Jose Duque

Late Oligocene to middle Miocene rifting and syn-extensional magmatism in the southwestern Sierra Madre occidental, Mexico: the beginning of the Gulf of California rift

Luca Ferrari Margarita López‐Martínez Teresa Orozco-Esquivel Scott E. Bryan Jose Duque

Although Basin and Range style extension affected several areas of western Mexico since the Late Eocene, extension in the Gulf of California region (the Gulf Extensional Province GEP) is thought to have started as subduction waned and ended at ~14 12.5 Ma. A general consensus also exists in considering the mid Miocene Comondu group as a suprasubduction volcanic arc. Our new integration of the geology of the south east Gulf region, backed by 43 new Ar Ar and U Pb mineral ages and geochemical studies, document a widespread phase of extension in the southern GEP between latest Oligocene and Early Miocene that subsequently focused in the region of the future Gulf in the Middle Miocene. Upper Oligocene to Lower Miocene rocks across the southern Sierra Madre Occidental (SMO)(northern Nayarit and southern Sinaloa) were affected by major ~N S to NNW striking normal faults prior to ~21 Ma. Then, between ~21 and 11 Ma, a system of NNW-SSE high angle extensional faults continued extending the southwestern side of the SMO. Rhyolitic domes, shallow intrusive bodies, and lesser basalts were emplaced along this extensional belt at 20-17 Ma. In northern Sinaloa, large grabens were floored by huge dome complexes at ~21-17 Ma and filled by continental sediments with interlayered basalts dated at 15-14 Ma, a setting and timing very similar to Sonora. Early to Middle Miocene volcanism, including the largely volcaniclastic Comondu strata in Baja California Sur, was thus emplaced in rift basins and was likely associated to decompression melting of upper mantle (inducing crustal partial melting) rather than to fluxing by fluids from the young subducting plate. Along the Nayarit and Sinaloa coast, flatlying basaltic lava flows dated at 11-10 Ma are exposed just above the present sea level. Here, crustal thickness is almost half that in the unextended core of the SMO, implying significant lithosphere stretching before ~11 Ma. Our study shows that rifting began much earlier than Late Miocene and provided a fundamental control on the style and composition of volcanism from at least 30 Ma. We envision a sustained period of lithospheric stretching and magmatism during which the pace and breadth of extension changed at ~20-18 Ma to be narrower and likely more rapid, and again at ~12.5 Ma, when the kinematics of rifting became more oblique.

Diachronous

Extensional tectonics

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Late Oligocene to middle Miocene rifting and syn-extensional magmatism in the southwestern Sierra Madre occidental, Mexico: the beginning of the Gulf of California rift [Conference abstract]

Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America (2013)

Luca Ferrari Margarita Martinez-Lopez Teresa Orozco-Esquivel Scott E. Bryan Jose Duque

Although Basin and Range style extension affected several areas of western Mexico since the Late Eocene, extension in the Gulf of California region (the Gulf Extensional Province GEP) is thought to have started as subduction waned and ended at ~14 12.5 Ma. A general consensus also exists in considering the mid Miocene Comondu group as a suprasubduction volcanic arc. Our new integration of the geology of the south east Gulf region, backed by 43 new Ar Ar and U Pb mineral ages and geochemical studies, document a widespread phase of extension in the southern GEP between latest Oligocene and Early Miocene that subsequently focused in the region of the future Gulf in the Middle Miocene. Upper Oligocene to Lower Miocene rocks across the southern Sierra Madre Occidental (SMO)(northern Nayarit and southern Sinaloa) were affected by major ~N S to NNW striking normal faults prior to ~21 Ma. Then, between ~21 and 11 Ma, a system of NNW-SSE high angle extensional faults continued extending the southwestern side of the SMO. Rhyolitic domes, shallow intrusive bodies, and lesser basalts were emplaced along this extensional belt at 20-17 Ma. In northern Sinaloa, large grabens were floored by huge dome complexes at ~21-17 Ma and filled by continental sediments with interlayered basalts dated at 15-14 Ma, a setting and timing very similar to Sonora. Early to Middle Miocene volcanism, including the largely volcaniclastic Comondu strata in Baja California Sur, was thus emplaced in rift basins and was likely associated to decompression melting of upper mantle (inducing crustal partial melting) rather than to fluxing by fluids from the young subducting plate. Along the Nayarit and Sinaloa coast, flatlying basaltic lava flows dated at 11-10 Ma are exposed just above the present sea level. Here, crustal thickness is almost half that in the unextended core of the SMO, implying significant lithosphere stretching before ~11 Ma. Our study shows that rifting began much earlier than Late Miocene and provided a fundamental control on the style and composition of volcanism from at least 30 Ma. We envision a sustained period of lithospheric stretching and magmatism during which the pace and breadth of extension changed at ~20-18 Ma to be narrower and likely more rapid, and again at ~12.5 Ma, when the kinematics of rifting became more oblique.

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Extensional tectonics

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Neogene Ridge subduction and slab window in the Northern Andean block - Tectonic implications

AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts (2019)

Susana Hoyos Marion Weber A. M. Cardenás-Rozo Jose Duque

Neogene

Slab

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Transient Cenozoic tectonic stages in the southern margin of the Caribbean plate: U-Th/He thermochronological constraints from Eocene plutonic rocks in the Santa Marta massif and Serranía de Jarara, northern Colombia

Geologica Acta (2011)

A. Cardona V. Valencia Marion Weber Jose Duque Camilo Montes

We use U-Th/(He) zircon and apatite thermochronology and Al in hornblende geobarometry from Eocene granitoids of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and Guajira uplifted massifs in northern Colombia to elucidate the exhumation history of the northern South America continental margin and its bearing to Cenozoic Caribbean– South American plate interactions. Aluminium in hornblende geobarometry from the Eocene Santa Marta batholith yields pressures between 4.9±0.6kbar and 6.4±0.6kbar, which indicate that at least, 14.7-19.2km of unroofing took place since 56-50Ma in the northwestern Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. In the Guajira Peninsula, calculated pressures for the Eocene Parashi stock are 2.3±0.6kbar and 3±0.6kbar. Stratigraphic considerations pertaining to Oligocene conglomerates from the Guajira area suggest that 6.9-9km of crust was lost between 50Ma and ca. 26Ma. U-Th/He zircon and apatite thermochronology from granitoids in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta shows the existence of major exhumation events in the Late Eocene (ca. 45-40Ma), Late Oligocene (ca. 25Ma) and Miocene (ca. 15Ma). The Guajira region records the Late Eocene to Early Oligocene (35-25Ma) event, but it lacks evidence for the Miocene exhumation phase. These differences reflect isolation of the Guajira region from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Andean chain due to extensive block rotation and transtensional tectonics that affected the region during post-Eocene times. The post-Eocene events correlate in time with an increased convergence rate and the frontal approach of North and South America. It is suggested that the two major tectonic mechanisms that govern exhumation in these Caribbean massifs are: 1) subduction of the Caribbean plate, and 2) post Eocene changes in plate convergence obliquity and rates that caused the South American continental margin blocks to override the Caribbean plate. Temporal correlation with other Caribbean and Northern Andean events allows to resolve the regional Cenozoic plate tectonic reorganizations experienced by the South American, Caribbean and Pacific plates at a regional scale

Thermochronology

Batholith

Massif

10.1344/105.000001739

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Citations (36)

Early‐subduction‐related orogeny in the northern Andes: Turonian to Eocene magmatic and provenance record in the Santa Marta Massif and Rancheria Basin, northern Colombia

Terra Nova (2010)

A. Cardona V. Valencia Germán Bayona Jose Duque Mihai N. Ducea

Terra Nova, 23, 26–34, 2011 Abstract The timing of orogeny in the northern Andes and the mechanism driving it are still debated. We have studied the age, composition and provenance of granitoids and sandstones of the Santa Marta Massif and Rancheria Basin, northern Colombia, to relate deep‐seated and surface tectonic processes attending the Late Cretaceous–Palaeogene history of the northern Andes. Our results indicate the development of five tectonic episodes: (1) collision of northwestern South America with a 92–80 Ma Caribbean arc (70 Ma); (2) late‐collisional to early‐subduction metamorphism and magmatism (65 Ma); (3) distal accumulation of a thick siliciclastic sequence (60–58 Ma); (4) renewed arc magmatism (58–50 Ma); and (5) magmatic quiescence and block uplift (post‐50 Ma). The first episodes are related to the onset of subduction, and the last episode is related to shallow subduction and oblique convergence. Similar events in Colombia and Ecuador reveal that the Late Cretaceous–Eocene orogeny of the northern Andes was influenced by the collision and subduction of the Caribbean oceanic plate.

Orogeny

Massif

Back-arc basin

Paleogene

Forearc

Eclogitization

Batholith

10.1111/j.1365-3121.2010.00979.x

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Citations (77)

Tectonic growth of a Cretaceous-Eocene accretionary orogen formed at the southern margin of the Caribbean Plate: integrated geological insights from northernmost Colombia

AGU Spring Meeting Abstracts (2007)

A. Cardona M. B. Weber Germán Bayona Carlos Jaramillo Camilo Montes

Margin (machine learning)

Passive margin

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25 million years to break a continent : early to middle Miocene rifting and syn-extensional magmatism in the southern Gulf of California

Science & Engineering Faculty (2012)

Luca Ferrari Teresa Orozco-Esquivel Margarita López‐Martínez Jose Duque Scott E. Bryan

Cenozoic extension in western Mexico has been divided into two episodes separated by the change from convergence to oblique divergence at the plate boundary. The Gulf Extensional Province is thought to have started once subduction ended at ~12.5 Ma whereas early extension is classified as Basin and Range. Mid-Miocene volcanism of the Comondu group has been considered as a subduction-related arc, whereas post ~12.5 Ma volcanism would be extension-related. Our new integration of the continental onshore and offshore geology of the south-east Gulf region, backed by tens of Ar-Ar and U-Pb ages and geochemical studies, document an early-mid Miocene rifting and extension-related bimodal to andesitic magmatism prior to subduction termination. Between ~21 and 11 Ma a system of NNW-SSE high-angle extensional faults rifted the western side of the Sierra Madre Occidental (SMO) ignimbrite plateau. In Nayarit, rhyolitic domes and some basalts were emplaced along this extensional belt at 18-17 Ma. These rocks show strong antecrystic inheritance but an absence of Mesozoic and older xenocrysts, suggesting a genesis in the mid-upper crust triggered by extension-induced basaltic influx. In Sinaloa, large grabens were floored by huge dome complexes at ~21-17 Ma and filled by continental sediments with interlayered basalts dated at 15 Ma. Mid-Miocene volcanism, including the largely volcaniclastic Comondu strata in Baja California, was thus emplaced in rift basins and appears associated to decompression melting rather than subduction. Along the coast, flat-lying basaltic lava flows dated at 11-10 Ma are exposed just above the present sea level. Here crustal thickness is 25-20 Km, almost half that in the core of the SMO, implying significant lithosphere stretching before ~11 Ma. This mafic pulse, with relatively high Ti but still clear Nb-Ta negative spikes, may be related to the detachment of the lower part of the subducted slab, allowing asthenosphere to flow into parts of the mantle previously fluxed by subduction fluids. Very uniform OIB-like lavas appear in late Pliocene and Pleistocene, only 18 m.y. after the onset of rifting and ~9 m.y. after the end of subduction. Our study shows that rifting began much earlier than Late Miocene and progressively overwhelmed subduction in generating magmatism.

Continental Margin

Extensional tectonics

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Citations (4)

Papers

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H-Index

i-10 index

Papers

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H-Index

i-10 index