at least some of the gabbros are directly the erosional surface carved into the tilted Glen Mountains related remains unproven. Layered Complex (Ham et al., 1964; Gilbert, 1983; Gilbert The Glen Mountains Layered Complex underwent a and Denison, 1993). In adjacent areas in the subsurface the major episode of tilting, uplift, and erosion prior to wide- rhyolites are underlain in places by the Navajoe Mountain spread emplacement of rhyolites and granites (Powell and Basalt-Spilite Group (Ham et al., 1964). Phelps, 1977; Gilbert, 1983), and McConnell and Gilbert Much of the Wichita Granite Group was intruded as a (1990) have interpreted the tilting to record an early epi- series of sheet-like bodies between the older mafic rocks 126 Oklahoma Geological Survey Guidebook 38 Overview of the Carlton Rhyolite Group and the rhyolites in what has been described as a crustal of both basaltic lavas and layered mafic complexes com- magma trap created when the rhyolitic volcanic pile be- parable to the Glen Mountains Layered Complex exposed came thick enough to impede the rise of subsequent pulses in the Wichita Mountains. The total volume of these mafic of felsic magma (Hogan and Gilbert, 1995; Hogan et al., rocks is ~210,000 km3 (Hanson et al., 2013). 1998). The most extensive sheet-like intrusion is the Mount Modern isotopic age constraints are available for parts Scott Granite. This body can be traced laterally for as much of the Wichita Igneous Province, but many of the results as 55 km but has a preserved thickness of only 500 m, have been published only in abstracts. The Glen Mountains which is probably close to its original thickness (Price, this Layered Complex has yielded a Sm-Nd isochron date of guidebook). Both the rhyolites and granites have A-type 528 ± 29 Ma (Lambert et al., 1988) although the relatively affinities as indicated by geochemical data summarized be- large error bar on this result makes it difficult to place with- low and by evidence for high magmatic temperatures, high in a detailed temporal model for evolution of the aulacog- fluorine contents in the magmas, and relatively low initial en. Wright et al. (1996) and Degeller et al. (1996) reported H2O contents (Myers et al., 1981; Hogan and Gilbert, 1997, U-Pb zircon isotopic dates ranging from 535 ± 3 to 530 ± 1998; Price et al., 1999). Zr geothermometry indicates tem- 1 Ma for some of the Wichita granites and for a rhyolite peratures as high as 950º C for the rhyolite magmas (Hogan xenolith contained in granite. Hanson et al. (2009) reported and Gilbert, 1997). preliminary U-Pb zircon dates of ~532 Ma from two rhy- Numerous diabase dikes, sills, and transgressive sheets olite flows at Bally Mountain north of the main mass of intrude the granites and rhyolites as well as the mafic plu- the Wichita Mountains (Hanson et al., this guidebook). The tonic rocks (e.g., Ham et al., 1964; Hogan and Gilbert, only fully published U-Pb zircon geochronological results 1998).