Claudia J. Lewis

Deformation bands in nonwelded ignimbrites: Petrophysical controls on fault-zone deformation and evidence of preferential fluid flow

The impact of faults on fluid flow and transport through thick vadose zones depends in part on the nature of fault-zone deformation. Both fractures and deformation bands occur in ignimbrite sequences at Los Alamos, New Mexico, and Busted Butte, Nevada. The primary controls on mode of failure are grain-contact area and strength, which are directly related to degree of welding and crystallization and inversely proportional to porosity. Low-porosity welded units deform by transgranular fracture; high-porosity, glassy, nonwelded units deform by cataclasis within deformation bands. Moderately high porosity, nonwelded units that have undergone devitrification and/or vapor-phase crystallization form either deformation bands or fractures, depending on local variations in the degree and nature of crystallization. Grain- and pore-size reduction in deformation bands commonly produces indurated, tabular zones of clay-sized fault material. Many of these bands are locally rich in smectite and/or cemented by carbonate. Preferential wetting of deformation bands is inferred to promote alteration and cementation. We therefore interpret variably altered fault-zone material as evidence of preferential fluid flow in the vadose zone, which we infer to result from enhanced unsaturated permeability due to pore-size reduction in deformation bands.

Paleomagnetic evidence of localized vertical axis rotation during Neogene extension, Sierra San Fermín, northeastern Baja California, Mexico

Paleomagnetic data from Sierra San Fermin in the Gulf of California Extensional Province indicate that localized clockwise rotations about vertical axes occurred during Pliocene through Recent extension and dextral shear. Relative declination discordances in upper Miocene and Pliocene ash flow tuffs indicate a net clockwise rotation of 30° ± 16°. Clockwise rotation between 12.5 and 6 Ma is statistically insignificant (11° ± 17°). Structural observations and geochronological data suggest that rotations in this area began post-6 Ma, comprising uniform-sense block rotations (oblique divergence) associated with extension and dextral slip in the northwest striking boundary between the Pacific and North American plates. Northeast striking sinistral-slip faults and north striking normal faults accommodate distributed dextral shear in this area, allowing fault blocks to rotate in a clockwise sense. A model for oblique divergence predicts ∼21 km of shear in the direction of relative plate motion and ∼20% (∼7 km) ENE directed extension, perpendicular to the Main Gulf Escarpment. A broad region of northeastern Baja California may have undergone similar distributed shear. Two possible dynamic models may explain this shear. In one model, rotation accumulates above a deep, subhorizontal, basal shear zone. Rotating blocks may extend downward to a detachment beneath the extensional province, either a low-angle eastward continuation of the San Pedro Martir fault or to a basal shear surface on top of a subducted remnant of the Farallon plate. Alternatively, distributed dextral shear may be the surface manifestation of a deep vertical shear zone linking transform faults in the northern gulf with dextral transpeninsular faults. In either case, shear may have transferred northward onto faults west of the San Andreas fault, contributing to late Miocene to Recent clockwise rotation of the Western Transverse Ranges. This shear is not accounted for in the 300 km of dextral slip computed from cross-gulf geologic tie points.

The Tuff of San Felipe: an extensive middle Miocene pyroclastic flow deposit in Baja California, Mexico

We document the existence of a widespread Miocene ash-flow tuff sheet in northeastern Baja California, Mexico. The Tuff of San Felipe (new name) was erupted from a vent east of the Sierra San Felipe of NE Baja California at ca. 12.6 Ma. This is the only widespread middle Miocene pyroclastic flow deposit identified in northeastern Baja California. Its distinctive age and widespread distribution make it an important marker horizon for structural reconstruction of this part of the Gulf Extensional Province, which is on the Pacific plate. The vent position, near the modern Gulf of California coast, allows the possibility that exposures of the Tuff of San Felipe may be preserved east of the Gulf on the North America plate in Sonora, yielding a tie point for the past relative position of the two plates. This paper summarizes all known information including petrography, geochemistry, geochronology, paleomagnetics, geographic distribution, and field appearance of this important tuff. It is a densely welded, crystal-rich, lithic-lapilli pyroclastic flow deposit, with 5–15% alkali feldspar, and can be 180 m thick in some locations near the vent. The Tuff of San Felipe is >40 m thick up to 40 km SW of the vent and >10 m thick at least 25 km NNW of the vent. A minimum volume estimate for the deposit is 54 km^3. Some recent ^(40)Ar/^(39)Ar age determinations suggest that the tuff is about 12.6 Ma in age. In all locations studied, the Tuff of San Felipe has a unique, low-inclination, reversed magnetization, which may record a field transition or a geomagnetic excursion within reversed polarity subchron C5Ar.2r (12.401 to 12.678 Ma). This low-inclination magnetization, as well as the mineralogy and age, is key to correlating the tuff across the region, because deposits are highly disrupted by subsequent normal faulting and outcrops are sparse and discontinuous away from the vent. The documentation of these characteristics is important because the Tuff of San Felipe is a key structural marker for the subsequent development of the Pacific–North America plate boundary in the Gulf of California, and it will be important to identify this tuff in outcrops elsewhere on the Baja California Peninsula and on the North America plate in Sonora.

Fault interaction and along-strike variation in throw in the Pajarito fault system, Rio Grande rift, New Mexico

The seismically active Pajarito fault system (PFS) of northern New Mexico, United States, is a complex zone of deformation made up of many laterally discontinuous faults and associated folds and fractures that interact in ways that have important implications for seismic hazards. Mapping and drilling projects in the PFS provide new insights into the structural geometry and paleoseismic history of the fault system. A 1.25 Ma old datum (the Bandelier Tuff) and high-resolution digital elevation data allow construction of throw-length profiles along the entire length of the PFS, revealing primary geometric features previously unrecognized. The fault system as a whole consists of numerous closely spaced overlapping sections ~8–14 km long. Slip maxima in some cases occur near the centers of these sections, and in others they are shifted toward one end. Along-strike asymmetrical throw profiles and throw deficits indicate fault branching, merging, and strain transfer. This pattern results from processes of fault linkage and conservation of strain on diverse structures of a large fault system. New mapping reveals that the northern end of the Pajarito fault terminates in a wide zone of extensional monoclines and discontinuous, small-displacement faults, and interacts with nearby antithetic faults. New paleoseismic data from a normal fault splay, interpreted in light of previous paleoseismic work, argue for three Holocene surface-rupturing earthquakes; one ca. 1.4 thousand calendar years ago (1.4 cal ka) on the Pajarito fault, a second 6.5–5.2 ka ago on the Pajarito fault that is consistent with an event 6.5–4.2 ka ago on the Guaje Mountain fault, and a third ca. 9 ka ago on both the Pajarito and the Rendija Canyon faults. This paleoseismic event chronology demonstrates that the Pajarito fault often ruptures alone, but sometimes ruptures either with the Rendija Canyon or the Guaje Mountain fault. When this occurs, the resultant seismic moment and therefore the earthquake magnitude are larger than when the main Pajarito fault ruptures alone. Evidence for fault interaction, and the presence of prominent bends in the Pajarito fault system, imply structural control of paleoseismicity and neoseismicity and suggest the potential for stress concentrations and earthquake triggering in complex linking fault systems.

Paleomagnetism of the Quaternary Bandelier Tuff: Implications for the tectonic evolution of the Española Basin, Rio Grande rift

We present newly acquired paleomagnetic data from Bandelier Tuff exposures in the Jemez Mountains (New Mexico) that show no statistically significant tectonic rotation over Quaternary time. Cooling units of the tuff were mapped in detail and correlated using new geochemical data, allowing us to confidently sample isochronous units for paleomagnetic remanence directions. In total, 410 specimens were subjected to step-wise thermal and alternating field demagnetization. Of the 40 accepted site means, 30 have α 95 values ≤5°. Analysis of the geographic distribution of the site-mean declinations of the data set reveals no statistically significant tectonic rotation either across (northwest/southeast) the northeast-striking Jemez fault or across (east/west) the north-striking Pajarito fault zone. Similarly, our data do not record any measurable relative change in declination difference (−1.1° ± 1.6°) that could be interpreted as a rotation over the ∼0.36 m.y. time duration between deposition of the two principal stratigraphic members of the Bandelier Tuff. The step-over discussed in this paper is an area of exceptional structural complexity and, as such, meets the definition of “accommodation zone.” We propose the name “Jemez-Embudo accommodation zone” for this composite of structural and volcanic features in recognition of its regional importance in the evolution of the Rio Grande rift. In this part of the rift, where Proterozoic- and Laramide-age faults have preconditioned the crust, idealized relay ramps, prevalent locally, do not occur at the regional scale. Instead, transfer fault zones have developed between half grabens dominated by preexisting faults. The pattern of faulting and accommodation of strain in the right-relayed step-over of the rift has been more or less invariant since the onset of rifting. From a global perspective, the difference between areas of modest crustal extension dominated by distributed deformation and those regions that develop transfer fault zones may ultimately be diagnostic of crustal conditioning and fault strength, such that weak fault systems focus strain within narrow zones.