The High Arctic has been a complex region of collisional and extensional tectonism through the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. Svalbard, the sub-aerial exposure of the northwestern Barents Shelf, is an excellent natural laboratory investigating for High Arctic tectonism. Using apatite and zircon (U-Th)/He low-temperature thermochronometry combined with geological constraints, we resolve Cretaceous through Paleogene time-temperature histories for four regions of the Southwestern Province. Our results indicate a temperature gradient from south to north of ~185°C to >200°C, respectively, as a consequence of sedimentary burial and elevated geothermal gradient ( 45°C/km) from High Arctic Large Igneous Province activity. Late Cretaceous cooling affected all regions during regional exhumation related to initial rifting in the Eurasian Basin. During Eurekan tectonism: 1) our models indicate a heating event (55-47 Ma) characterized by overthrusting and a lack of erosion of the West Spitsbergen Fold-and-Thrust Belt, with Central Basin sediments derived from northern Greenland, followed by 2) a subsequent cooling event (47-34 Ma) corresponding to a shift in tectonic regime from compression to dextral strike-slip kinematics; exhumation of the WSFTB coincided with strikeslip tectonics.

abstract: Geochronology and thermochronology are valuable tools for investigating the synergy between the deformational and erosional processes that shape mountainous terrains. Though numerous techniques have been developed to probe the rate and timing of events within these settings, the research presented here explores how scientists can use fewer samples to produce richer data products with broader contextual importance. The beginning of this compilation focuses on establishing laboratory techniques to facilitate this goal. I developed a novel laser ablation ‘double dating’ (LADD) technique that rapidly yields paired U/Pb and (U-Th)/He dates for the accessory minerals zircon, titanite, and apatite. The technique obviates the need for geometric corrections typically applied during (U-Th)/He data reduction, enables the analysis of a broader spectrum of detrital crystals, and provides the opportunity for additional mapping and isotopic analyses that are traditionally challenging to procure and/or fraught with assumptions. Despite the technique’s promise, I also found it essential to weigh several considerations of relevance when attempting to date young (≤ Miocene) accessory minerals with low concentrations of U + Th. Consequently, I discuss the impact that such variables have on the magnitude of analytical imprecision and the data’s flexibility for geologic interpretation. Beyond the lab, I collected a suite of bedrock and detrital samples from small catchments draining the southeastern Sierra Nevada mountains of California. Using the techniques described above as well as conventional methods for (U-Th)/He zircon dating, I compared the utility of both bedrock and detrital approaches for extrapolating local exhumation histories. I additionally tested the ability to employ detrital datasets to extrapolate cooling histories that span from mineral crystallization to rock exhumation through the upper crust. Employing principal mode dates from a combination of zircon and apatite LADD dates and detrital hornblende 40Ar/39Ar dates, I was able to derive thermal models that demonstrate the existence of significant variability in the cooling histories of various intrusive units along the eastern Sierra Nevada. While these results only scratch the surface of what’s possible within the realm of detrital-based research, this contribution demonstrates the utility of expanding the temporal and spatial scope of traditional detrital methodologies. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Geological Sciences 2019

The Pacific-North American plate boundary is typified by transpression and convergence, yet the relationship between interplate deformation and long-term crustal shortening is not fully understood. The continuous belt of rugged topography that extends along the entire plate boundary is generally associated with oblique tectonic plate motion, strong interplate coupling, and terrane accretion, but relating plate boundary orogenesis to variations in plate geometry and behavior requires detailed case studies. The northern San Gabriel Mountains along the San Andreas fault and the Chugach-Kenai Mountains above the Aleutian subduction zone are located along highly tectonically active sections of the Pacific-North American plate boundary and have not been studied from the context of long-term landscape development. To determine whether mountain building along these sections of the plate boundary reflects recent, rapid exhumation as observed in bordering mountain belts, low-temperature thermochronometry and topographic analyses were applied to each area. In the northern San Gabriel Mountains, apatite (U-Th)/He ages are >10 Ma along narrow crystalline ridges topped by low-slope erosional surfaces located within ~5 km of the San Andreas fault zone. In the Chugach-Kenai Mountains, the youngest apatite (U-Th)/He ages (~5 Ma) are an order of magnitude older than those from the Yakutat collision zone to the east, despite the presence of a continuous swath of glaciated, rugged topography between the two areas. Exhumation rates inferred from these ages are <1 mm/yr, suggesting that there has been minimal recent denudation in the northern San Gabriel and Chugach-Kenai Mountains. The lack of evidence for recent mountain building in both of these case studies implies that interplate deformation is heterogeneous and that other factors (secondary structures, climate) besides plate kinematics and topographic character must be considered for understanding landscape development. / Ph. D.

The evolution of mountain landscapes is controlled by complex interactions between large-scale tectonic, surficial and climate conditions. Dominant processes are attributed to creating characteristic features of the landscape, but topographic features are the cumulative result of coupled surficial processes, each locally effective in a different climate or elevation regime. The focus of erosion by glacial, fluvial, or mass wasting processes is highly sensitive to small changes in boundary conditions, therefore spatial and temporal variability can be high when observed over short time scales. This work evaluated methods for dissecting the history of complex alpine landscapes to understand the role of individual processes influenced by changing climate and underlying bedrock. It also investigated how individual and combined mechanisms of surficial processes influenced the evolution of topography in the Teton Range in Wyoming. Detrital apatite (U-Th)/He thermochronology and cosmogenic radionuclide erosion rates were applied to determine spatial and temporal variability of erosion in the central catchments of the range. Spatial variability existed between the glacial and fluvial systems, indicating that sediment erosion and deposition by these processes was controlled by short-term variability in climate conditions. Effective glacial incision also controlled other processes, specifically enhancing rock fall activity and inhibiting fluvial incision. Short-term erosion rates were highly variable and were controlled by stochastic processes, particularly hillslope failures in response to slope oversteepening due to glacial incision and orientation and spacing of bedrock fractures. Erosion rates averaged over 10 ky time scales were comparable to long-term exhumation rates measured in the Teton Range. The similarity of spatial erosion patterns to predicted uniform erosion and the balance between intermediate and long-term erosion rates suggests the landscape of the Teton Range is approaching steady-state, but frequent stochastic processes, short-term erosional variability and coupled processes maintain rugged topographic relief. / Ph. D.

Long, linear, high-relief escarpments mark many of the world's passive margins. These Great Escarpments have been interpreted to be the result of isostatic flexure, parallel slope retreat, and divide migration which accompanies rifting. It is unclear whether all these escarpments share this origin. Also uncertain is whether these features are formed via stable, steady-state processes or by climatic shifts or tectonic rejuvenation. The Blue Ridge Escarpment, eastern North America's great escarpment, is no different. A number of hypotheses attempt to explain the Blue Ridge Escarpment. These include lithologic variation between Blue Ridge and Piedmont rocks, the distance to ultimate base level, as well as, escarpment retreat resulting from post/syn-rift warping or faulting. We approach this problem from two directions. The first involves topographic comparisons and geologic observations to recognize and track divide migration. The second approach uses U-Th/He thermochronometry along two scarp-normal transects. Topographic analysis used data extracted from DEMs to compare three zones - the Upland, the Piedmont and the scarp zone itself. Parameters such as relief, drainage density, hypsometry, and slope are often used as proxies for relative erosion rates and the degree of maturity of a landscape. Results from these analyses indicate that the Upland and Piedmont zones are distinct landscapes, sharing very few topographic similarities, yet neither appears significantly more erodible than the other. Examination of parameters in the proximity of the escarpment point toward more rapid erosion here. Field evidence of this rapid scarp erosion (and thus divide migration) lies in the presence of beheaded stream channels, cobble roundness, and clast provenance. U-Th/He thermochronometry is a low temperature technique that allows us to calculate when rock cooled below 60-70C. Temperature is used as a proxy for depth, from which we can extract an exhumation rate. This method allows us to further test scarp genesis hypotheses. Preliminary results show older ages (~160) from the Upland surface than on the Piedmont lowland (~100 Ma). This confirms that the Piedmont surface is distinct from the Upland and demonstrates that it has experienced greater erosion. There is also some indication that ages "jump" across the Bowens Creek/Brevard fault system. Lastly, the ages appear to become younger approaching the escarpment which is indicative of scarp migration. As these results are preliminary, more data is required to prove or disprove these conclusions. / Master of Science

L'Albanie occupe une position critique au sein de la ceinture plissée alpine Dinaro-Hellénique. Cet orogène est caractérisé par trois composants fondamentaux: une ceinture de plis et chevauchements externe à l'Ouest, un domaine central caractérisé par la présence de nappes ophiolitiques, et un complexe interne oriental. <br />Certains points clés pour la connaissance de l'évolution géodynamique de cette chaîne ont été éclairé par l'application de la thermochronologie de basse température (trace de fission et (U-Th)/He sur apatite et zircon), plus précisément en ce qui concerne l'histoire du refroidissement des Albanides Internes. <br />Un taux d'exhumation (<0,1 km/Ma) durant l'Eocène et le début de l'Oligocène caractérise la limite entre les zones externes et zones Internes. Il est probablement lié au soulèvement isostatique, conséquence de l'épaississement de la croûte près du front de chevauchement durant l'emplacement tectonique du complexe interne sur la ceinture de plis et chevauchements externe.<br />Dans le domaine interne le refroidissement et la surrection sont beaucoup plus récents et rapides. Les thermochronomètres (U-Th)/He et traces de fission nous ont permis de déterminer un début de la phase d'extension ~ 20 Ma. Vers 3-6 Ma, le taux d'exhumation des roches de la zone de Korabi s'est accéléré jusqu'à 1,2 km/Ma. Nous proposons que la structure actuelle symétrique des unités ophiolitique dans les Albanides Internes soit le résultat d'un régime de collapse en extension, affectant la partie oriental des ophiolites et la zone de Korabi.<br />Ces études montrent que la complémentarité des méthodes de thermochronologie trace de fission et (U-Th)/He est un moyen puissant de mieux contraindre l'histoire de l'exhumation d'un orogène.

The formation and evolution of metamorphic core complexes has been widely studied using low temperature thermochronometry methods. Interpretation of these data has historically occurred through the lens of the traditional slip rate method which provides a singular rate that unroofing occurs at temporally as well as spatially, and assumes unroofing is dominated by motion on a single master detachment fault. Recently, several new studies have utilized (U-Th)/He ages with a higher spatial density and greater nominal precision to suggest a late-stage rapid increase in the rate of unroofing. This analysis is based on the traditional slip rate method interpretation of broad regions of core complexes that display little to no change in age along the slip direction. An alternative interpretation is presented that instead of a change in slip rate, there may have been a change in the style of unroofing, specifically caused by the transfer of displacement from low-angle detachment faulting to high-angle normal faults. Apatite fission-track (AFT), and apatite and zircon (U-Th)/He (AHe and ZHe) analyses were applied to samples from the Santa Catalina-Rincon (n=8 AHe, and n=9 ZHe) and Harcuvar (n=12 AFT, n=16 AHe, and n=17 ZHe) metamorphic core complexes in an attempt to resolve the possible thermal effects of high-angle normal faulting on core complex formation. Samples from the Harcuvars were taken along a transect parallel to slip direction with some samples specifically targeting high-angle normal fault locations. The AFT data collected here has the advantage of improved analysis and modeling techniques. Also, more than an order of magnitude more data were collected and analyzed than any previous studies within the Harcuvars. The AFT ages include a trend from ~22 Ma in the southwest to ~14 Ma in the northeast and provide a traditional slip rate of 7.1 mm/yr, similar to previous work. However, two major high-angle, detachment-parallel normal faults were identified, and hanging-wall samples are ~3 m.y. older than the footwalls, indicating high-angle normal faults rearranged the surface expression of the distribution of thermochronometer ages to some extent. AHe ages range from 8.1 Ma to 18.4 Ma but in general decrease with increasing distance in the slip direction. ZHe ages generally range between 13.6 Ma and 17.4 Ma. A series of unexpectedly young AFT ages (10-11 Ma), given by three complete samples and distinct population modes in others, suggest that some parts of the range underwent a later-stage unroofing event possibly caused by high-angle faulting. Confined fission-track length distributions were measured for Harcuvar samples and modeled using the modeling software HeFTy to infer thermal histories and calculate local cooling rates. These imply a component of steady cooling in some parts of the range, evidence of a different departure from a single-detachment dominated model. / text

Three studies on Cordilleran foreland basin deposits in the western U.S.A. constitute this dissertation. These studies differ in scale, time and discipline. The first two studies include basin analysis, flexural modeling and detailed stratigraphic analysis of Upper Cretaceous depocenters and strata in the western U.S.A. The third study consists of detrital zircon U-Pb analysis (DZ U-Pb) and thermochronology, both zircon (U-Th)/He and apatite fission track (AFT), of Upper Jurassic to Upper Cretaceous foreland-basin conglomerates and sandstones. Five electronic supplementary files are a part of this dissertation and are available online; these include 3 raw data files (Appendix_A_raw_isopach_data.txt, Appendix_C_DZ_Data.xls, Appendix_C_UPb_apatite.xls), 1 oversized stratigraphic cross section (Appendix_B_figure_5.pdf), and 1 figure containing apatite U-Pb concordia plots (Appendix_C_Concordia.pdf). Appendix A. Subsidence in the retroarc foreland of the North American Cordillera in the western U.S.A. has been the focus of a great deal of research, and its transition from a flexural foreland basin, during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous, to a dynamically subsided basin during the Late Cretaceous has been well documented. However, the exact timing of the flexural to dynamic transition is not well constrained, and the mechanism has been consistently debated. In order to address the timing, I produced new isopach maps from ~130 well log data points that cover much of Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and northern New Mexico, producing in the process, the most detailed isopach maps of the area. These isopach maps span the Turonian to mid-Campanian during the Late Cretaceous (~93–76 Ma). In conjunction with the isopach maps I flexurally modeled the Cordilleran foreland basin to identify when flexure can no longer account for the basin geometry and identified the flexural to dynamic transition to have occurred at 81 Ma. In addition, the dynamic subsidence at 81 Ma is compared to the position of the hypothesized Shatsky Oceanic Plateau and other proposed drivers of dynamic subsidence. I concluded that dynamic subsidence is likely caused by convection over the plunging nose of the Shatsky Oceanic Plateau. Appendix B. The second study is a detailed stratigraphic study of the Upper Cretaceous, (Campanian, ~76 Ma) Sego Sandstone Member of the Mesaverde Group in northwestern Colorado, an area where little research has been done on this formation. Its equivalent in the Book Cliffs area in eastern Utah has been rigorously documented and its distal progradation has been contrastingly interpreted as a result of active tectonism and shortening in the Cordilleran orogenic belt ~250 km to the west and to tectonic quiescence, flexural rebound in the thrust belt and reworking of proximal coarse grained deposits. I documented ~17 km of along depositional dip outcrops of the Sego Sandstone Member north of Rangely, Colorado. This documentation includes measured sections, paleocurrent analysis, a stratigraphic cross section, block diagrams outlining the evolution of environments of deposition through time, and paleogeographic maps correlating northwest Colorado with the Book Cliffs, Utah. The sequence stratigraphy of the Sego Sandstone Member in northwest Colorado is similar to that documented in the Book Cliffs area to the south-southwest, sharing three sequence boundaries. However, flood-tidal delta assemblages between fluvio-deltaic deposits that are present north of Rangely, Colorado are absent from the Book Cliffs area. These flood-tidal-delta assemblages are likely caused by a large scale avulsion event in the Rangely area that did not occur or was not preserved in the Book Cliffs area. In regards to tectonic models that explain distal progradation of the 76 Ma Sego Sandstone Member to be caused by tectonic quiescence and flexural rebound in the thrust belt, the first study shows that at 76 Ma, flexural processes were no longer dominant in the Cordilleran foreland, so it is inappropriate to apply models driven by flexure to the Sego Sandstone Member. Dynamic processes dominated the western U.S.A. during the Campanian, and flexural processes were subordinate. Appendix C. In order to test the tectonic vs. anti-tectonic basin-filling models for distal coarse foreland deposits mentioned above, the third study involves estimating lag times of Upper Jurassic to Upper Cretaceous conglomerates and sandstones in the Cordilleran foreland basin. Measuring lag time requires a good understanding of both the stratigraphic age of a deposit and the thermal history of sedimentary basin. To further constrain depositional age, I present twenty-two new detrital zircon U-Pb (DZ U-Pb) sample analyses, spanning Upper Jurassic to Upper Cretaceous stratigraphy in Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota. Source exhumation ages can be measured using thermochronology. To identify a thermochronometer that measures source exhumation in the North America Cordillera, both zircon (U-Th)/He, on eleven samples, and apatite fission track (AFT) thermochronology, on eleven samples was performed. Typically, the youngest cooling age population in detrital thermochronologic analyses is considered to be a source exhumation signal; however, whether or not these apatites are exhumed apatites or derived from young magmatic and volcanic sources has been debated. To test this, I double dated the detrital AFT samples, targeting apatites with a young cooling age, using U-Pb thermochronology. Key findings are that the maximum depositional ages using DZ U-Pb match existing biostratigraphic and geochronologic age controls on basin stratigraphy. AFT is an effective thermochronometer for Lower to Upper Cretaceous foreland stratigraphy and indicates that source material was exhumed from >4–5 km depth in the Cordilleran orogenic belt between 118 and 66 Ma, and zircon (U-Th)/He suggests that it was exhumed from <8–9 km depth. Double dating apatites (with AFT and U-Pb) indicate that volcanic contamination is a significant issue; without having UPb dating of the same apatite grains, one cannot exclude the possibility that the youngest detrital AFT population is contaminated with significant amounts of volcanogenic apatite and does not represent source exhumation. AFT lag-times are 0 to 5 Myr with relatively steady-state to slightly increasing exhumation rates. We compare our data to orogenic wedge dynamics and subsidence histories; all data shows active shortening and rapid exhumation throughout the Cretaceous. Our lag-time measurements indicate exhumation rates of ~.9–>>1 km/Myr.

The timing of motion on thrust faults in the Idaho-Wyoming-Utah (IWU) thrust belt comes from synorogenic sediments, apatite thermochronology and direct dating of fault rocks coupled with good geometrical constraints of the subsurface structure. The thermal history comes from the analyses of apatite thermochronology, thermal maturation of hydrocarbon source rocks and isotope analysis of fluid inclusions from syntectonic veins. New information from zircon fission track and zircon (U-Th)/He analysis provide constraints on the thermal evolution of the IWU thrust belt over geological time. These analyses demonstrate that the time-temperature pathway of the rocks sampled never reached the required conditions to reset the thermochronometers necessary to provide new timing constraints. Previous thermal constraints for maximum temperatures of IWU thrust belt rocks, place the lower limit at ~110°C and the upper limit at ~328°C. New zircon fission track results suggest an upper limit at ~180°C for million year time scales. ID-TIMS and LA-ICPMS of syntectonic calcite veins suggest that new techniques for dating times of active deformation are viable given that radiogenic isotope concentrations occur at sufficient levels within the vein material.

Orientador: Peter Christian Hackspacher / Banca: Norberto Morales / Banca: Sandro Guedes / Banca: Cláudio Riccomini / Banca: Pedro José Nunes / Resumo: Neste trabalho são apresentados os resultados obtidos por meio de análises geomorfológicas (Mapa de Níveis de Paleosuperfícies) e termocronológicos (traços de fissão em apatitas e U-Th/He em apatitas) ao longo da Serra do Mar nos setores (1), (2), (3) e (4). As correlações entre as analises geomorfológicas e termocronológicas evidenciaram uma geológica e geomorfológica compreendida entre o Cretáceo Superior e Paleoceno, demonstrando que a evolução das morfologias que compõem a área de estudo estiveram associadas a eventos tectônicos e sucedidos por uma intensa atividade erosiva. De acordo com as datações realizadas utilizando termocronômetros com temperatura de fechamento distintas, estes indicaram que as configurações dos relevos que compõem a Serra do Mar não podem ser associadas apenas aos efeitos das atividades erosivas (recuo de escarpa) e isostáticas, para poderem explicar a homogeneidade entre as idades de traços de fissão e (U-Th)/He em apatitas, sem a presença da atuação tectônica soerguendo e desnivelando parte destes relevos. / Abstract: In this paper the results obtained geomorphological analysis (Map of levels of Palaeosurfaces) and thermochronogical analysis (apatite fission-track and UTh/ He). The correlation between the geomorphologica and the thermochronological analysis evidenced a geological and geomorphological evolution from the Upper Cretaceous to the Palaeocene, showing that the evolution of the morpholoies composing the study area were associated to tectonics events and preceded by intense erosive activity. According to the datings done using thermocronometers with distinct closing temperatures the configuration of the relieves that compose the Serra do Mar can not be associated only to the effects of the erosive (escarpment retreate) and isostatic activities but also to the tectonic motion uplifting and unlevelling part such morphologies, in order to explain the homogeneity between the ages of the fission-track and U-Th/He of apatites. / Doutor