New Timing and Depth Constraints for the Catalina Metamorphic Core Complex, Southeast Arizona

Catalina Mountains; Binary alloys; Deformation; Feldspar; Lead alloys; Levees; Metamorphic rocks; Mica; Rubidium alloys; Shear flow; Strontium alloys; Timing circuits; Uranium alloys; Chemical compositions; Depth constraints; Ductile deformations; Latest Oligocene; Metamorphic core complex; Normal fault system; Pluton emplacement; Shear sense indicators; Fault slips; Oligocene; Arizona; United States

Abstract :

[en] The Santa Catalina-Tortolita-Rincon Mountains of Southeast Arizona are a classic metamorphic core complex (MCC) and represent footwall exposures of crustal rocks exhumed by a detachment system. This study presents new evidence for the formation of the majority of ductile deformation during the Eocene (~46 Ma), synchronous with the emplacement of the regionally significant Wilderness Sills Suite (57–45 Ma). The evidence is provided by Eocene U-Pb ages of syn- to late kinematic dikes emplaced in the principal ductile mylonitic fabric of the Catalina forerange, earlier than the brittle normal fault system and the formation of Tucson basin beginning with the latest Oligocene. Well-documented shear sense indicators may not reflect extension at that time (Eocene), but more likely the direction of crustal flow now rotated during later extension. Muscovite-plagioclase Rb-Sr isochron ages of three mylonitic rocks are all clustered around 34 Ma, which is inferred to be the last age when these rocks were being deformed under ductile conditions following the emplacement of the Wilderness Sills Suite and various related dikes. Biotite-plagioclase Rb-Sr ages on the same rocks demonstrate that the section cooled below ~300°C at 25–26 Ma during the development of normal faulting. Normal faulting was synchronous with the emplacement of the Catalina Intrusive Suite. New U-Pb age results for Catalina Intrusive Suite indicate a combined mean age of 24.9 Ma. Chemical compositions of hornblende-plagioclase pairs were obtained on six Catalina Intrusive Suite samples; depth estimates for the emplacement of the Catalina Intrusive Suite average of about 6 km. These results suggest that the exposed Catalina ductile detachment system was at about 5 km beneath the surface at 25 Ma. These new data bring new light into the development of this core complex and suggest that the similarity in orientations of principal ductile and brittle fabrics at the Catalina MCC locality are coincidental. Neither was the principal ductile fabric developed during the low-angle normal faulting of the latest Oligocene nor was this exposed section a midcrustal one at that time. Transient, pluton emplacement-enhanced, and extension-related ductile deformation at shallow crustal levels operated locally at ~25 Ma but that does not account for the development of the majority of the Catalina MCC mylonites. © 2020. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.

Disciplines :

Earth sciences & physical geography

Author, co-author :

Ducea, M. N.; Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United States, Faculty of Geology and Geophysics, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

Triantafyllou, Antoine ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de géologie > Pétrologie, géochimie endogènes et pétrophysique

Krcmaric, J.; Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United States, National Geodetic Survey, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Silver Spring, MD, United States

Language :

English

Title :

New Timing and Depth Constraints for the Catalina Metamorphic Core Complex, Southeast Arizona

Publication date :

2020

Journal title :

Tectonics

ISSN :

0278-7407

eISSN :

1944-9194

Publisher :

Wiley, Washington, United States - District of Columbia

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

e2020TC006383

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Available on ORBi :

since 15 July 2021

Statistics

Number of views

37 (2 by ULiège)

Number of downloads

2 (2 by ULiège)

More statistics

Scopus citations^®

Scopus citations^®
without self-citations

OpenCitations

OpenAlex citations

Bibliography

Anderson, J. L., Barth, A. P., Wooden, J. L., & Mazdab, F. (2008). Thermometers and thermobarometers in granitic systems. Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, 69(1), 121–142.
Anderson, J. L., Barth, A. P., & Young, E. D. (1988). Mid-crustal cretaceous roots of Cordilleran metamorphic core complexes. Geology, 16, 366–369.
Anderson, J. L., & Smith, D. R. (1995). The effects of temperature and oxygen fugacity on the Al in-hornblende barometer. American Mineralogist, 80, 549–559.
Best, M. G., Christiansen, E. H., de Silva, S., & Lipman, P. W. (2016). Slab-rollback ignimbrite flareups in the southern Great Basin and other Cenozoic American arcs: A distinct style of arc volcanism. Geosphere, 12(4), 1097–1135.
Blundy, J. D., & Holland, T. J. B. (1990). Calcic amphibole equilibria and a new amphibole plagioclase geothermometer. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 104(2), 208–224. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00306444
Chapman, J. B., Ducea, M. N., DeCelles, P. G., & Profeta, L. (2015). Tracking changes in crustal thickness during orogenic evolution with Sr/Y: An example from the North American Cordillera. Geology, 43(10), 919–922.
Chapman, J. B., Grieg, R., & Haxel, G. B. (2020). Geochemical evidence for an orogenic plateau in the southern U.S. and northern Mexican Cordillera during the Laramide orogeny. Geology, 48(2), 164–168. https://doi.org/10.1130/G47117.1
Coney, P. J., & Harms, T. A. (1984). Cordilleran metamorphic core complexes: Cenozoic extensional relics of Mesozoic compression. Geology, 12, 550–554.
Crittenden, M. D. Jr., Coney, P. J., & Davis, G. H. (1978). Penrose conference report: Tectonic significance of metamorphic core complexes in the North American Cordillera. Geology, 6, 79–80.
Crittenden, M. D. Jr., Coney, P. J., & Davis, G. H. (1980). Cordilleran metamorphic core complexes. Geological Society of America Memoirs, 153, 490. https://doi.org/10.1130/MEM153-p485
Davis, G. H. (1980). Structural characteristic of metamorphic core complexes, southern Arizona. In M. D. Crittenden, Jr., P. J. Coney, & G. H. Davis (Eds.), Cordilleran metamorphic core complexes, Geological Society of America Memoir (Vol. 153, pp. 35–78). America: Geological Society of America. https://doi.org/10.1130/MEM153-p35
Davis, G. H., & Coney, P. J. (1979). Geologic development of the Cordilleran metamorphic core complexes. Geology, 7, 120–124.
Delph, J. R., Ward, K. M., Zandt, G., Ducea, M. N., & Beck, S. L. (2017). Imaging a magma plumbing system from MASH zone to magma reservoir. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 457, 313–324. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2016.10.008
Dickinson, W. R. (1991). Tectonic setting of faulted tertiary strata associated with the Catalina core complex in southern, Arizona: Geol. Soc. Am. Spec Paper 264.
Dodson, M. H. (1973). Closure temperature in cooling geochronological and petrological systems. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 40(3), 259–274. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00373790
Drew, S. T., Ducea, M. N., & Schoenbohm, L. M. (2009). Mafic volcanism on the Puna plateau, NW Argentina: Implications for lithospheric composition and evolution with an emphasis on lithospheric foundering. Lithosphere, 1(5), 305–318.
DuBois, R. L. (1959). Geology of the Santa Catalina Mountains: Arizona Geological Society, Southern Arizona Guidebook II: 107–116.
Ducea, M. (2020). New timing and depth constraints for the Catalina metamorphic Core complex, Southeast Arizona. Retrieved from OSF.IO/aurzn, DOI https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/AURZN
Ducea, M. N., Ganguly, J., Rosenberg, E. J., Patchett, P. J., Cheng, W., & Isachsen, C. (2003). Sm–Nd dating of spatially controlled domains of garnet single crystals: A new method of high-temperature thermochronology. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 213(1–2), 31–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0012-821X(03)00298-X
Ducea, M. N., & Saleeby, J. B. (1998). The age and origin of a thick mafic–ultramafic keel from beneath the Sierra Nevada batholith. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 133(1–2), 169–185. https://doi.org/10.1007/s004100050445
Eberlei, T., Habler, G., Wegner, W., Schuster, R., Korner, W., Thoni, M., & Abart, R. (2015). Rb/Sr isotopic and compositional retentivity of muscovite during defromation. Lithos, 227, 161–178. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lithos.2015.04.007
Erak, D., Matenco, L., Toljić, M., Stojadinović, U., Andriessen, P. A. M., Willingshofer, E., & Ducea, M. N. (2017). From nappe stacking to extensional detachments at the contact between the Carpathians and Dinarides–the Jastrebac Mountains of Central Serbia. Tectonophysics, 710, 162–183.
Fayon, A. K., Peacock, S. M., Stump, E., & Reynolds, S. J. (2000). Fission track analysis of the footwall of the Catalina detachment fault, Arizona: Tectonic denudation, magmatism, and erosion. Journal of Geophysical Research, 105(B5), 11,047–11,062. https://doi.org/10.1029/1999JB900421
Fornash, K. F., Patchett, P. J., Gehrels, G. E., & Spencer, J. E. (2013). Evolution of granitoids in the Catalina metamorphic core complex, southeastern Arizona: U–Pb, Nd, and Hf isotopic constraints. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 165(6), 1295–1310.
Freeman, S. R., Inger, S., Butler, R. W. H., & Cliff, R. A. (1997). Dating deformation using Rb-Sr in white mica: Greenschist facies deformation ages from the Entrelor shear zone, Italian Alps. Tectonics, 16(1), 57–76. https://doi.org/10.1029/96TC02477
Garzione, C. N., McQuarrie, N., Perez, N. D., Ehlers, T. A., Beck, S. L., Kar, N., Eichelberger, N., Chapman, A. D., Ward, K. M., & Ducea, M. N. (2017). Tectonic evolution of the central Andean plateau and implications for the growth of plateaus. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 45(1), 529–559. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-earth-063016-020612
Gehrels, G. E. & Pecha, M. (2014). Detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology and Hf isotope geochemistry of Paleozoic and Triassic passive margin strata of western North America. Geosphere, 10, 49–65.
Gehrels, G.E., Valencia, V., & Pullen, A. (2006). Detrital zircon geochronology by laser-ablation multicollector ICPMS at the Arizona LaserChron center, in T. Loszewski, & W. Huff (Eds.), Geochronology: Emerging opportunities, paleontology Society Short Course. Paleontology Society Papers 11.
Gehrels, G. E., Valencia, V., & Ruiz, J. (2008). Enhanced precision, accuracy, efficiency, and spatial resolution of U-Pb ages by laser ablation–multicollector–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 9, Q03017. https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GC001805
Keith, S. B., Reynolds, S. J., Damon, P. E., Shafiqullah, M., Livingston, D. E., & Pushkar, P. D. (1980). Evidence for multiple intrusion and deformation within the Santa Catalina-Rincon-Tortolita crystalline complex, southeastern Arizona. In M. D. Crittenden, P. J. Coney, & G. H. Davis (Eds.), Cordilleran metamorphic core complexes, Geological Society of America Memoir (Vol. 153, pp. 217–268). America: Geological Society of America. https://doi.org/10.1130/MEM153-p217
Leake, B. E., Woolley, A. R., Birch, W. D., Burke, E. A., Ferraris, G., Grice, J. D., & Stephenson, N. C. (2004). Nomenclature of amphiboles: Additions and revisions to the international mineralogical Association's amphibole nomenclature. Mineralogical Magazine, 68(1), 209–215. https://doi.org/10.1180/0026461046810182
Lingrey, S. H. (1982). Structural geology and tectonic evolution of the northeastern Rincon mountains, Cochise and Pima Counties, Arizona, (Doctoral Dissertation). Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona.
Lister, G. S., & Baldwin, S. L. (1993). Plutonism and the origin of metamorphic core complexes. Geology, 21(7), 607–610. https://doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613(1993)021<0607:PATOOM>2.3.CO;2
Lister, G. S., & Davis, G. A. (1989). The origin of metamorphic core complexes and detachment faults formed during tertiary continental extension in the northern Colorado River region, U.S.A. Journal of Structural Geology, 11(1–2), 65–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-8141(89)90036-9
Ludwig, K. (2008). Isoplot 3.60: Berkeley geochronology center, Special Publication No 4, 25 pp.
McGrew, A. J., Peters, M. T., & Wright, J. E. (2000). Thermobarometric constraints on the tectonothermal evolution of the East Humboldt range metamorphic core complex, Nevada. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 112, 45–60.
Muller, W. (2003). Strengthening the link between geochronology, textures and petrology. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 206, 237–251.
Otamendi, J. E., Ducea, M. N., Tibaldi, A. M., Bergantz, G. W., de la Rosa, J. D., & Vujovich, G. I. (2009). Generation of Tonalitic and Dioritic magmas by coupled partial melting of gabbroic and Metasedimentary rocks within the deep crust of the Famatinian magmatic arc, Argentina. Journal of Petrology, 50, 841–873.
Peters, L., Ferguson, C. A., Spencer, J. E., Orr, T. R., & Dickinson, W. R. (2003). Sixteen 40Ar/39Ar geochronology analyses from Southeastern Arizona (OFR-03-02). Tucson, AZ: Arizona Geological Survey.
Pullen, A., Ibáñez-Mejia, M., Gehrels, G. E., Giesler, D., & Pecha, M. (2018). Optimization of a laser ablation-single collector-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer (thermo element 2) for accurate, precise, and efficient zircon U-Th-Pb geochronology. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 19, 3689–3705. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GC007889
Reynolds, S. J. (1985). Geology of the South Mountains, Central Arizona. Arizona Geological Survey Bulletin-195, 75 p., 1 map plate, scale 1:24,000.
Reynolds, S. J., Shafiqullah, M., Damon, P. E., & DeWitt, E. (1986). Early miocene mylonitization and detachment faulting, South Mountains, Central Arizona. Geology, 14(4), 283. https://doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613(1986)14<283:EMMADF>2.0.CO;2
Shakel, D. W., Silver, L. T., & Damon, P. E. (1977). Observations on the history of the gneissic core complex, Santa Catalina Mountains, southern Arizona. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, 9, 1169–1170.
Singleton, J. S., Seymour, N. M., Reynolds, S. J., Vomocil, T., & Wong, M. S. (2019). Distributed Neogene faulting across the western to central Arizona metamorphic core complex belt: Synextensional constriction and superposition of the Pacific-North America plate boundary on the southern Basin and Range. Geosphere, 15, 1409–1435. https://doi.org/10.1130/GES02036.1
Singleton, J. S., Stockli, D. F., Gans, P. B., & Prior, M. G. (2014). Timing, rate, and magnitude of slip on the buckskin-rawhide detachment fault, west-central Arizona. Tectonics, 33, 1596–1615. https://doi.org/10.1002/2013TC003517
Spencer, J. E., & Reynolds, S. J. (1989). Middle tertiary tectonics of Arizona and adjacent areas: Geologic evolution of Arizona. Arizona Geological Society Digest, 17, 539–574.
Spencer, J. E., Richard, S. M., Lingrey, S. H., Johnson, B. J., Johnson, R. A., & Gehrels, G. E. (2019). Reconstruction of mid-Cenozoic extension in the Rincon Mountains area, southeastern Arizona, USA, and geodynamic implications. Tectonics, 38, 2338–2357. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019TC005565
Spencer, J. E., Richard, S. M., Reynolds, S. J., Miller, R. J., Shafiqullah, M., Gilbert, W. G., & Grubensky, M. J. (1995). Spatial and temporal relationships between mid-tertiary magmatism and extension in southwestern Arizona. Journal of Geophysical Research, 100(B6), 10,321–10,351. https://doi.org/10.1029/94JB02817
Terrien, J. (2012). The role of magmatism in the Catalina metamorphic core complex, Arizona: Insights from integrated thermochronology, Gravity and Aeromagnetic Data: Earth Sciences - Dissertations. Syracuse University PhD.
Toljić, M., Matenco, L., Ducea, M. N., Stojadinović, U., Milivojević, J., & Đerić, N. (2013). The evolution of a key segment in the Europe–Adria collision: The Fruška Gora of northern Serbia. Global and Planetary Change, 103, 39–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2012.10.009
Villa, I. M. (2016). Diffusion in mineral geochronometers: Present and absent. Chemical Geology, 420, 1–10.
Ward, K. M., Delph, J. R., Zandt, G., Beck, S. L., & Ducea, M. N. (2017). Magmatic evolution of a Cordilleran flare-up and its role in the creation of silicic crust. Nature Scientific Reports, 7(1), 9047. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-09015-5
Wernicke, B. (1985). Uniform-sense normal simple shear of the continental lithosphere. Canasian Journal of Earth Science, 22, 108–126.
Wernicke, B. (1992). Cenozoic extensional tectonics of the U.S. Cordillera. In B. C. Burchfiel, P. W. Lipman, & M. L. Zoback (Eds.), The Cordilleran Orogen; conterminous U.S. the geology of North America (pp. 553–581). Boulder, Colorado: Geological Society of America.
Whitney, D. L., Teyssier, C., Rey, P., & Buck, W. R. (2013). Continental and oceanic core complexes. GSA Bulletin, 125(3–4), 273–298. https://doi.org/10.1130/B30754.1