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We present results of integrated 40Ar/39Ar geochronology and microstructural analyses of samples from Taconic thrust faults of the northern New England Appalachians that provide evidence for reactivation during the Acadian, Neo-Acadian, and Alleghenian orogenies. 40Ar/39Ar ages c. 420 Ma from western frontal thrusts of the Green Mountains and Berkshire Massif have been interpreted previously to reflect partial resetting of Taconic ages during Acadian metamorphism. In Massachusetts and southern Vermont, these W-directed thrusts transport Grenville basement and its cover sequences over Cambrian-to-Ordovician phyllites and graphitic schists. Our recent investigations of these faults, however, yield a suite of c. 420 Ma 40Ar/39Ar ages obtained from syn-tectonic mica in mylonites and footwall schist/phyllite that are interpreted, rather, to reflect a pulse of W-directed thrusting. This interpretation that these ages record the timing of deformation is based, in part, on the preservation of quartz and feldspar dislocation creep microstructures (i.e., lack of evidence for static recrystallization), as well as the regional distribution of these data relative to Acadian metamorphic isograds. These results align with recent findings for the timing of formation of the Green Mountain Anticlinorium in northern Vermont, as well as detrital zircon data that require isolation of the Catskill Basin from the Connecticut Valley-Gaspe Basin (CVGB) at the onset of deposition around that time. Mylonites and samples from the adjacent footwall schists and phyllites also locally record evidence for minor to wholesale resetting c. 355 Ma associated with a younger phase of ductile deformation. Further evidence for partial resetting of 40Ar/39Ar ages c. 250 is associated with hematite-rich seams parallel to the mylonitic foliation and cross-cutting fractures. We explore how these age populations relate to those obtained from, for example, the CVGB and Chester and Athens Domes, and their implications for correlating surface geology with results from seismic imaging of the lithospheric and mantle structure in the northern New England Appalachians.
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Unraveling fault reactivations and their tectonic significance using integrated structural data and 40Ar/39Ar geochronology, examples from NW Vermont and SW New Zealand
Many large fault zones record multiple reactivations that can be difficult to resolve and interpret in the field. Here, we use examples from Vermont and New Zealand to illustrate how structural data combined with 40Ar/39Ar geochronology can be used to reconstruct fault reactivation histories and interpret their possible origins. In SW New Zealand, the Spey-Mica Burn fault zone parallels a transpressive boundary between the Pacific and Australian plates. Integrated structural and 40Ar/39Ar data obtained from pseudotachylyte, mylonite, and other fault rocks allow us to distinguish successive phases of faulting (i.e., reactivations) from cases where different styles of brittle and ductile deformation occurred simultaneously (or nearly so) in the fault zone. Apparent age spectra from multiple minerals show age gradients that reveal four reactivations spanning ~20 Ma. The style and timing of these events correlate well to times of increased convergence rate and collisions between oceanic ridge segments and a nearby trench. Fault zones in NW Vermont also record different styles of reactivation. The Hinesburg Thrust (HT), which juxtaposes Late Proterozoic-Early Cambrian rift clastic rocks against Ordovician carbonate rocks of the Champlain Valley belt, includes a ~30 m thick zone of mylonite that is cut by a cataclastic fault and deformed by folds. 40Ar/39Ar data suggest the mylonite formed during the Ordovician Taconic orogeny and later was folded into a series of domes and basins during the Late Silurian-Devonian Acadian orogeny. Farther west, the Champlain thrust fault (CT) juxtaposes Cambrian dolostones against Ordovician calcareous shales. Superposed faults within the foot wall of the CT show a progressive change in movement direction from W-directed thrusting, to NW-directed thrusting, to N-S slip, and NE-SW slip. These changing slip directions appear to reflect wholly Taconic motion along a north-dipping lateral ramp between Burlington and Shelburne where the CT cuts up section to the south. Acadian reactivation of the CT appears restricted to late folding similar to the HT. These examples highlight the utility of combining structural data with 40Ar/39Ar geochronology to unravel slip histories in continental fault zones and to distinguish among the different styles and origins of fault reactivation.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1650183
- PAR ID:
- 10055517
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America
- Volume:
- 50
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0016-7592
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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