News Release

Articles for Geosphere posted online in March

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Geological Society of America

Boulder, Colo., USA: GSA’s dynamic online journal, Geosphere, posts articles online regularly. Locations studied this month include the western Himalaya, the boundary between the southern Coast Ranges and western Transverse Ranges in California, the northern Sierra Nevada, and northwest Nepal.

Marine sedimentary records of chemical weathering evolution in the western Himalaya since 17 Ma
Peng Zhou; Thomas Ireland; Richard W. Murray; Peter D. Clift
Abstract: The Indus Fan derives sediment from the western Himalaya and Karakoram. Sediment from International Ocean Discovery Program drill sites in the eastern part of the fan coupled with data from an industrial well near the river mouth allow the weathering history of the region since ca. 16 Ma to be reconstructed. Clay minerals, bulk sediment geochemistry, and magnetic susceptibility were used to constrain degrees of chemical alteration. Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy was used to measure the abundance of moisture-sensitive minerals hematite and goethite. Indus Fan sediment is more weathered than Bengal Fan material, probably reflecting slow transport, despite the drier climate, which slows chemical weathering rates. Some chemical weathering proxies, such as K/Si or kaolinite/(illite + chlorite), show no temporal evolution, but illite crystallinity and the chemical index of alteration do have statistically measurable decreases over long time periods. Using these proxies, we suggest that sediment alteration was moderate and then increased from 13 to 11 Ma, remained high until 9 Ma, and then reduced from that time until 6 Ma in the context of reduced physical erosion during a time of increasing aridity as tracked by hematite/goethite values. The poorly defined reducing trend in weathering intensity is not clearly linked to global cooling and at least partly reflects regional climate change. Since 6 Ma, weathering has been weak but variable since a final reduction in alteration state after 3.5 Ma that correlates with the onset of Northern Hemispheric glaciation. Reduced or stable chemical weathering at a time of falling sedimentation rates is not consistent with models for Cenozoic global climate change that invoke greater Himalayan weathering fluxes drawing down atmospheric CO 2 but are in accord with the idea of greater surface reactivity to weathering.
View article: https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geosphere/article-abstract/doi/10.1130/GES02211.1/595660/Marine-sedimentary-records-of-chemical-weathering

Late Pleistocene rates of rock uplift and faulting at the boundary between the southern Coast Ranges and the western Transverse Ranges in California from reconstruction and luminescence dating of the Orcutt Formation
Ian S. McGregor; Nathan W. Onderdonk
Abstract: The western Transverse Ranges and southern Coast Ranges of California are lithologically similar but have very different styles and rates of Quaternary deformation. The western Transverse Ranges are deformed by west-trending folds and reverse faults with fast rates of Quaternary fault slip (1–11 mm/yr) and uplift (1–7 mm/yr). The southern Coast Ranges, however, are primarily deformed by northwest-trending folds and right-lateral strike-slip faults with much slower slip rates (3 mm/yr or less) and uplift rates (<1 mm/yr). Faults and folds at the boundary between these two structural domains exhibit geometric and kinematic characteristics of both domains, but little is known about the rate of Quaternary deformation along the boundary. We used a late Pleistocene sedimentary deposit, the Orcutt Formation, as a marker to characterize deformation within the boundary zone over the past 120 k.y. The Orcutt Formation is a fluvial deposit in the Santa Maria Basin that formed during regional planation by a broad fluvial system that graded into a shoreline platform at the coast. We used post-infrared–infrared-stimulated luminescence (pIR-IRSL) dating to determine that the Orcutt Formation was deposited between 119 ± 8 and 85 ± 6 ka, coincident with oxygen isotope stages 5e-a paleo–sea-level highstands and regional depositional events. The deformed Orcutt basal surface closely follows the present-day topography of the Santa Maria Basin and is folded by northwest-trending anticlines that are a combination of fault-propagation and fault-bend-folding controlled by deeper thrust faults. Reconstructions of the Orcutt basal surface and forward modeling of balanced cross sections across the study area allowed us to mea­sure rock uplift rates and fault slip rates. Rock uplift rates at the crests of two major anticlinoria are 0.9–4.9 mm/yr, and the dip-slip rate along the blind fault system that underlies these folds is 5.6–6.7 mm/yr. These rates are similar to those reported from the Ventura area to the southeast and indicate that the relatively high rates of deformation in the western Transverse Ranges are also present along the northern boundary zone. The deformation style and rates are consistent with models that attribute shortening across the Santa Maria Basin to accommodation of clockwise rotation of the western Transverse Ranges and suggest that rotation has continued into late Quaternary time.
View article: https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geosphere/article-abstract/doi/10.1130/GES02274.1/595661/Late-Pleistocene-rates-of-rock-uplift-and-faulting

Influence of pre-existing structure on pluton emplacement and geomorphology: The Merrimac plutons, northern Sierra Nevada, California, USA
V.E. Langenheim; J.A. Vazquez; K.M. Schmidt; G. Guglielmo, Jr.; D.S. Sweetkind
Abstract: In much of the western Cordillera of North America, the geologic frame­work of crustal structure generated in the Mesozoic leaves an imprint on later plutonic emplacement, subsequent structural setting, and present landscape morphology. The Merrimac plutons in the northern Sierra Nevada (California, USA) are a good example of the influence of pre-existing structure at a larger scale. This paper updates and refines earlier studies of the Merrimac plutons, with the addition of analysis of gravity and magnetic data and new 206Pb/238U zircon dates. The gravity and magnetic data not only confirm the presence of two different neighboring plutons, but also (1) support the presence of a third pluton, (2) refine the nature of the contact between the Merrimac plutons as being structurally controlled, and (3) estimate the depth extent of the plutons to be ~4–5 km. The zircon 206Pb/238U dates indicate that the two main plutons have statistically different crystallization ages nearly 4 m.y. apart. Geomorphic analyses, including estimates of relief, roughness and drainage density and generation of chi plots, indicate that the two main plutons are characterized by different elevations with large longitudinal channel knickpoints that we speculatively attribute to possible reactivation of pre-existing structure in addition to lithologic variations influencing relative erosion susceptibility in response to prior accelerated surface uplift.
View article: https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geosphere/article-abstract/doi/10.1130/GES02281.1/594115/Influence-of-pre-existing-structure-on-pluton

Protolith affiliation and tectonometamorphic evolution of the Gurla Mandhata core complex, NW Nepal Himalaya
Laurent Godin; Mark Ahenda; Djordje Grujic; Ross Stevenson; John Cottle
Abstract: Assigning correct protolith to high metamorphic-grade core zone rocks of large hot orogens is a particularly important challenge to overcome when attempting to constrain the early stages of orogenic evolution and paleogeography of lithotectonic units from these orogens. The Gurla Mandhata core complex in NW Nepal exposes the Himalayan metamorphic core (HMC), a sequence of high metamorphic-grade gneiss, migmatite, and granite, in the hinterland of the Himalayan orogen. Sm-Nd isotopic analyses indicate that the HMC comprises Greater Himalayan sequence (GHS) and Lesser Himalayan sequence (LHS) rocks. Conventional interpretation of such provenance data would require the Main Central thrust (MCT) to be also outcropping within the core complex. However, new in situ U-Th/Pb monazite petrochronology coupled with petrographic, structural, and microstructural observations reveal that the core complex is composed solely of rocks in the hanging wall of the MCT. Rocks from the core complex record Eocene and late Oligocene to early Miocene monazite (re-)crystallization periods (monazite age peaks of 40 Ma, 25–19 Ma, and 19–16 Ma) overprinting pre- Himalayan Ordovician Bhimphedian metamorphism and magmatism (ca. 470 Ma). The combination of Sm-Nd isotopic analysis and U-Th/ Pb monazite petrochronology demonstrates that both GHS and LHS protolith rocks were captured in the hanging wall of the MCT and experienced Cenozoic Himalayan metamorphism during south-directed extrusion. Monazite ages do not record metamorphism coeval with late Miocene extensional core complex exhumation, suggesting that peak metamorphism and generation of anatectic melt in the core complex had ceased prior to the onset of orogen-parallel hinterland extension at ca. 15–13 Ma. The geometry of the Gurla Mandhata core complex requires significant hinterland crustal thickening prior to 16 Ma, which is attributed to ductile HMC thickening and footwall accretion of LHS protolith associated with a Main Himalayan thrust ramp below the core complex. We demonstrate that isotopic signatures such as Sm-Nd should be used to characterize rock units and structures across the Himalaya only in conjunction with supporting petrochronological and structural data.
View article: https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geosphere/article-abstract/doi/10.1130/GES02326.1/595237/Protolith-affiliation-and-tectonometamorphic

Boulder, Colo., USA: GSA’s dynamic online journal, Geosphere, posts articles online regularly. Locations studied this month include the western Himalaya, the boundary between the southern Coast Ranges and western Transverse Ranges in California, the northern Sierra Nevada, and northwest Nepal.

Marine sedimentary records of chemical weathering evolution in the western Himalaya since 17 Ma
Peng Zhou; Thomas Ireland; Richard W. Murray; Peter D. Clift
Abstract: The Indus Fan derives sediment from the western Himalaya and Karakoram. Sediment from International Ocean Discovery Program drill sites in the eastern part of the fan coupled with data from an industrial well near the river mouth allow the weathering history of the region since ca. 16 Ma to be reconstructed. Clay minerals, bulk sediment geochemistry, and magnetic susceptibility were used to constrain degrees of chemical alteration. Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy was used to measure the abundance of moisture-sensitive minerals hematite and goethite. Indus Fan sediment is more weathered than Bengal Fan material, probably reflecting slow transport, despite the drier climate, which slows chemical weathering rates. Some chemical weathering proxies, such as K/Si or kaolinite/(illite + chlorite), show no temporal evolution, but illite crystallinity and the chemical index of alteration do have statistically measurable decreases over long time periods. Using these proxies, we suggest that sediment alteration was moderate and then increased from 13 to 11 Ma, remained high until 9 Ma, and then reduced from that time until 6 Ma in the context of reduced physical erosion during a time of increasing aridity as tracked by hematite/goethite values. The poorly defined reducing trend in weathering intensity is not clearly linked to global cooling and at least partly reflects regional climate change. Since 6 Ma, weathering has been weak but variable since a final reduction in alteration state after 3.5 Ma that correlates with the onset of Northern Hemispheric glaciation. Reduced or stable chemical weathering at a time of falling sedimentation rates is not consistent with models for Cenozoic global climate change that invoke greater Himalayan weathering fluxes drawing down atmospheric CO 2 but are in accord with the idea of greater surface reactivity to weathering.
View article: https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geosphere/article-abstract/doi/10.1130/GES02211.1/595660/Marine-sedimentary-records-of-chemical-weathering

Late Pleistocene rates of rock uplift and faulting at the boundary between the southern Coast Ranges and the western Transverse Ranges in California from reconstruction and luminescence dating of the Orcutt Formation
Ian S. McGregor; Nathan W. Onderdonk
Abstract: The western Transverse Ranges and southern Coast Ranges of California are lithologically similar but have very different styles and rates of Quaternary deformation. The western Transverse Ranges are deformed by west-trending folds and reverse faults with fast rates of Quaternary fault slip (1–11 mm/yr) and uplift (1–7 mm/yr). The southern Coast Ranges, however, are primarily deformed by northwest-trending folds and right-lateral strike-slip faults with much slower slip rates (3 mm/yr or less) and uplift rates (<1 mm/yr). Faults and folds at the boundary between these two structural domains exhibit geometric and kinematic characteristics of both domains, but little is known about the rate of Quaternary deformation along the boundary. We used a late Pleistocene sedimentary deposit, the Orcutt Formation, as a marker to characterize deformation within the boundary zone over the past 120 k.y. The Orcutt Formation is a fluvial deposit in the Santa Maria Basin that formed during regional planation by a broad fluvial system that graded into a shoreline platform at the coast. We used post-infrared–infrared-stimulated luminescence (pIR-IRSL) dating to determine that the Orcutt Formation was deposited between 119 ± 8 and 85 ± 6 ka, coincident with oxygen isotope stages 5e-a paleo–sea-level highstands and regional depositional events. The deformed Orcutt basal surface closely follows the present-day topography of the Santa Maria Basin and is folded by northwest-trending anticlines that are a combination of fault-propagation and fault-bend-folding controlled by deeper thrust faults. Reconstructions of the Orcutt basal surface and forward modeling of balanced cross sections across the study area allowed us to mea­sure rock uplift rates and fault slip rates. Rock uplift rates at the crests of two major anticlinoria are 0.9–4.9 mm/yr, and the dip-slip rate along the blind fault system that underlies these folds is 5.6–6.7 mm/yr. These rates are similar to those reported from the Ventura area to the southeast and indicate that the relatively high rates of deformation in the western Transverse Ranges are also present along the northern boundary zone. The deformation style and rates are consistent with models that attribute shortening across the Santa Maria Basin to accommodation of clockwise rotation of the western Transverse Ranges and suggest that rotation has continued into late Quaternary time.
View article: https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geosphere/article-abstract/doi/10.1130/GES02274.1/595661/Late-Pleistocene-rates-of-rock-uplift-and-faulting

Influence of pre-existing structure on pluton emplacement and geomorphology: The Merrimac plutons, northern Sierra Nevada, California, USA
V.E. Langenheim; J.A. Vazquez; K.M. Schmidt; G. Guglielmo, Jr.; D.S. Sweetkind
Abstract: In much of the western Cordillera of North America, the geologic frame­work of crustal structure generated in the Mesozoic leaves an imprint on later plutonic emplacement, subsequent structural setting, and present landscape morphology. The Merrimac plutons in the northern Sierra Nevada (California, USA) are a good example of the influence of pre-existing structure at a larger scale. This paper updates and refines earlier studies of the Merrimac plutons, with the addition of analysis of gravity and magnetic data and new 206Pb/238U zircon dates. The gravity and magnetic data not only confirm the presence of two different neighboring plutons, but also (1) support the presence of a third pluton, (2) refine the nature of the contact between the Merrimac plutons as being structurally controlled, and (3) estimate the depth extent of the plutons to be ~4–5 km. The zircon 206Pb/238U dates indicate that the two main plutons have statistically different crystallization ages nearly 4 m.y. apart. Geomorphic analyses, including estimates of relief, roughness and drainage density and generation of chi plots, indicate that the two main plutons are characterized by different elevations with large longitudinal channel knickpoints that we speculatively attribute to possible reactivation of pre-existing structure in addition to lithologic variations influencing relative erosion susceptibility in response to prior accelerated surface uplift.
View article: https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geosphere/article-abstract/doi/10.1130/GES02281.1/594115/Influence-of-pre-existing-structure-on-pluton

Protolith affiliation and tectonometamorphic evolution of the Gurla Mandhata core complex, NW Nepal Himalaya
Laurent Godin; Mark Ahenda; Djordje Grujic; Ross Stevenson; John Cottle
Abstract: Assigning correct protolith to high metamorphic-grade core zone rocks of large hot orogens is a particularly important challenge to overcome when attempting to constrain the early stages of orogenic evolution and paleogeography of lithotectonic units from these orogens. The Gurla Mandhata core complex in NW Nepal exposes the Himalayan metamorphic core (HMC), a sequence of high metamorphic-grade gneiss, migmatite, and granite, in the hinterland of the Himalayan orogen. Sm-Nd isotopic analyses indicate that the HMC comprises Greater Himalayan sequence (GHS) and Lesser Himalayan sequence (LHS) rocks. Conventional interpretation of such provenance data would require the Main Central thrust (MCT) to be also outcropping within the core complex. However, new in situ U-Th/Pb monazite petrochronology coupled with petrographic, structural, and microstructural observations reveal that the core complex is composed solely of rocks in the hanging wall of the MCT. Rocks from the core complex record Eocene and late Oligocene to early Miocene monazite (re-)crystallization periods (monazite age peaks of 40 Ma, 25–19 Ma, and 19–16 Ma) overprinting pre- Himalayan Ordovician Bhimphedian metamorphism and magmatism (ca. 470 Ma). The combination of Sm-Nd isotopic analysis and U-Th/ Pb monazite petrochronology demonstrates that both GHS and LHS protolith rocks were captured in the hanging wall of the MCT and experienced Cenozoic Himalayan metamorphism during south-directed extrusion. Monazite ages do not record metamorphism coeval with late Miocene extensional core complex exhumation, suggesting that peak metamorphism and generation of anatectic melt in the core complex had ceased prior to the onset of orogen-parallel hinterland extension at ca. 15–13 Ma. The geometry of the Gurla Mandhata core complex requires significant hinterland crustal thickening prior to 16 Ma, which is attributed to ductile HMC thickening and footwall accretion of LHS protolith associated with a Main Himalayan thrust ramp below the core complex. We demonstrate that isotopic signatures such as Sm-Nd should be used to characterize rock units and structures across the Himalaya only in conjunction with supporting petrochronological and structural data.
View article: https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geosphere/article-abstract/doi/10.1130/GES02326.1/595237/Protolith-affiliation-and-tectonometamorphic

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GEOSPHERE articles are available at https://geosphere.geoscienceworld.org/content/early/recent . Representatives of the media may obtain complimentary copies of GEOSPHERE articles by contacting Kea Giles at the address above. Please discuss articles of interest with the authors before publishing stories on their work, and please make reference to GEOSPHERE in articles published. Non-media requests for articles may be directed to GSA Sales and Service, gsaservice@geosociety.org.

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