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Lecture 5 Tectonic Landforms. Landforms that result from crustal movements Landforms with little erosion so "their shape defines a fractured or deformed surface" Bloom. Escarpment or "scarp". Tectonic Scarp: steep slope from differential movement of surface. Basaltic Lava Flows.
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Lecture 5Tectonic Landforms Landforms that result from crustal movements Landforms with little erosion so "their shape defines a fractured or deformed surface" Bloom
Escarpment or "scarp" • Tectonic Scarp: steep slope from differential movement of surface Basaltic Lava Flows Axial Lake Deposits Soils FW HW High angle Normal faults, Tanzania Rift Valley http://travel.mongabay.com/tanzania/images/tz_elf_0560.html Border Fanglomerate
Flatirons • Dissection of scarp ( often a side of a hogback) by many gullies forms triangular facets http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flatirons.jpg
Joints: Fractures – with no movement http://www.pbase.com/dougsherman/image/93468807
And on Mars … Link courtesy Melissa Hansen
Faults 1: Normal Faults • Typical of Divergent Margins • Rift Valleys and Mid-Ocean Ridges • High-angle and Listric • Horst and Graben Structure • Hanging wall is down
Graben in Iceland, a subaerially exposed Mid-Ocean Ridge Source:Simon Fraser/Science Photo Library/Photo Researchers, Inc.
Rift Valley x-sec Origin of Basaltic magma 2
Faults 2: Reverse Fault Structures • Typical of Convergent Margins • E.g. Accretionary Wedges (Santa Catalina Island’s schists) and Fold and Thrust Mountains (Himalayas, Alps, Appalachians) • Often low-angle thrusts • Hanging wall is up Overhanging Block http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/Sect2/05-01_reverse_fault-jyougashima_DSC8766.jpg
Reverse Fault Scarp http://www.flickr.com/photos/mirkazemian/356833099/sizes/o/
Klippe - Thrust Fault Remnant A feature of thrust fault terranes. The klippe is the remnant portion of a nappe after erosion. http://www.pbase.com/dougsherman/image/93469147 Chief Mountain, a klippe outlier of the Lewis Thrust, Glacier National Park, MT
Strike-slip fault http://epod.usra.edu/archive/images/wallace_creek_aerial.jpg
The linear strike-slip feature running across this anaglyph is one of many transform faults in California. Along it can be seen good examples of off-set streams [and] a shutter ridge . From Drury, text paraphrased.
Structural Control by Folds Overturned folds in the Paleozoic rocks of the Marathon Basin of Texas. The ridges are controlled by resistant carbonates. From Drury, Ch. 4
Upwarps 1: The Adirondack Mountains of Northern New York Source:Clyde H. Smith/Allstock/Tony Stone Images Although the rocks are ancient, the uplift that formed the Adirondack dome has occurred within the last 5 million years — relatively recent in geologic time — and is ongoing. Mantle upwelling, Upwarp Mountains
Upheaval Dome, Canyonlands Colorado Plateau Uplift http://www.pbase.com/dougsherman/image/93400984
Salt Dome Low density Buoyant Salt Diapirs Surrounding sediments upwarped Petroleum exploration
A collapse downwarp Salt Creek Graben at Arches National Park, UT. Solution of evaporites in the underlying Pennsylvanian Paradox Fm. caused the Graben to form.
Plumes under Continent Interiors. A Rhyolitic Igneous Dome, Yellowstone Caldera
A 2005 photo of Elysium Planitia by the Mars Express spacecraft shows what may be ash-covered water ice. The volume of ice is estimated to be 800 by 900 kilometers in size and 45 meters deep, similar in size and depth to the North Sea. Mars: frost heave? Mounds S. of Elysium Planitia a few kilometers in diameter about 60 meters tall. Fractures suggest mounds formed by uplift Uplift is not uniform mounds are probably solidified lava. Mounds contiguous with and texturally similar to flood lavas over Elysium Planitia. Where dilation cracks provide cross-sectional exposure, the uplifted material is rocky. Frost heave on a huge scale? Link courtesy Melissa Hansen
Review of Cenozoic Tectonics http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/Ben/Helvetic%20Morcles%20nappe.JPG A nappe is a large sheetlike body of rock that has been moved more than 2 km (1.2 miles) from its original position. Nappes form during continental plate collisions, when folds are sheared so much that they fold back over on themselves and break apart. The resulting structure is a large-scale recumbent fold. The term stems from the French word for tablecloth.
Cenozoic Orogenic activity concentrated in two areas • Alpine-Himalayan belt deformation began in the Mesozoic and remains geologically active. Isolation of Tethys to form the modern Mediterranean Sea • circum-Pacific belt deformation occurred throughout the Cenozoic
1. The underside of Europe collided with numerous microplates rifted from Africa Closing of the Tethys Sea between late Mesozoic and early Cenozoic time 4. Thrusts not Subduction Arabian-African Rift 3. Messinian Salinity Crisis ~ 5.5 mya 2. Pliocene three way rift. 3. Arabia Microcontinent collision -> Zagros Mts
Subduction-Zone Features Note sequence from land to trench Note ocean plate rocks that don’t get subducted in a collision If a continent converges from the left, what rocks will fold in the collision? Himalayas
Continent • Abyssal plains • Can be sites of thick accumulations of sediment • Sediments thickest away from MOR • Abyssal plains found in all oceans • Studded by old cold seamounts and MORs Back-Arc Basin Trench Accretionary wedge Fore-Arc Basin Volcanic Arc
Drawings of Nappes in the Alps New Orogen, Nappes still visible http://www.geol-alp.com/chartreuse/3_tecto_chartreuse/1_ch_occ.html
"A spectacular thrust fault in the Caledonides of NW Scotland, which drove Archaean gneisses over Cambro-Ordovician sediments. The thrust plane is marked by the pronounced bench on the peninsula, which is coated with mylonite. The typical knobbly topography of the heavily glaciated gneisses is quite obvious in the upper part …. " From Drury, Ch. 4 Definition Nappes previous slide
Himalayan Orogeny Subduction and TST Partly subducted so under AW
Himalayan Orogeny AW FAB
INDIA under cloud cover Rain Shadow Desert: Tibetan Plateau Fold and Thrust Mountains, Himalayas, Continent-Continent collision North
Taklamakan Desert NORTH Tibetan Plateau Himalayas
San Andreas Transform MOR Subducted! Changed Orientation 15 mya SAF forms
North American Cordillera Topography Columbia River Basalts WHY SO FAR INLAND? Basin and Range Crust very thin there
Tertiary Tectonic Events K-T Laramide Continental Override Buoyant Subduction
Rockies: Buoyant Subduction caused Laramide Orogeny Vertical block uplift Normal, thin-skinned Approaching Continent pushes accretionary wedge sediments into forearc sediments
The Grand Tetons in Wyoming Source: Peter French/DRK Photo High Angle Faults, Buoyant Subduction.
Later origin of Fault Block Mountains “Basin and Range” Southwestern North America But why so Wide? Breakup of flat buoyantly subducted Farallon Plate? Huge divergent zone, Basin and Range, not so far inland as Rockies, more normal subduction dip resumes, partial melting in mantle, magma rises similar to rift valley.
Basin and Range province Range Basin Extensional Feature w/ Normal Faults
Rift vs. Basin and Range Mirror symmetry, radial cracks about center, divergence, normal faults Conjugate shear fractures, divergence, normal faults
Displaced terranes – Western Cordillera These terranes overlap in age but have different rock types, paleolatitudes and fossils. However, we can deduce when they accreted from their order, and the metamorphic ages of their suture zones
Columbia River Basalts(including the Saddle Mountains Basalt) 17my
Columbia River Basalts and Yellowstone Plume http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_River_Basalt_Group