Cenozoic tectonics of the western Great Basin and the eastern Sierra
Nevada
Spring semester, 1996
GEOL 702B, sec. 002, 1-2 cr
Seminar presentations and discussions,by both students and faculty, 2
hrs, once a week. Students who receive two credits will be expected to
select a pertinent topic and prepare a term paper. Coordinator: Rich
Schweickert (784-6901, richschw@unr.edu).
The focus will be the evolution of crust and mantle in the Walker Lane
belt and adjacent parts of the Sierra Nevada and Great Basin. We hope
to look at all pertinent information relating to stratigraphy,
structure, petrology, geochemistry, geophysics, tectonics, and
neotectonics of this enigmatic region. We will also explore available
information about rates and timing of horizontal and vertical
displacements.
Suggested topics include:
Pre-Cenozoic history of the region
The makeup of the crust: what's exposed and what's not
Crust and lithosphere: shallow and deep structure
Patterns and Styles of Cenozoic deformation
Patterns and Styles of Cenozoic volcanism
Large-magnitude extension, e.g., Death Valley region
Patterns of extensional and strike-slip deformation
Relations, if any, between extension and volcanism
Quaternary and Neotectonics
Sierra Nevada, rooted or not?
History and possible driving mechanisms of Sierran uplift
Plate tectonics inferences
GEOL 702B, SEC. 002 CENOZOIC TECTONICS OF THE WESTERN GREAT BASIN AND
THE EASTERN SIERRA NEVADA
Spring Semester, 1996
Walker Lane belt
PreCenozoic history
1. Paleozoic passive margin
Stewart, J. H., 1991, Latest Proterozoic and Cambrian rocks of the
western United States--An Overview, in Cooper, J.D., and Stevens, Ch.,
Eds., Paleozoic Paleogeography of the western United States, II: SEPM
Pacific Section, p. 13-38.
Poole, F. G., and others, 1992, Latest Precambrian to latest Devonian
time: Development of a continental margin, in Burchfiel, Lipman and
Zoback, Eds., The geology of North America, Volume 3-G: Cordilleran
orogen: Conterminous United States: Boulder, CO, Geol. Soc. America,
p. 9-57.
Levy, M., and Christie-Blick, N., 1991, Tectonic subsidence of the early
Paleozoic passive continental margin in eastern California and southern
Nevada: Geol. Soc. America Bulletin, v. 103, p. 1590-1606.
Lahren, M. M., and others, 1990, Evidence of uppermost Proterozoic to
Lower Cambrian miogeoclinal rocks and the Mojave-Snow Lake fault: Snow
Lake pendant, central Sierra Nevada, California: Tectonics, v. 9, p.
1585-1608.
Moores, E.M., 1991, Southwest U.S.-East Antarctic (SWEAT) connection: A
hypothesis: Geol., v. 19, p. 425-428.
Dalziel, I.W.D., 1991, Pacific margins of Laurentia and East
Antarctica--Australia as a conjugate rift pair: Evidence and
implications for an Eocambrian supercontinent: Geol., v. 19, p.
598-601.
2. Mesozoic fold-thrust belt(s)
Levy, M., and Christie-Blick, N., 1989, Pre-Mesozoic palinspastic
reconstruction of the eastern Great Basin (western United States):
Science, v. 245, p. 1454-1462.
Caskey, S. J., and Schweickert, R. A., 1992, Mesozoic deformation in the
Nevada test site and vicinity: Implications for the structural
framework of the Cordilleran fold and thrust belt and Tertiary extension
north of Las Vegas Valley: Tectonics, v. 11, p. 1314-1331.
Snow, J. K., 1992, Large-magnitude Permian shortening and
continental-margin tectonics in the southern Cordillera: Geol. Soc.
America Bull., v. 104, p. 80-105.
Schweickert, R. A., and Lahren, M. M., 1993, Tectonics of the
east-central Sierra Nevada--Saddlebag Lake and northern Ritter Range
pendants, in Lahren, M. M., Trexler, J. H., Jr., and Spinosa, C., eds.,
Crustal evolution of the Great Basin and the Sierra Nevada, Field trip
guidebook, 1993 Cordilleran-Rocky Mountain Sections Annual Meeting,
Reno, Nevada, p. 313-351.
3. Batholithic evolution
Kistler, R. W., 1990, Two different lithosphere types in the Sierra
Nevada, California: Geol. Soc. Memoir 174, p. 271-282.
Saleeby, J., 1990, Progress in tectonic and petrogenetic studies in an
exposed cross-section of young (100 Ma) continental crust, southern
Sierra Nevada, California, in Salisbury, M. H., and Fountain, D. M.,
eds., Exposed cross-sections of the continental crust: The Netherlands,
Kluwer Academic Pub., p. 137-158.
4. Pre- and intra-batholithic shear zones
Lahren, M. M., and others, 1990, Evidence of uppermost Proterozoic to
Lower Cambrian miogeoclinal rocks and the Mojave-Snow Lake fault: Snow
Lake pendant, central Sierra Nevada, California: Tectonics, v.9, p.
1585-1608.
Kistler, R. W., 1993, Mesozoic intrabatholithic faulting, Sierra Nevada,
California, in Dunne, G., and McDougall, K., eds., Mesozoic
paleogeography of the western United States--II, SEPM Pac. Sec., Los
Angeles, CA, p. 247-261.
Oldow, J. S., Satterfield, J.I., and Silberling, N. J., 1993, Jurassic
to Cretaceous transpressional deformation in the Mesozoic marine
province of the northwestern Great Basin, in Lahren, M. M., Trexler, J.
H., Jr., and Spinosa, C., eds., Crustal evolution of the Great Basin and
the Sierra Nevada, Field trip guidebook, 1993 Cordilleran-Rocky Mountain
Sections Annual Meeting, Reno, Nevada, p. 129-166.
Greene, D. C., and Schweickert, R. A., 1995, The Gem Lake shear zone:
Cretaceous dextral transpression in the northern Ritter Range pendant,
eastern Sierra Nevada, California: Tectonics, v. 14, p. 945-961.
Geophysical constraints on crust and mantle structure (revised list
2/15/96)
Pakiser, L. C., and Brune, J. N., 1980, Seismic models of the root of
the Sierra Nevada: Science, v. 210, p. 1088-1094.
Mavko, B. B., and G. A. Thompson, Crustal and upper mantle structure of
the northern and central Sierra Nevada, J. Geophys. Res., 88, 5874-5892,
1983.
Zucca, Fuis, Milkereit, Mooney, and Catchings, Crustal Structure of
Northeastern California, J. Geophys. Res., v.91, 7359-7382, 1986
Hauge, T. A., R. W. Allmendinger, C. Caruso, E. C. Hauser, S. L.
Klemperer, S. Opdyke, C. J. Potter, W. Sanford, L. D. Brown, S. Kaufman,
and J. Oliver, Crustal structure of western Nevada from COCORP deep
seismic-reflection data, Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 98, 320-329, 1987.
Knuepfer, P. L. K., P. J. Lemiszki, T. A. Hauge, L. D. Brown, S.
Kaufman, and J. E. Oliver, Crustal structure of the Basin and
Range-Sierra Nevada transition from COCORP deep seismic-reflection
profiling, Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 98, 488-496, 1987.
Pakiser, L. C., and W. D. Mooney, Geophysical framework of the
continental United States, Geol. Soc. Am. Memoir, 172, 826 pp., 1989.
Benz, H. M., R. B. Smith, and W. D. Mooney, Crustal structure of the
northwestern Basin and Range Province from the 1986 Program for Array
Seismic Studies of the Continental Lithosphere seismic experiment, J.
Geophys. Res., 95, 21,823-21,842, 1990.
Holbrook, W. S., The crustal structure of the northwestern Basin and
Range Province, Nevada, from wide-angle seismic data, J. Geophys. Res.,
95, 21,843-21,869, 1990.
Carbonell, R., and S. B. Smithson, Crustal anisotropy and the structure
of the Mohorovicic discontinuity in western Nevada of the Basin and
Range Province, Geodynamics Series, 22, 31-38, 1991.
Catchings, R. D., and W. D. Mooney, Basin and Range crustal and upper
mantle structure, northwest to central Nevada, J. Geophys. Res., 96,
6247-6267, 1991.
Hearn, T., Beghoul, N., and Barazangi, M., 1991, Tomography of the
western United States from regional arrival times: JGR, v. 96, p.
16369-16382.
McCarthy, J., S. P. Larkin, G. S. Fuis, R. W. Simpson, and K. A. Howard,
Anatomy of a metamorphic core complex: Seismic refraction/wide-angle
reflection profiling in southeastern California and western Arizona, J.
Geophys. Res., 96, 12259-12291, 1991.
Biasi, G. P., and E. D. Humphreys, P-wave image of the upper mantle
structure of Central California and southern Nevada, Geophys. Res.
Lett., 19, 1161-1164, 1992.
Jones. C. H., and others, 1992, Variations across and along a major
continental rift: An interdisciplinary study of the Basin and Range
Province, western USA: Tectonophysics, v. 213, p. 57-96.
Hearn, Thomas M. Rosca, Anca C. Fehler, Michael C. Pn tomography beneath
the southern Great Basin. Page: 2187 Geophysical research letters. OCT
01 1994 v 21 n 20
Humphreys, E. D., and Dueker, K. G., 1994, Western U. S. upper mantle
structure: JGR, v. 99, p. 9615-9634.
Humphreys, E. D., and Dueker, K. G., 1994, Physical state of the western
U. S. upper mantle: JGR, v. 99, p. 9635-9650.
Savage, M. K., L. Li, J. P. Eaton, C. H. Jones, and J. N. Brune,
Earthquake refraction profiles of the root of the Sierra Nevada,
Tectonics, 13, 803-817, 1994.
Wernicke, B., and others, 1995, Origin of high mountains in the
continents: The southern Sierra Nevada: Science, v. 271, p. 190-193.
Zandt, G. Ammon, C.J. Continental crust composition constrained by
measurements of crustal Poisson's ratio. Nature. MAR 09 1995 v 374 n
6518 Page: 152