Tectonics and Structure Commons^™

Geol 440/840: Tectonics—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Caroline M. Burberry

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This document is a follow-up document to the Benchmark Portfolio for this course, created in 2012. It details the changes made to the course following the observations from the Benchmark Portfolio and demonstrates that discussion of the metacognitive issues surrounding critical thinking does have some effect on increasing student learning. The document concludes with changes which will be made to the 2014 iteration of the class, to continue this inquiry and improvement process.

Tectonics And Sedimentary Facies Interpretation Of The Mesozoic Giron Group, Colombia, Hernando Martinez-Sacristan, Ricardo Mier-Umana, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Stanley Schleifer, Diana Lucia Leon-Martinez

Publications and Research

Preliminary field investigations involving exposed Giron Group sediments in Colombia provided some interesting geologic information in terms of provenance, depositional environments, and development of the Mesozoic synrift sedimentary basins in Colombia. Overall, the synrift Triassic-Jurassic rift-related volcanic rocks, redbeds, and evaporites are prominent in Colombia, and a thick basin sequence of Cretaceous sandstones and shales dominates the central part of the Cordillera Oriental. These were mostly deposited in dominantly north-trending grabens. Identified sedimentary rock types were arkose, clast-and-matrix-supported conglomerate, red mudstone, variegated sandstone, siltstone and breccia. Extensive kaolinitization was noticeable in several sandstone samples. Among the notable sedimentary structures were …

Collisional Reactivation Of Rift Margin Fracture Zones, Taiwan And The Taconic Allochthon, David C. Mirakian

Master's Theses

Chapter I. Transverse Topographic Development due to the Reactivation of a Partially-Subducted Fracture Zone: The Southwest Hsüehshan Range, Central Taiwan

Abstract — The southwest flank of the Hsüehshan Range is defined by a topographic break which cuts across regionally mapped structures in central Taiwan. The mountain front trends ~345°, slightly oblique to the Sanyi-Puli seismic zone which has been previously interpreted as a reactivated continental margin fracture zone. Structural data collected along the length of the topographic break reveal two populations of cross-cutting faults with distinct fault-zone materials and a series of southwest-plunging folds. Paleostress axes were reconstructed using the …

Penrose Conference Report: Neotectonics Of Arc-Continent Collision, Paul Mann, Carlos Vargas, Caroline Whitehill

Geological Sciences Faculty Scholarship

Collisions of arcs with continents are some of the most significant tectonic processes on Earth, leading to crustal accretion, continental growth, formation of sedimentary basins, large areas of regional uplift and deformation, complex interactions between continuous and torn subducted slabs and the surrounding mantle, and large regions of large earthquakes and seismic, volcanic, and landslide hazards that can threaten the lives of millions.
The objective of this conference was to bring together an international group of scientists to discuss the neotectonics and seismic hazards of shallow slab subduction in areas of arc-continent collisions.

Petrologic, Geochemical, And Geochronologic Constraints On The Tectonic Evolution Of The Southern Appalachian Orogen, Blue Ridge Province Of Western North Carolina, Eric Douglas Anderson

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

The Blue Ridge Province of western North Carolina contains a wide variety of metamorphosed igneous and sedimentary rocks that record the tectonic effects of Precambrian and Paleozoic orogenic cycles. Tectonic interpretations of the events that led to the present configuration are varied and often conflicting. This investigation examines metamorphosed mafic rocks that are widely interpreted to have formed during the closure of ocean basins. Metabasites, and specifically eclogites, have a tendency to mark tectonic sutures and frequently preserve pressure (P), temperature (T), and age data (t) that can be gleaned from mineral equilibria and U-Pb isotopic compositions. As such, the …

Surface Wave Inversion Of The Upper Mantle Velocity Structure In The Ross Sea Region, Western Antarctica, James D. Rinke

All Master's Theses

The Ross Sea in Western Antarctica is the locale of several extensional basins formed during Cretaceous to Paleogene rifting. Several seismic studies along the Transantarctic Mountains and Victoria Land Basin’s Terror Rift have shown a general pattern of fast seismic velocities in East Antarctica and slow seismic velocities in West Antarctica. This study focuses on the mantle seismic velocity structure of the West Antarctic Rift System in the Ross Embayment and adjacent craton and Transantarctic Mountains to further refine details of the velocity structure.

Teleseismic events were selected to satisfy the two-station great-circle-path method between 5 Polar Earth Observing Network …

Outcrop Analog For Lower Paleozoic Hydrothermal Dolomite Reservoirs, Mohawk Valley, Ny, Brian E. Slater

Geology Theses and Dissertations

Geochemical analysis and field relations of linear dolomite bodies occurring in outcrop in the Mohawk Valley of New York suggest that they have undergone significant fault-related hydrothermal alteration. The dolomite occurs in the Lower Ordovician Tribes Hill Formation, which is regionally an early Ordovician shaley limestone with patchy dolomitization. The outcrop has an en echelon fault, fracture, and fold pattern. A 3D ground penetrating radar survey of the quarry floor has helped to map out faults, fractures, anticlines, synclines and the extent of dolomitization. Most of the dolomitization occurs in fault-bounded synclines or “sags” flanked by anticlines. The dolomite structures …

Source Of Meta-Igneous Blocks And Structure Of The Colebrooke Schist In The Snowcamp Peak Area, Pickett Peak Terrane, Southwestern Oregon, Jennifer Katrib

Geology Theses and Dissertations

The Colebrooke Schist of the Pickett Peak terrane, southwestern Oregon, is the easternmost, structurally highest unit of the Late Mesozoic-Cenozoic Franciscan Accretionary Complex. The Colebrooke Schist consists of mostly transitional greenschist-blueschist-facies meta-sedimentary rocks with common blocks of meta-volcanics and serpentinites, rare talc-schists and meta-plutonic rocks. The Colebrooke Schist meta-volcanic blocks are greenstones, in many cases with visible relict pillow structures and relict igneous textures.
Fifteen meta-volcanic samples and one meta-plutonic sample were analyzed by XRF and ICP-MS and were plotted with analyses from Plake (1989) and Coleman (1972). The Colebrooke Schist meta-volcanic rocks plot in mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB), island …

New Kinematic Models For Pacific‐North America Motion From 3 Ma To Present, Ii: Evidence For A “Baja California Shear Zone”, Timothy Dixon, Fred Farina, Charles Demets, Francisco Suarez-Vidal, John Fletcher, Bertha Marquez-Azua, M. Meghan Miller, Osvaldo Sanchez, Paul Umhoefer

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

We use new models for present‐day Pacific‐North America motion to evaluate the tectonics of offshore regions west of the Californias. Vandenburg in coastal Alta California moves at the Pacific plate velocity within uncertainties (∼1 mm/yr) after correcting for strain accumulation on the San Andreas and San Gregorio‐Hosgri faults with a model that includes a viscoelastic lower crust. Modeled and measured velocities at coastal sites in Baja California south of the Agua Blanca fault, a region that most previous models consider Pacific plate, differ by 3–8 mm/yr, with coastal sites moving slower that the Pacific plate. We interpret these discrepancies in …

Present‐Day Motion Of The Sierra Nevada Block And Some Tectonic Implications For The Basin And Range Province, North American Cordillera, Timothy H. Dixon, M. Meghan Miller, Frederic Farina, Hongzhi Wang, Daniel Johnson

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Global Positioning System (GPS) data from five sites on the stable interior of the Sierra Nevada block are inverted to describe its angular velocity relative to stable North America. The velocity data for the five sites fit the rigid block model with rms misfits of 0.3 mm/yr (north) and 0.8 mm/yr (east), smaller than independently estimated data uncertainty, indicating that the rigid block model is appropriate. The new Euler vector, 17.0°N, 137.3°W, rotation rate 0.28 degrees per million years, predicts that the block is translating to the northwest, nearly parallel to the plate motion direction, at 13–14 mm/yr, faster than …

The Geology Of The Liberty-Orrington-Passagassawakeag/Fredericton Trough Terrane Boundary In The Bucksport-Orland Area, Coastal Maine, Heather A. Short

Geology Theses and Dissertations

The Liberty-Orrington fault separates two tectonic terranes of widely different lithologies and metamorphic grades within the Coastal Lithotectonic Belt of Maine. While the juxtaposition of the sillimanite-bearing Passagassawakeag gneiss and the chlorite grade Bucksport Formation (turbidites) requires a fault between them, field evidence for, and an understanding of, the nature of the fault has hitherto been lacking. Although the Liberty-Orrington fault has previously been interpreted as a thrust, strike-slip, and/or normal fault, the most recent debate has been centered around two models of Acadian amalgamation involving thrusting of the Passagassawakeag terrane from the southeast vs. thrusting from beneath central Maine …

Structure And Tectonic Significance Of Deformed Medial Ordovician Flysch And Melange Between Albany And Saratoga Lake And In The Central Hudson Valley, New York, Andreas Plesch

Geology Theses and Dissertations

The belt of medial Ordovician deformed flysch west of the traditionally defined Taconic boundary thrust was investigated by detailed mapping in the Capital District, from Albany to Saratoga Lake, and large scale compilation of the central Hudson Valley, between Glens Falls and Middletown. Maps and detailed sections are presented. Mapping recognized a two-fold division into a western belt of folded and faulted flysch and an eastern belt which is dominated by tectonic melange. The Folded and Faulted Flysch unit shows northward fining from greywacke-dominated to shale-dominated. Isoclinal folding and incipient melanges are characteristic in the south, whereas in the north …

A Kinematic Study Of The Summit Valley Plutonic Complex, Klamath Mountains, California, Nancy E. Griesau

Geology Theses and Dissertations

The Summit Valley plutonic complex (SVPC) is a multi-phase intrusive body of Late Jurassic age. Crystallization age for a zircon of 150±1 Ma and a cooling age for a hornblende of 144±1 Ma indicate a protracted period of high temperature. The SVPC is irregularly shaped, covers <15 km², and is believed to be in the western limb of a post-Nevadan syncline, with an easterly dip estimated at about 45°. The SVPC penetrated the Orleans Fault and intruded and contact metamorphosed the upper and lower plates of the thrust. The Orleans Fault is a major tectonic boundary separating the Western Paleozoic …

The Geology Of The Vermont Valley And The Western Flank Of The Green Mountains Between Dorset Mountain And Wallingford, Vermont, Rolf Herrmann

Geology Theses and Dissertations

The carbonate sequence of the Vermont Valley has been generally believed to lie on the east limb of a major unfaulted syncline ("Middlebury Synclinorium"), and the exposed Precambrian basement and overlying cover rocks of the Green Mountain massif on the west limb of the adjacent major unfaulted anticline ("Green Mountain Anticlinorium"). Except for the Basal Thrust of the Taconic Allochthon, all faults shown on previous maps die out north of Dorset Mountain.
In contrast, detailed mapping for this thesis in the Vermont Valley and the western flank of the Green Mountain massif has revealed several major north/south trending thrust faults, …

Evaluation Of Computational Methods Of Paleostress Analysis Using Fault-Striation Data, Steven Henry Schimmrich

Geology Theses and Dissertations

Over the past 12 years, many different computational methods or variations of existing methods have been proposed for determining paleostress tensors from fault populations and their slip directions. These methods are all based upon well-known relationships between stress and shear and use iterative, non-linear mathematical algorithms which seek to minimize the angles between the calculated maximum shear stress direction and the observed movement directions on each fault plane in a population. The solution returned is the best-fit paleostress tensor for the population.
By taking the Coulomb failure criterion into account, several paleostress analysis programs have been able to use linear, …

The Geology Of Taconic Thrust Sheets And Surrounding Carbonates Of The West Central Vermont Marble Belt, North Of Rutland, Vermont, Kay Bierbrauer

Geology Theses and Dissertations

The carbonates of the Vermont Valley and the overlying rocks of the Taconic sequence have been generally believed to lie on the east limb of a major unfaulted syncline (Middlebury Synclinorium). In this view a westward dipping, north-south trending basal Taconic overthrust must be exposed somewhere along the eastern margin of the Taconic Range.
In contrast, this study based on detailed mapping at the north end of the Taconic Allochthon suggests that a folded overthrust surface is only locally seen in fensters; more commonly the basal obduction surface of the Taconic Allochthon has been truncated by later cross-cutting thrust faults. …

Structural Investigations On Experimentally And Naturally Produced Slickensides, Thomas Michael Will

Geology Theses and Dissertations

This work has involved an experimental approach and a study of naturally produced slickensides.
The experiments, carried out on a pyrophyllitic rock, have been performed in order to define some extrinsic parameters that control surface and microstructural features. Normal stress, speed (i.e. strain rate), and amount of slip and total displacement were related to measureable surface features, such as length, and spacing between the developing ridges and grooves. Special attention was paid to a newly recognized type of slickenside lineation (Means, 1986). This lineation produced experimentally cannot be explained in terms of the traditional asperity ploughing or dissolution/precipitation models. It …

Petrology Of The Kula Volcanic Field, Western Turkey, Julie M. Dyer

Geology Theses and Dissertations

The Kula volcanics are a small Pleistocene to Recent volcanic field located on the north shoulder of the Gediz graben, approximately 120 km east of Izmir. The field consists of a mixture of flows, small cones and pyroclastic deposits erupted during three periods of volcanic activity beginning about one million years ago. The volcanics range in composition from basanites to trachybasalts, commonly porphyritic with abundant clinopyroxene, olivine and amphibole phenocrysts. The lavas also host a wide variety of megacrysts, crustal xenoliths and hydrous mantle-derived nodules. These volcanics unconformably overlie Neogene lacustrine sedimentary rocks and the metamorphic basement rocks of the …

Structural Analysis Across The Northeast Boundary Of The Taconic Allochthon, West-Central Vermont, Thomas E. Hoak

Geology Theses and Dissertations

The Taconic Allochthon is an elongate belt of Cambro-Ordovician, argillaceous sediments with lesser occurrences of calcareous and siliceous lithologies. These lithologically distinctive strata lie tectonically juxtaposed over a coeval medial-Ordovician carbonate shelf sequence. This geometry resulted from an arc-continent collision in which a westward-migrating arc (Ammonoosuc Volcanics) collided with an eastern North America passive margin and the accumulated accretionary prism of the forearc region was thrust onto the passive continental margin.
The present thesis examined the structural sequence at the north end of the Allochthon and the continuity of this sequence into the adjacent Parautochthonous Shelf strata. Structurally, the study …

Sedimentology And Tectonic Significance Of The Nutzotin Mountains Sequence, Alaska, Jane Kozinski

Geology Theses and Dissertations

The Nutzotin Mountains Sequence, a Mesozoic flysch sequence in the eastern Alaska Range, was studied along the southern border and in the central portions of the outcrop belt. Three lithologic associations are recognized in the Bonanza Creek section (southern margin) that together indicate a coarsening-upward trend, suggestive of a prograding fan system. These associations are (from bottom to top): 1) debris flow conglomerates overlain by 500 m of intercalated mudstone and base-missing turbiditic siltstone, and mass movement features such as slump folds and slump horizons, 2) 195 m of thicker, coarser turbidites intercalated with mudstones; turbidites are graded but lack …

The Tectonic Evolution Of The Eastern Yukon Tanana Upland, Alaska, Grant W. Cushing

Geology Theses and Dissertations

Field, structural, and isotopic studies in the southeastern Eagle Quadrangle reveal a complex Mesozoic history involving major metamorphism, fold development, thrusting, and igneous intrusion. These events may be related to the accretion of a terrane, possibly Stikine, to the North American continental margin.
40Ar/39Ar incremental heating experiments on metamorphic minerals from amphibolite facies rocks reveal Late Triassic to Middle Jurassic plateau ages interpreted as the age of major metamorphism. Large scale northeast trending folds within these rocks formed after the major metamorphism and before the intrusion of an undeformed, unmetamorphosed cross-cutting dike in Middle Jurassic. These folds probably developed in …

The Influence Of Oceanic Transform Boundaries On The Generation And Evolution Of Oceanic Lithosphere, David G. Gallo

Geology Theses and Dissertations

The first-order geologic and morphologic relationships at, along and proximal to ridge-transform-ridge plate boundaries are used to construct an empirical and speculative tectonic model. The geometry of a ridge-transform intersection necessitates the juxtaposition of relatively cold, thick lithosphere against the truncated end of an accreting plate boundary. The cold face of lithosphere cools the adjacent wedge of asthenosphere rising beneath the axis of accretion and restricts the amount of partial melting thus attenuating the amount of basaltic melt segregated from the asthenosphere per unit time. The manifestation of this cold edge effect is a thinner oceanic crust. At depth, upper …

Structure And Tectonics Of The Keban Metamorphics In The Northern Margin Of The Bitlis Suture Zone, Southeastern Turkey, Gültekin Savci

Geology Theses and Dissertations

The study area near Keban consists of the allochthonous Keban division of the Keban-Malatya crystalline complex and the Yuksekova island-arc rocks of the Bitlis-Puturge Complex in the northern margin of the Bitlis Suture Zone. Detailed mapping shows that the Palaeozoic-Triassic Keban Metamorphics are composed of the following formations: (1) white, massive, karstic Kirklar Marble; (2) phyllitic psammite with calcschist interlayers Calik Formation; and (3) semi-crystallized gray Koyunatlayan Limestone. These formations define a tectonostratigraphy with the Kirklar Marble at the base and the Koyunatlayan Limestone at the top. The detailed lithological description of the Keban Metamorphic rock assemblages suggest that they …

Geology Of The Fondo Negro Region, Dominican Republic, J. Calvin Cooper

Geology Theses and Dissertations

Detailed geologic mapping of the Fondo Negro-Sierra de Martin Garcia region of the Southwestern Dominican Republic establishes that this area is part of a broad and diffuse Northern Caribbean plate boundary zone (PBZ). Faulting in the study area is predominantly left lateral strike-slip, with secondary compression (thrusting) causing both substantial, and rapid, uplift of the region. Folding associated with the wrench faulting affects rocks of all ages in the field area from Paleocene limestones to Quaternary alluvial fans.
New stratigraphic designations are proposed for mappable litho-units in the area, and these are correlated with Hispaniola stratigraphy in general based on …

The Pre-Tertiary Geology And Mesozoic Tectonic Evolution Of Eastern China, Southeast Asia And Adjacent Regions, Michael P. Klimetz

Geology Theses and Dissertations

Several orogenic belts transecting south-eastern Asia are the sites of former convergent plate margins although there have been varying interpretations of the collisional framework of individual continental blocks, styles of convergence at these zones and the timing of respective collisions. A comprehensive tectonic study of eastern China, Mongolia and the southern Soviet Far East indicates the collision of the South China Block with a combined North China-Northeast China Fold Zone Block in the late Triassic-early Jurassic, their collective suturing to Eurasia in the late Jurassic-early Cretaceous, followed by the Sikhote Alin-Japan Block in the mid to late Cretaceous. The evidence …

Structure And Stratigraphy Of West Haven, Vermont, Christoph K. Steinhardt

Geology Theses and Dissertations

Mapping and structural investigations in an area bounded to to the west by by Grenvillian basement and to the east by allochthonous rocks emplaced during the medial Ordovician Taconic Orogeny led to division of the area into a Western Undeformed Zone and an Eastern Deformed Zone. The former consists of a thin, undeformed shelf sequence of upper Cambrian to lower Ordovician (Canadian) clastics and carbonates, which unconformably overlie Grenvillian basement and dip gently to the east.
The Eastern Deformed Zone consists of early to medial Ordovician carbonates folded about northnortheast trending axes with east to southeast dipping axial surfaces, overlain …

Structure Of The Northern Margin Of The Bitlis Suture Zone Near Sivrice, Southeastern Turkey, Mark R. Hempton

Geology Theses and Dissertations

Detailed mapping near Sivrice shows that the northern margin of the Bitlis Suture zone consists of three major tectonostratigraphic units outcropping as distinct north-dipping thrust slices. From south to north these are: (1) the Pütürge Complex; (2) the Maden Complex; and (3) the Elazig Complex.
The pre-Eocene Pütürge Complex consists of 80% metapelite, 15% metaquartzite, and 5% recrystallized limestone. These rocks represent a continental margin sequence that has been metamorphosed to the lower greenschist facies. There are three generations of structural elements: (1) a transposition foliation and macroscopic isoclinal folds, (2) a crenulation cleavage and mesoscopic folds, and (3) kink …

Permo-Triassic Reconstruction Of Western Pangea And The Evolution Of The Gulf Of Mexico-Caribbean Region, James Lawrence Pindell

Geology Theses and Dissertations

A Permo-Triassic reconstruction of western Pangea (North America, South America, Africa) is proposed that is characterized by: 1) definition of the North Atlantic fit by matching of marginal offsets (fracture zones) along the opposing margins, 2) a South Atlantic fit that is tighter than the Bullard fit and that is achieved by treating Africa as two plates astride the Benue Trough and related structures during the Cretaceous, 3) complete closure of the Proto-Atlantic Ocean between North and South America, accomplished by placing the Yucatan block between the Ouachita Mountains and Venezuela, 4) a proposed Hercynian suture zone that separates zones …

Structural Studies Of The Ordovician Flysch And Melange In Albany County, New York, Frederick W. Vollmer

Geology Theses and Dissertations

The middle Ordovician rocks of the Albany 15 minute quadrangle comprise interbedded graywacke and shale, and in the east, coarse cobble or olistostromic deposits. The detrital composition, westward fining and regional westward transgression of these deposits indicate that these were sediments shed off the westward thrusting Taconic Allochthon. Primary sedimentary structures show that these rocks were deposited by turbidity currents flowing into a longitudinal trough, probably formed in response to increased load during overthrusting. Although strongly dependent on lithology, deformation intensity generally increases from west to east; from essentially undeformed bedded flysch through asymmetrically folded and thrust beds to highly …

The Geology Of The Southern Part Of The North Arm Mountain Massif, Bay Of Islands Ophiolite Complex, Western Newfoundland With Application To Ophiolite Obduction And The Genesis Of The Plutonic Portions Of Oceanic Crust And Upper Mantle, John F. Casey

Geology Theses and Dissertations

The Bay of Islands Ophiolite Complex forms a discontinuous belt of highly allochthonous mafic and ultramafic massifs in southwestern Newfoundland. The North Arm Mountain Massif contains the only significant exposures of sedimentary rocks overlying the ophiolite and also contains the most extensive exposures of plutonic rocks in the Bay of Islands Complex. Mapping has shown that sedimentary rocks, here named the Crabb Brook Group, rest with a pronounced erosional unconformity on ophiolitic rocks. Lithologic,paleontologic, facies, structural, and tectonic relationships indicate that this Group was deposited on the back of the ophiolite allochthon as it was being obducted onto the early …