Thesis (Ph. D.)--Centre Universitaire de Perpignan, 1977. / Errata sheet inserted, v. 1. Includes bibliographical references (Vol. 1, p. [i]-xxxix).

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Geology, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 42-46).

The tertiary history of the Chiricahua volcanic field of southeastern Arizona is essentially that of rhyolitic ash-flow deposition and concomitant block faulting in the period from 29 to 25 m.y., as determined by K-Ar analysis. The Rhyolite Canyon ash-flow sheet is the youngest of three sheets, each more than 1000 feet thick. Its distribution is limited mainly to the Chiricahua and northern Pedregosa Mountains with a lesser amount of deposits in the neighboring Swisshelm and Peloncillo Mountains. It is estimated that the original areal extent was of the order of 700 square miles and that the volume of deposits was around 100 cubic miles. The source area of the Rhyolite Canyon sheet is identified as a 13-mile diameter caldera, named the Turkey Creek caldera. This is the first major caldera of the Valles type described in the Mexican Highland and Sonoran Desert sections of the Basin and Range. It is unique because of its denudation. Erosion to 5000-foot depth locally has exposed thick sections of moat deposits and a fine grained monzonite pluton associated with central doming. Rhyolite Canyon tuff in the caldera, some 3000 feet thick, is domed and intruded by the monzonite. More than 1500 feet of tuff breccia, tuffaceous sediments, and rhyolite flows are exposed in the moat, along with 3000 feet of monzonite forming annular segments a couple miles wide abutting or overlying rocks forming the caldera wall. The most monzonite is similar to that in the dome and was emplaced amidst the period of deposition in the caldera. Petrographic and trace element analyses indicate a cogenetic relation between the Rhyolite Canyon sequence and the moat rhyolites. The K-Ar age of the Rhyolite Canyon tuff is very close to that of the monzonite. The ash-flow sheet immediately underlying the Rhyolite Canyon sheet is also very close in age as indicated by K-Ar analyses. Block faulting and tilting took place between the two sheets and also following the deposition of the Rhyolite Canyon sheet. There is evidence that the present basin-range structure was not established until after the Rhyolite Canyon sheet had been emplaced.

The Ellensburg Formation, preserved in the Nile basin 50 km northwest of Yakima, Washington, consists of a series of middle to late Miocene epiclastic and pyroclastic rock assemblages rich in porphyritic hornblende-biotite dacite. Geochemical, petrographic, and stratigraphic correlations indicate that Old Scab Mountain, a dacite porphyry intrusion, located at the western margin of the basin (lat. 46°53'30", long. 121°13'00"), is the probable source for much of the upper Ellensburg volcaniclastic material in the basin. The dacite intrusion exposed at Old Scab Mountain was emplaced at depths of 1 to 3 km and underlaid a now eroded volcanic edifice. This volcanic center is interpreted to have been active during the time of deposition of the upper Ellensburg Formation. AK-Ar age of 8.75 ± 0.20 Ma for an adjacent sill of similar dacite suggests an age for Old Scab Mountain between 9 to 7 Ma (Smith, 1988a). This age corresponds with the upper Ellensburg Formation which stratigraphically overlies Grande Ronde Basalt lava flows of the Columbia River Basalt Group, within the basin. Stratigraphic reconstruction of the Nile basin deposits indicates a dome collapse eruptive style. Progressive dome growth was punctuated by short-lived eruptions resulting in dome collapse and deposition of debris-avalanche and lahar deposits. These deposits were remobilized by fluvial processes which generated thick conglomerates and interstratified volcanic sandstones. Upper Ellensburg deposits and dacite of Old Scab Mountain are calc-alkaline and medium-K in composition. Silica content ranges from 53 to 67 weight percent Si02 for upper Ellensburg deposits and 66 to 67 weight percent Si02 for dacite of Old Scab Mountain. Older deposits composing the lower Ellensburg Formation are interbedded with and underlie the Grande Ronde Basalt. The lower Ellensburg deposits are typically more tholeiitic, range from 56 to 74 weight percent Si02 , and show slightly higher trace element concentrations than the upper Ellensburg deposits. These deposits were possibly derived from other dacite centers located near the headwaters of the adjacent Naches basin.

No description available.

During the mid Cenozoic, the Chocolate Mountains region of southeastern California experienced crustal extension slightly before, during, and after the main pulse of magmatism. This combined with mid-late Cenozoic faulting to locally uplift plutonic rocks interpreted to represent the plumbing system(s) for volcanic units, allowing an examination of both the extrusive and intrusive result of magmatism. Zircon U-Pb ages of from six magmatic units yield late Oligocene to early Miocene ages and correlate better with stratigraphic relationships than previously compiled ages. These units are four silicic volcanic units – Quechan volcanic rocks, tuff of Felipe Pass, ignimbrite of Ferguson Wash, and tuff of Black Hills – and two plutonic units – the granites of Mount Barrow and Peter Kane Mountain. Regarding contemporaneous plutonic systems as baseline comparisons, zircons from the volcanic units commonly record plutonic temperatures; interpreted to be solidus or near solidus temperature. Remobilization may be a common process leading to eruption. Quartz and zircon thermometers reveal the ignimbrite of Ferguson Wash and tuff of Black Hills magmatic systems evolved differently. Quartz yields temperatures of 700°C to ~750°C in both units with no core-rim trends. Cores of zircons from the ignimbrite of Ferguson Wash yield temperatures between 750°C and 890°C. Zircon rim temperatures are between 875°C and 950°C. Tuff of Black Hills zircon cores generally record temperatures of ~850°C and zircon rim temperatures are ~700°C. Rims from tuff of Black Hills zircon record the same temperature range as zircons from coeval granites. The temperature increase from core to rim in zircons from the ignimbrite of Ferguson Wash indicates reheating and that zircon grew later than and at higher temperatures than quartz. The low zircon temperatures from tuff of Black Hills reveals a system that was growing quartz and zircon at the same low, nearly solidus temperatures. Reasons for its eruption are not readily apparent in the thermal history of zircon and quartz. These two systems record different thermal histories than previously studied, younger systems like the Bishop tuff, in which quartz records late reheating just prior to eruption and a system that was growing quartz later and at higher temperatures than zircon.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The Antler and Sonoma orogenies occurred along the southwest-trending passive Pacific margin of North America during the Paleozoic concluding with the accretion of the McCloud Arc. A southeast-trending sinistral transform fault truncated the continental margin in the Permian, becoming a locus for initiation of an east-dipping subduction zone creating the Sierran magmatic arc. Constrained in age between two early Triassic tuff layers, the volcanic clasts in the breccia of Frog Lakes represent one of the earliest records of mafic magmatism in the eastern Sierra Nevada. Tholeiitic rock clasts found in the breccia of Frog Lakes in the Saddlebag Lake pendant in the east central Sierra Nevada range in composition from 48% to 63% SiO2. Boninites produced by early volcanism of subduction initiation by spontaneous nucleation at the Izu-Bonin-Mariana arc are more depleted in trace element concentrations than the clasts while andesites from the northern volcanic zone of the Andes produced on crust 50 km thick have similar levels of enrichment and provide a better geochemical modern analogue. Textural analysis of the breccia of Frog Lakes suggest a subaqueous environment of deposition from a mature magmatic arc built on continental crust > 50 km thick during the Triassic. The monzodiorites of Saddlebag and Odell Lakes are temporal intrusive equivalents of the breccia of Frog Lakes and zircon geochemistry indicates a magmatic arc petrogenesis.