Chapter 12: Geophysical and tectonic framework of the eastern Basin and Range-Colorado Plateau-Rocky Mountain transition

Seismic sections from COCORP’s 1982 survey from the eastern Basin and Range to the Colorado Plateau of central Utah exhibit distinct cutoff times after which reflections are rare to nonexistent. In the eastern Basin and Range, this cutoff time is approximately 11 s (33 km), but beneath the central Colorado Plateau it exceeds 15 s (45 km). These depths appear to correspond to the base of the crust (Moho), with the lack of reflections from greater depths indicating mantle homogeneity. In general, absence of deeper reflections may be due either to geologic homogeneity or to lack of signal penetration. COCORP line 3 in the Colorado Plateau‐Basin and Range transition zone shows that variations in penetration are significant. On line 3 few reflections are evident below the structurally complex sedimentary cover, which extends to only 4 s (8 km), and virtually none are identifiable later than 7 s (21 km). Lateral variations in the temporal decay of source‐generated energy, together with estimates of corresponding ambient noise levels, infer that limited signal penetration, rather than geologic homogeneity, causes the lack of subsedimentary reflections within the transition zone. Deep reflections, if any, from beneath the westernmost Colorado Plateau appear to be masked by unusually high local environmental noise. In contrast, continued decay of source‐generated energy at traveltimes significantly greater than Moho arrival times within the Basin and Range and Colorado Plateau suggests (though it cannot confirm) that the underlying mantle is seismically transparent. Variations in signal penetration, such as those documented here, severely constrain interpretations of nonreflective zones in deep reflection data and should be a standard estimation in any interpretational procedure.

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Uniform-sense normal simple shear of the continental lithosphere

Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences ◽

10.1139/e85-009 ◽

1985 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

pp. 108-125 ◽

Cited By ~ 1082

Author(s):

Brian Wernicke

Keyword(s):

Simple Shear ◽

Colorado Plateau ◽

Rocky Mountain ◽

Shear Zones ◽

Basin And Range ◽

Normal Faults ◽

The West ◽

Basin And Range Province ◽

Lithospheric Thinning ◽

Crustal Thinning

Geophysical studies suggest that the thin crust characteristic of the Basin and Range Province extends eastward beneath the west margin of the Colorado Plateau and Rocky Mountain regions. In Arizona and Utah, zones perhaps over 100 km wide may be defined, bounded on the west by the east limit of upper crustal normal faults that account for more that 10% extension and on the east by the east limit of thinning beneath the Colorado Plateau. A discrepancy exists within these zones between the negligible extension measurable in the upper crust and the substantial extension apparent from crustal thinning, assuming the "discrepant zone" crust was as thick as or thicker than the Colorado Plateau – Rocky Mountain crust prior to extensional tectonism.If various theories appealing to crustal erosion are dismissed, mass balance problems evident in the discrepant zones are most easily resolved by down-to-the-east normal simple shear of the crust, moving lower and middle crustal rocks that initially were within the zones up-and-to-the-west to where they now are locally exposed in the Basin and Range Province. West of the discrepant zones in both Arizona and Utah, east-directed extensional allochthons with large displacement are exposed. These geophysical and geological observations complement one another if it is accepted that the entire crust in both Arizona and Utah failed during extension on gently east-dipping, east-directed, low-angle normal faults and shear zones over a region several hundred kilometres wide.Large-scale, uniform-sense normal simple shear of the crust suggests the entire lithosphere may do the same. Such a hypothesis predicts major lithospheric thinning without crustal thinning will occur in plateau areas in the direction of crustal shear. In the case of the Arizona, Utah, and Red Sea extensional systems, and possibly the Death Valley extensional terrain, a broad topographic arch, typically 1500–2000 m higher than the extended terrain, is present, suggesting lithospheric thinning in areas predicted by the hypothesis.

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