Brothers, Daniel and Harding, Alistair and Gonzalez-Fernandez, Antonio and Holbrook, W. Steven and Kent, Graham and Driscoll, Neal and Fletcher, John and Lizarralde, Dan and Umhoefer, Paul and Axen, Gary (2012) Farallon slab detachment and deformation of the Magdalena Shelf, southern Baja California. Geophysical Research Letters, 39 (9). L09307. ISSN 1944-8007
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Abstract
Subduction of the Farallon plate beneath northwestern Mexico stalled by ~12 Ma when the Pacific-Farallon spreading-ridge approached the subduction zone. Coupling between remnant slab and the overriding North American plate played an important role in the capture of the Baja California (BC) microplate by the Pacific Plate. Active-source seismic reflection and wide-angle seismic refraction profiles across southwestern BC (~24.5 degrees N) are used to image the extent of remnant slab and study its impact on the overriding plate. We infer that the hot, buoyant slab detached ~40 km landward of the fossil trench. Isostatic rebound following slab detachment uplifted the margin and exposed the Magdalena Shelf to wave-base erosion. Subsequent cooling, subsidence and transtensional opening along the shelf (starting ~8 Ma) starved the fossil trench of terrigenous sediment input. Slab detachment and the resultant rebound of the margin provide a mechanism for rapid uplift and exhumation of forearc subduction complexes.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Publisher’s Statement: | ©2012. American Geophysical Union. |
| ID number or DOI: | 10.1029/2011GL050828 |
| Keywords: | Oceanic crust; Subduction zones; Tomography; Continental neotectonics; Kinematics of crustal and mantle deformation; adakite; exhumation; Geochronology; gulf-of-california; insights; Mexico; motion; Pacific Plate; rifting; seismic refraction; subduction; sur; tectonic evolution; transtension; uplift |
| Subjects: | Q Science > QE Geology |
| NAU Depositing Author Academic Status: | Faculty/Staff |
| Department/Unit: | College of Engineering, Forestry, and Natural Science > School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability |
| Date Deposited: | 12 Oct 2015 23:21 |
| URI: | http://openknowledge.nau.edu/id/eprint/732 |
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