loading page

Tectonic Evolution of the Condrey Mountain Schist: an Intact Record of Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous Franciscan Subduction and Underplating
  • +1
  • Carolyn Morgan Tewksbury-Christle,
  • Whitney M. Behr,
  • Mark A Helper,
  • Daniel Fritz Stockli
Carolyn Morgan Tewksbury-Christle
Fort Lewis College

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

Author Profile
Whitney M. Behr
Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Zürich
Author Profile
Mark A Helper
University of Texas at Austin
Author Profile
Daniel Fritz Stockli
University of Texas at Austin
Author Profile

Abstract

The Klamath Mountains in northern California and southern Oregon are thought to record 200+ m.y. of subduction and terrane accretion, whereas the outboard Franciscan Complex records classic ocean-continent subduction along the North American margin. Unraveling the Klamaths’ late history could help constrain this transition in subduction style. Key is the Mesozoic Condrey Mountain Schist (CMS), comprising, in part, a subduction complex that occupies a structural window through older, overlying central Klamath thrust sheets but with otherwise uncertain relationships to other, more outboard Klamath or Franciscan terranes. The CMS consists of two units (upper and lower), which could be correlated with 1) other Klamath terranes, 2) the Franciscan, or 3) neither based on regional structures and limited extant age data. Upper CMS protolith and metamorphic dates overlap with other Klamath terranes, but the lower CMS remains enigmatic. We used multiple geochronometers to constrain the timing of lower CMS deposition and metamorphism. Maximum depositional ages (MDAs) derived from detrital zircon geochronology of metasedimentary rocks are 153-135 Ma. Metamorphic ages from white mica K-Ar and Rb-Sr multi-mineral isochrons from intercalated and coherently deformed metamafic lenses are 133-116 Ma. Lower CMS MDAs (<153 Ma) predominantly postdate the age of other Klamath terranes, but subduction metamorphism appears to predate the earliest coherent Franciscan underplating (ca. 123 Ma). The lower CMS thus occupies a spatial and temporal position between the Klamaths and Franciscan and preserves a non-retrogressed record of the Franciscan Complex’s early history (>123 Ma), otherwise only partially preserved in retrogressed Franciscan high grade blocks.
26 Sep 2023Submitted to ESS Open Archive
30 Sep 2023Published in ESS Open Archive