How Laramide-age hydration of North American lithosphere by the Farallon slab controlled subsequent activity in the western United States

被引:313
作者
Humphreys, E [1 ]
Hessler, E
Dueker, K
Farmer, CL
Erslev, E
Atwater, T
机构
[1] Univ Oregon, Dept Geol Sci, Eugene, OR 97403 USA
[2] Univ Wyoming, Dept Geol & Geophys, Laramie, WY 82071 USA
[3] Univ Colorado, Dept Geol Sci, Boulder, CO 80309 USA
[4] Colorado State Univ, Dept Earth Resources, Ft Collins, CO 80523 USA
[5] Univ Calif Santa Barbara, Dept Geol Sci, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 USA
关键词
D O I
10.2747/0020-6814.45.7.575
中图分类号
P5 [地质学];
学科分类号
0709 ; 081803 ;
摘要
Starting with the Laramide orogeny and continuing through the Cenozoic, the U.S. Cordilleran orogen is unusual for its width, nature of uplift, and style of tectonic and magmatic activity. We present teleseismic tomography evidence for a thickness of modified North America lithosphere greater than or equal to200 km beneath Colorado and >100 km beneath New Mexico. Existing explanations for uplift or magmatism cannot accommodate lithosphere this thick. Imaged mantle structure is low in seismic velocity roughly beneath the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and New Mexico, and high in velocity to the east and west, beneath the tectonically intact Great Plains and Colorado Plateau. Structure internal to the low-velocity volume has a NE grain suggestive of influence by inherited Precambrian sutures. We conclude that the high-velocity upper mantle is Precambrian lithosphere, and the low-velocity volume is partially molten Precambrian North America mantle. We suggest, as others have, that the Farallon stab was in contact with the lithosphere beneath most of the western U.S. during the Laramide orogeny. We further suggest that slab de-watering under the increasingly cool conditions of slab contact with North America hydrated the base of the continental lithosphere, causing a steady regional uplift of the western U.S. during the Laramide orogeny. Imaged low-velocity upper mantle is attributed to hydration-induced lithospheric melting beneath much of the southern Rocky Mountains. Laramide-age magmatic ascent heated and weakened the lithosphere, which in turn allowed horizontal shortening to occur in the mantle beneath the region of Laramide thrusting in the southern Rocky Mountains. Subsequent Farallon slab removal resulted in additional uplift through unloading. It also triggered vigorous magmatism, especially where asthenosphere made contact with the hydrated and relatively thin and fertile lithosphere of what now is the Basin and Range. This mantle now is dry, depleted of basaltic components, hot, buoyant, and weak.
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页码:575 / 595
页数:21
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