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<jats:p>Oligocene and early Miocene displacement on the Catalina–San Pedro detachment fault and its northern correlatives uncovered mylonitic fabrics that form the greater Catalina metamorphic core complex in southeastern Arizona, USA. Gently to moderately dipping mylonitic foliations in the complex are strongly lineated, with a lineation-azimuth average of 064–244° and dominantly top-southwest shear sense over the entire 115-km-long mylonite belt. Reconstruction of detachment fault displacement based on a variety of features indicates 40–60 km of displacement, with greater displacement in more southern areas. Widespread 26–28 Ma volcanism during early extensional basin genesis was followed by 24–26 Ma granitoid magmatism. Cooling of footwall mylonites continued until 22–24 Ma, as indicated by 40Ar/39Ar mica dates. Lower temperature thermochronometers suggest that footwall exhumation was still underway at ca. 20 Ma. Tectonic reconstruction places a variety of unmetamorphosed supracrustal units in the Tucson and Silver Bell Mountains above equivalent units that were metamorphosed and penetratively deformed in the Tortolita and Santa Catalina Mountains. This restored juxtaposition is interpreted as a consequence of older Laramide thrust burial of the deformed units, with northeast-directed thrusting occurring along the Wildhorse Mountain thrust in the Rincon Mountains and related but largely concealed thrusts to the northwest. Effective extensional exhumation of lower plate rocks resulted from a general lack of internal extension of the upper plate wedge. This is attributed to a stable sliding regime during the entire period of extension, with metamorphic core complex inflation by deep crustal flow leading to maintenance of wedge surface slope and detachment fault dip that favored stable sliding rather than internal wedge extension.</jats:p>

<jats:p>New cosmogenic 3He chronologies and geologic mapping of faulted glacial drift provide new constraints for the slip rates of active faulting in the central Cascade arc, Oregon, USA. The White Branch and Dilman Meadows fault zones cut deposits created by three distinct glacial advances, which provide timing, kinematics, and rate constraints for fault motion. New cosmogenic 3He data from landforms comprising the youngest and most widespread deposits have ages between 19.4 +10.1/–6.2 ka and 21.3 ± 4.9 ka; therefore, they were deposited during the last glacial maximum (LGM). A second, older outwash surface reveals an age of 74.2 ± 3.8 ka, which suggests glaciation possibly associated with marine isotope stage (MIS) 5b. Dip-slip displacement across fault scarps expressed by lidar data reveal similar magnitudes of extensional deformation for LGM and older glacial deposits on the White Branch fault zone, which implies a lack of earthquake ruptures between the oldest and LGM advances. In contrast, scarp profiles along the Dilman Meadows fault zone reveal progressive cumulative slip for surfaces of increasing age. Taken together, our measurements provide the first constraints on the rate of extensional faulting derived from Quaternary geochronology along the White Branch and Dilman Meadows faults, which total 0.1–0.4 mm/yr since ca. 75 ka and 0.6 ± 0.04 mm/yr since the LGM, respectively. The White Branch fault zone accommodates predominately fault-normal extension, whereas right-oblique slip characterizes the Dilman Meadows fault zone. Active deformation across the central Cascade Range thus reflects the combined effects of ongoing crustal block rotation and arc magmatism.</jats:p>

<jats:p>We use three-dimensional (3-D) dynamic finite-element models to investigate potential rupture paths of earthquakes propagating along faults through the western San Gorgonio Pass, a structurally complex region along the San Andreas fault system in southern California (USA). We focus on the right-lateral San Bernardino strand of the San Andreas fault system, the oblique thrust–right-lateral San Gorgonio Pass fault zone, and a portion of the right-lateral Garnet Hill strand of the San Andreas fault system. We use the 3-D finite-element method to model rupture propagation along a fault geometry that reflects current understanding of the local geometrical complexity and is consistent with long-term loading and observed surface deformation. We test three different types of pre-stress assumptions: (1) constant tractions (assuming pure right-lateral strike-slip motion on the San Bernardino and Garnet Hill strands and oblique thrust–right-lateral strike-slip motion on the San Gorgonio Pass fault zone), (2) a uniform regional stress regime, and (3) long-term (evolved) stress from quasi-static crustal deformation modeling. Our results imply that under the more realistic regional stress and evolved stress assumptions, throughgoing rupture propagation from the southeast to northwest (i.e., from the Garnet Hill to the San Bernardino strand) may be more likely than throughgoing rupture in the reverse direction (from the San Bernardino to the Garnet Hill strand). The results may have implications for the earthquake potential in the region as well as for ground motion in the Los Angeles Basin. The results also emphasize how fault geometry and stress patterns combine to influence rupture propagation on complex fault systems.</jats:p>

<jats:p>The Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) contact interval is constrained by vertebrate fossil sites at seven sites in the Tornillo Group and lies within an 80–100-m stratigraphic section between the top of the Javelina Formation and the base of the “log jam sandstone” marker bed in the Black Peaks Formation. In western exposures of this interval, the highest occurrence of in situ dinosaur specimens and the lowest occurrence of Paleocene mammal specimens are separated by an unusual conglomerate bed. This thin conglomerate bed coincides with the contact between Cretaceous and Paleogene strata and contains reworked Cretaceous fossils. It is superficially similar to conglomerate beds elsewhere attributed to the effects of tsunamis generated by the Chicxulub impact; however, the maximum depositional age of ca. 63 Ma based on detrital zircons indicates that the conglomerate was deposited about three million years after the K-Pg boundary event. Paleocene mammalian fossils from immediately above the conglomerate bed represent a fauna that can be no older than the middle Torrejonian (To2 interval zone). The contact between Cretaceous and Paleocene strata is therefore disconformal and represents a hiatus of at least three million years. A condensed section occurs at the westernmost exposure of the K-Pg contact, where at least 80 m of strata are absent below the conglomerate bed; these strata are present in exposures farther east. This condensed section likely records an erosional event resulting from uplift and deformation of the nearby Terlingua monocline. Although the 80 m of strata below the conglomerate bed are poorly fossiliferous, several clearly in situ dinosaur specimens indicate that this entire interval is Late Cretaceous in age. There is no compelling evidence for preservation of the K-Pg boundary event horizon at any of the seven sites in the Tornillo Group, and so the hiatus represented at the Cretaceous/ Paleocene contact here likely also includes some part of latest Cretaceous time. Mammalian specimens from sites in the “log jam sandstone,” ~40 m above the middle Torrejonian sites, represent an early Tiffanian fauna (Ti1 interval zone). Latest Torrejonian (To3) sites have not been recognized, and therefore a second disconformity likely coincides with the base of the “log jam sandstone” marker horizon in the Black Peaks Formation.</jats:p>

<jats:p>Broad overlap between deformation and magmatism in active margins has spurred the development of a conceptual framework of direct tectonomagmatic links in both active and ancient arcs. Although widespread and highly influential, such models have only rarely been critically evaluated. Rigorously linking tectonism, geodynamics, lithospheric evolution, and arc activity requires detailed reconstructions of the spatiotemporal patterns of magmatism and deformation across both a sufficiently wide area and a range of observational scales. Herein, new constraints on the timing, extent, and characteristics of deformation during mid-Cretaceous tectonism in the central Sierra Nevada (eastern California, USA) are synthesized with published geologic mapping, structural studies, and geochronology to create an updated reconstruction of one of the type examples of a hot, magma-rich orogen. Tilted strata, tectonic fabrics, and shear zones with variable geometries, kinematics, intensity, and timing reveal a significantly revised record of ~25 m.y. of heterogeneous deformation ca. 105–80 Ma. Deformation and magmatism show distinct and unrelated spatiotemporal patterns throughout this orogenic episode. Contrary to previous models of direct tectonomagmatic links, many of which were developed in the central Sierra Nevada, arc activity did not control the location, intensity, or kinematics of intra-arc deformation, nor did shear zones control the location of magmatism. Furthermore, arc lithosphere appears to have strengthened, rather than weakened, as the arc-orogenic flare-up proceeded. In addition to changing plate-scale boundary conditions, lithospheric-scale rheological evolution likely played a key role in the patterns of Late Cretaceous deformation observed across strike of the entire Cordilleran margin.</jats:p>

<jats:p>The Upper Silurian Salina Group of eastern North America is well known for its thick evaporite successions and hydrocarbon resources. These strata have been assigned to numerous chronostratigraphic schemes within Ohio and Michigan and are currently identified by varying subsurface and outcrop nomenclatural schemes. These chronostratigraphic challenges have persisted for over 50 yr and dramatically inhibit the correlation of events recorded in the Silurian section of eastern North America with the global record of Silurian biogeochemical events. To help resolve the chronostratigraphic correlation of these units, we provide new high-resolution δ13Ccarb chemostratigraphic analyses of a core located in central Ohio for strata assigned to the Greenfield and Tymochtee Formations and integrate existing biostratigraphic, chemostratigraphic, and subsurface geophysical data in western, southern, and eastern Ohio. The new data presented here, integrated for the first time with basinwide subsurface geophysical data, demonstrate a mid-late Homerian Stage global sea-level lowstand, suggest a short interval of tectonic stability within the study area at the beginning of “Salina B–G” deposition, during which accommodation was occupied by the Greenfield Formation and laterally equivalent strata, and provide chronostratigraphic constraints for basin flexure and potential forebulge migration associated with renewed tectonic activity. The new chronostratigraphic correlation of these strata provides a broader picture of Silurian environmental change across the eastern half of the Laurentian paleocontinent.</jats:p>

<jats:p>The ~5 km3, 4.54–4.09 Ma Caspana ignimbrite of the Altiplano-Puna volcanic complex (APVC) of the Central Andes records the eruption of an andesite and two distinct rhyolitic magmas. It provides a unique opportunity to investigate the production of silicic magmas in a continental arc flare-up, where small volumes of magma rarely survive homogenization into the regional magmatic system that is dominated by supereruptions of monotonous dacitic ignimbrites.</jats:p> <jats:p>The fall deposit and thin flow unit that record the first stage of the eruption (Phase 1) tapped a crystal-poor peraluminous rhyolite. The petrological and geochemical characteristics of Phase 1 are best explained by partial melting of or reheating and melt extraction from a granodioritic intrusion. Phase 2 of the eruption records the emplacement of a more extensive flow unit with a crystal-poor, fayalite-bearing rhyolite and a porphyritic to glomeroporphyritic andesite containing abundant plagioclase-orthopyroxene-Fe-Ti oxide (norite) glomerocrysts. The isotopic composition of Phase 2 is significantly more “crustal” than Phase 1, indicating a separate petrogenetic path. The mineral assemblage of the noritic glomerocrysts and the observed trend between andesite and Phase 2 rhyolite are reproduced by rhyolite-MELTS–based models.</jats:p> <jats:p>Pressure-temperature-water (P-T-H2O) estimates indicate that the main (Phase 2) reservoir resided between 400 and 200 MPa, with the andesite recording the deeper pressures and a temperature range of 920–1060 °C. Rhyolite phase equilibria predict an estimated temperature of ~775 °C and ~5 wt% H2O. Pressures derived from phase equilibria indicate that the rhyolite was extracted directly from the noritic cumulate at ~340 MPa and stored at slightly shallower pressures (200–300 MPa) prior to eruption. The rhyolite-MELTS models reveal that latent-heat buffering during the extraction and storage process results in a shallow liquidus during the extensive crystallization that produced a noritic cumulate in equilibrium with a rhyodacitic residual liquid. Spikes in latent heat facilitated the segregation of the residual liquid, creating the pre-eruptive compositional gap of ~16 wt% SiO2 between the andesite and the Phase 2 rhyolite.</jats:p> <jats:p>Unlike typical Altiplano-Puna volcanic complex (APVC) magmas, low ƒO2 conditions in the andesite promoted co-crystallization of orthopyroxene and ilmenite in lieu of clinopyroxene and magnetite. This resulted in relatively high Fe concentrations in the rhyodacite and Phase 2 rhyolite. Combined with the co-crystallization of plagioclase, this low oxidation state forced high Fe2+/Mg and Fe/Ca in the Phase 2 rhyolite, which promoted fayalite stability. The dominance of low Fe3+/FeTot and Fe-Ti oxide equilibria indicates low ƒO2 (ΔFMQ 0 − ΔFMQ − 1) conditions in the rhyolite were inherited from the andesite.</jats:p> <jats:p>We propose that the serendipitous location on the periphery of the regional thermal anomaly of the Altiplano-Puna magma body (APMB) permitted the small-volume magma reservoir that fed the Caspana ignimbrite eruption to retain its heterogeneous character. This resulted in the record of rhyolitic liquids with disparate origins that evaded assimilation into the large dacite supereruption-feeding APMB. As such, the Caspana ignimbrite provides a unique window into the multiscale processes that build long-lived continental silicic magma systems.</jats:p>

<jats:p>Field geologists are increasingly using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones), although their use involves significant cognitive challenges for which geologists are not well trained. On the basis of surveying the user community and documenting experts’ use in the field, we identified five major problems, most of which are aligned with well-documented limits on cognitive performance. First, the images being sent from the UAV portray the landscape from multiple different view directions. Second, even with a constant view direction, the ability to move the UAV or zoom the camera lens results in rapid changes in visual scale. Third, the images from the UAVs are displayed too quickly for users, even experts, to assimilate efficiently. Fourth, it is relatively easy to get lost when flying, particularly if the user is unfamiliar with the area or with UAV use. Fifth, physical limitations on flight time are a source of stress, which renders the operator less effective. Many of the strategies currently employed by field geologists, such as postprocessing and photogrammetry, can reduce these problems. We summarize the cognitive science basis for these issues and provide some new strategies that are designed to overcome these limitations and promote more effective UAV use in the field. The goal is to make UAV-based geological interpretations in the field possible by recognizing and reducing cognitive load.</jats:p>

<jats:p>The middle Cretaceous Blackleaf Formation records the first major transgression-regression of the Western Interior Seaway into the southwestern Montana retroforeland basin. Although Blackleaf sedimentology is well documented, sediment provenance and potential linkages with regional tectonics are not. Recent characterization of hinterland tectonics, fold-thrust belt detrital zircon signatures, and advances in high-n detrital zircon analysis allow for significant provenance refinement. We present new detrital zircon ages (n = 5468) from ten samples from the upper Blackleaf Formation (Intervals C and D) in southwestern Montana. Based on maximum depositional ages, sedimentation spanned from 106 to 92 Ma. Jurassic and Cretaceous grains were primarily derived from the older portion of the Cordilleran magmatic arc in western Idaho. Triassic and older grains were recycled from older central Idaho sedimentary strata inboard of the arc. Three depositional stages are identified based on statistical modeling of detrital age distributions. Stage 1 (106–104 Ma) records sourcing from lower Paleozoic strata in central Idaho. Stage 2 (105–101 Ma) records initial unroofing of upper Paleozoic–Triassic strata via propagation of the fold-thrust belt into eastern Idaho, accommodating shortening of Mississippian and younger rocks above the Lemhi Arch. Stage 3 (102–100 Ma) records continued unroofing in central Idaho down to Cambrian stratigraphic levels and distal mixing of sources in the eastern part of the basin. Exhumation in the fold-thrust belt beginning at ca. 105 Ma is coincident with margin-wide fault slip-rate increases. We infer that increased sedimentation rates and low-magnitude flexural loading from shallow thrusting in eastern Idaho drove clastic wedge progradation across the basin.</jats:p>

<jats:p>The Anadarko Basin (south-central USA) is the deepest basin on the North American craton and occupies a region largely surrounded by major, late Paleozoic plate-margin (Marathon-Ouachita-Appalachian) and intraplate (Ancestral Rocky Mountains) orogenic systems, albeit a distal arm of the latter. The Anadarko Basin hosts an exceptionally voluminous record of Pennsylvanian strata, and much of this fill has been attributed to erosion of the adjacent Wichita uplift—composed of granitic and rhyolitic rocks of Cambrian age—separated from the basin by a fault zone exhibiting 12 km of vertical separation. This work incorporates thin-section petrography (102 samples) and U-Pb detrital zircon geochronology of sandstone samples (12 samples) from core and outcrop of the Middle Pennsylvanian Red Fork Sandstone (and equivalents) as well as slightly younger Upper Pennsylvanian units (Tonkawa, Chelsea, and Gypsy sandstones) in order to interpret drainage pathways and evolution of those pathways toward and into the Anadarko Basin (Oklahoma) and evaluate the relative importance of the major provenance regions.</jats:p> <jats:p>Our petrographic analysis indicates sandstones with arkosic compositions are limited to the region immediately adjacent to (north of) the Wichita uplift. All remaining samples, which reflect the vast bulk of sediment in the depocenter, including sediment on the northern and eastern Anadarko shelf, are litharenites. Analysis of kernel density plots of the U-Pb ages of detrital zircons together with multidimensional scaling analysis of the Middle Pennsylvanian samples indicate three groups of similar provenance: (1) samples dominated by Cambrian ages from locations directly adjacent to the Wichita uplift; (2) samples dominated by Neoproterozoic ages from locations along the northern shelf of the Anadarko Basin; and (3) samples dominated by Mesoproterozoic ages from locations along the eastern Anadarko shelf and the basin center. These samples are spatially discrete, indicating partitioning of drainage networks during the Middle Pennsylvanian, with two continental-scale fluvial systems entering the Anadarko Basin from the north (transversely) and east (axially). The lack of Cambrian ages in the depocenter and (northern) shelf samples indicate that the Wichita uplift supplied only limited sediment to the basin; sediment derived from the uplift was trapped in fringing fans directly adjacent to the uplift. In contrast to the patterns exhibited by the Middle Pennsylvanian samples, Upper Pennsylvanian samples exhibit more uniform U-Pb ages across the basin. This indicates the relatively rapid evolution of the Appalachian-derived northerly and easterly drainages into an integrated system that flowed axially across the (overfilled) mid-continent basins to the ultimate continental sink in the Anadarko Basin.</jats:p>