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Structural analyses combined with U‐Pb zircon petrochronology show the influence of arc magmatism on the evolution of two transpressional shear zones in the deep root of the Late Cretaceous Southern California batholith.  The mid-crustal Black Belt and lower-crustal Cucamonga shear zones (eastern San Gabriel Mountains) formed at ~84 Ma shortly after a large mass of tonalite and granodiorite intruded the lower crust.  Both shear zones were active until at least ~74 Ma and probably until 72-70 Ma.  In the mid-crustal shear zone, rheological contrasts between mingling magmas localized deformation at dike margins.  The deformation began as hypersolidus flow in partially crystallized dikes and then transitioned to deformation below the solidus when alternations between viscous creep and brittle faulting produced interlayered pseudotachylyte, cataclasite, and mylonite. As the dikes solidified, strain hardening drove shear zone growth and created thin (10-30 m) high-strain zones and faults that are widely spaced across ~1 km. In contrast, the lower-crustal Cucamonga shear zone was magma-starved, lacks the variety of shear zone fabrics exhibited by its mid-crustal counterpart, and formed by the reactivation of a pre-existing fabric that records pure reverse displacements at 124-93 Ma.  The two shear zones created a partitioned style of intra-arc transpression where sinistral-reverse (mostly arc-parallel with some arc-oblique) displacements were accommodated on moderately dipping faults and shear zones and arc-normal shortening was accommodated by coeval folds.  This study shows how a magmatic surge influenced the architecture and style of Late Cretaceous transpression in the Southern California batholith, including the evolution of high-strain zones that record alternating episodes of brittle, ductile, and hypersolidus deformation.  The results illustrate how magmatism localizes strain on deep-crustal faults during orogenesis and oblique convergence. We conducted U-Pb analyses on 11 zircon-bearing samples to determine the timing of magmatism, metamorphism, and deformation in the Black Belt and Cucamonga shear zones. Some zircons exhibited interior core and rim domains that reflect a history of deformation and metamorphism at amphibolite- to granulite-facies conditions.  The methods used in this study closely follow those outlined in Kylander-Clark et al. (2013) and are described in detail by Schwartz et al. (2024b).  U-Pb ratios were collected at the University of California, Santa Barbara using a Nu Plasma multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (MC-ICPMS) with a Photon Machines 193 ArF excimer laser with HelEx cell. Spot size and frequency were 35 µm and 4 Hz, respectively.  The primary standard (91500) was accessed every 10 analyses to correct for in-run fractionation of Pb/U and Pb isotopes. A secondary standard (Temora-2) was analyzed every ~10 analyses to assess data reproducibility. Uncertainties are reported as 2SE internal calculated from Iolite and IsoplotR (Paton et al., 2010; Vermeesch, 2018).  We assigned a 2% uncertainty to all dates for interlab comparisons to account for the reproducibility of standards. Zircon ages are reported using the ²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U date for analyses <1100 Ma, and the ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb date for those >1100 Ma. For the former, discordance is calculated as the percent difference between the ²⁰⁷Pb/²³⁵U and ²⁰⁶Pb/2³⁸U dates. Corrections for minor amounts of common Pb in zircon were made on ²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U dates following the methods of Tera and Wasserburg (1972) using measured ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb and ²³⁸U/²⁰⁶Pb ratios and an age-appropriate Pb isotopic composition of Stacey and Kramers (1975).  Zircons with large common Pb corrections (e.g., analyses interpreted as having ~20% or greater contribution from common Pb) were discarded. No corrections were made on ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb dates due to large uncertainties in measured ²⁰⁴Pb. Cathodoluminescence images were obtained using a FEI Quanta scanning electron microscope before and after ablation to evaluate analyzed areas and compare them with growth textures. Where possible, we targeted all growth domains and report ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb-corrected ²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U ages of texturally homogeneous populations. In a few cases where a laser spots overlapped multiple domains we report the data in tables but did not considered them in weighted mean calculations. Concordia plots and error-weighted average ages are shown in the accompanying journal article. Trace elements were measured simultaneously with U-Pb isotopes by LA-SF-ICPMS using Zr as the internal standard and nominal values of 43.14 % Zr. Trace element data were reduced using Iolite (Paton et al., 2010, 2011) and concentrations calculated relative to NIST-612 as a primary standard. BHVO-2G was analyzed as a secondary standard to assess reproducibility of the data. For zircon, model Ti-in-zircon temperatures were calculated using the Ferry and Watson (Ferry and Watson, 2007) calibration. Samples of granulite-facies rocks from the Cucamonga terrane contain rutile, allowing us to estimate the activity of TiO₂ to be one.  For samples that lack rutile we assume a value of 0.6 based on the presence of ilmenite. # Data from: Influence of magmatism on the architecture of transpressional faults and shear zones in the deep crust of the Late Cretaceous Southern California batholith [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jh9w0vtn6](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jh9w0vtn6) ## Description of the data and file structure All isotopic, geochemical, and trace element data were collected as part of a study to determine the timing of magmatism, metamorphism, and deformation in the Black Belt and Cucamonga shear zones in the southeastern San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California. Some zircons exhibited interior core and rim domains that reflect a history of deformation and metamorphism at amphibolite- to granulite-facies conditions. Where possible, we used zircon trace-element concentrations and ratios, particularly U (ppm), U/Th, Gd/Yb, and Dy/Yb, to distinguish metamorphic age populations. For more information on methods and an interpretation of the data, please see the publication in the journal *GSA Bulletin* by Klepeis et al. (2025). ### Files and variables #### File: Supplementary_Table_1_U-Pb_zircon_FINAL.xlsx **Description:** The table in the data sheet tab titled 'Table 1. U-Pb data unknowns' presents all U-Pb isotope data for the 11 samples analyzed plus the standards used. All standards are listed at the bottom of the table. The zircon standards include: Plesovice(Ples), which is used as a zircon U-Pb age standard; 91500, which is a primary zircon reference standard used for age normalization and reproducibility; Australian zircon suite (AusZ), which is a zircon age standard that is used as a secondary check on accuracy; GJ-1 zircon (GJ), which is a widely used zircon standard, the Malinau/Malim zircon suite (Mali) which is an additional age validation standard. Trace element standards include NIST 612 (N612), which is a synthetic silicate glass standard (see more information below), and BHVO, which is a natural basalt reference standard (see more information below). In the 'Table 1. U-Pb data unknowns' tab, n/a means not applicable. This refers to the lack of best ages and absolute error calculations for the standards N612 and BVHO. This information isn't applicable because these are non-zircon trace element standards, so no age is calculated. In contrast, the zircon standards (91500, AusZ, GJ, Mali, Plesovice) all have well-known ages, so best age and absolute error calculations are included. In the Table 1 data tab, n.d. means not detected. Only 1 average value and a standard deviation for the trace element analyses are provided for each sample in columns AP and AQ, respectively (the rest of the cells are blank). The tab titled 'NIST 612' shows data that used the widely used synthetic glass standard from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology. The standard is commonly analyzed to calibrate trace-element concentrations during LA-ICP-MS work. The tab titled 'BHVO' reports data from a well-characterized natural basalt reference material (from Hawaii). This is used as a secondary standard to monitor analytical accuracy and precision. In the BHVO data tab, n.d. means not detected. Isotopic ratios and Apparent ages are not corrected for common lead. For the 206Pb/238U ages, common lead was corrected by inferring the initial Pb-composition from the Stacey and Kramers (1975) two stage isotope evolution model (Vermeesch, 2018). Analyses with greater than 10% uncertainty in 207Pb/206Pb age (1-sigma) or 5% uncertainty in 206Pb/238U age (1-sigma), 20% discordance, and/or 5% reverse discordance are excluded. Accepted ages were calculated by using 206Pb/238U ages for grains younger than 1100 Ma and 207Pb/206Pb ages for grains older than 1100 Ma. ##### Variables * U, U/Th, 238U/206U, 207Pb/206Pb, 207Pb/206Pb vs 238U/206Pb isotopic ratios, apparent ages and absolute errors. * Trace-element data for P, Ti, V, Y, Zr, Nb, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, Hf, Ta Abbreviations include: ppm is parts per million, abs is absolute, Ma is millions of years, abs err is absolute error, error corr is error correction. ## Code/software Uncertainties were calculated using Iolite and IsoplotR (Paton et al., 2010; Vermeesch, 2018) 

ABSTRACT Paleomagnetic data from the Insular superterrane and related terranes in the western Canadian and northern U.S. Cordillera seem to indicate large-magnitude (~4000 km), northward translations along the western margin of the North American Cordillera in the Late Cretaceous (the Baja–British Columbia [Baja-BC] hypothesis). This model postulates that initial collision of the Insular superterrane occurred in southern California and/or northern Baja Mexico prior to dextral translation along the western North American margin from 85 to 55 Ma. A major unresolved problem with the Baja-BC hypothesis is that faults that could have accommodated large-magnitude translation are missing or obscured by later Cenozoic faulting and/or sedimentary cover. Here, we explored the deformation record of Late Cretaceous ductile shear zones in southern California with the goal of understanding the timing and kinematics of deformation at this time. We focused on the Alamo Mountain and Piru Creek shear zones, located within the central Transverse Ranges. The kinematics of these shear zones help to elucidate whether southern California was experiencing predominantly dextral or sinistral faulting during the time of postulated large-magnitude northward translation along the western margin of the North American Cordillera. This information in turn allows for assessment and refinement of the Baja-BC hypothesis. We report new field observations and 21 U-Pb laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry zircon ages from deformed and undeformed host rocks and dikes. We find that ductile shear zones in the Alamo Mountain region are localized at the boundary between Paleoproterozoic gneisses and Mesozoic plutons. High-strain rocks consist of quartzofeldspathic mylonites and phyllonites up to 750 m thick, and both shear zones record sinistral strike-slip to sinistral-normal motion with a predominantly top-to-the-NW sense of shear in their present-day orientations. Our data show that the Alamo Mountain and Piru Creek shear zones were active at ca. 76–72 Ma and possibly included an earlier phase of deformation. When Cenozoic block rotations are restored, we find that the Alamo Mountain and Piru Creek shear zones originated as NNW-SSE–striking, moderately ENE-dipping shear zones that formed at midcrustal conditions (500–600 °C and 4 kbar). Structural analysis of the shear zones indicates that the dominant component of motion was sinistral strike-slip and that the dip-slip component of motion was minor. The timing and kinematics of deformation in the Alamo Mountain and Piru Creek shear zones are similar to others in the Southern California Batholith, including the Nacimiento fault, the Mill Canyon window, and the Black Belt and Cucamonga shear zones (eastern San Gabriel Mountains), and the Tumamait shear zone (Pine Mountain block). The presence of this regionally extensive, sinistral shear zone system and the absence of dextral shear zones require reevaluation of the Baja-BC hypothesis in southern California during the Late Cretaceous. 

Not AvailableThe Median Batholith in western New Zealand exposes a nearly complete crustal cross section through a Mesozoic, Cordilleran-style magmatic arc that once extended from Gondwana to Laurentia. One of the last pulses of magmatism in the batholith formed the ~15 km thick Misty pluton, which was constructed during a brief ≤5 Ma period from 120-115 Ma at 25-40 km depth. For this study, we used the Misty pluton to determine how granitic melts that formed and resided within deep, crystal-rich reservoirs were mobilized and extracted from the base of the lower crust to shallower depths where they formed granitic plutons and batholiths. Transects across the Misty pluton, including its upper and lower boundaries, reveal that granitic melts moved through and out of lower-crustal reservoirs by the following processes: (1) the cyclical injection of meter- to kilometer-thick, mafic to ultramafic sheets into the lower crust where they reheated and partially melted crystal-rich mushes of dioritic composition; (2) dike intrusion combined with viscous compaction and vertical coaxial shortening mobilized and segregated trapped melts, which formed outcrop-scale pools and lattices; and (3) melt escape out of crystal-rich, high-strain zones occurred by porous flow through multiscale fracture networks and in steep, melt-rich channels and dikes. The dominance of compaction and vertical coaxial shortening at the base of the pluton is indicated by changes in deformation geometry (using folds, foliations, and boudinage) across mesoscopic and macroscopic strain gradients. Melt mobilization through an increasingly viscous, crystallizing magma mush is indicated by increases in the frequency of mush fracturing and changes in dike geometry and texture through time. Melt segregations progressed from relatively small, disorganized patches and pools in the deepest part of the arc to organized veins, dikes, and channels higher up in the pluton. Non-coaxial flow in steep, melt-rich channels is recorded by asymmetric structures, cross-cutting dikes and foliations, and complex melt-enhanced folding. This natural example provides direct, field-based evidence of the mechanisms that mobilize, segregate, and extract trapped melts from the deep, lower crustal roots of continental arcs to where they form shallow-level plutons. 

Superplastic behavior is observed in metals, ceramics, and some geologic materials where fine grained materials deform to large strains (>200%) without failure. While somewhat common in metals and ceramics, superplasticity is less studied in geologic materials, and tends to be restricted to olivine deformation experiments that are used to infer mantle rheology. Here we show unequivocal evidence for the operation of DisGBS-mediated superplasticity in naturally deformed amphibole, an abundant mineral in deep continental crust, which has not been previously shown to deform by high-temperature grain size sensitive processes. We sampled hornblendites from the base of Cordilleran-style continental arc crust exposed in Fiordland, New Zealand. The samples are from the Hawes Head ultramafic complex at the base of the Misty Pluton, which is composed of a hornblende diorite emplaced at 120-115 Ma at depths of 25-40 km. The hornblendites have an anastomosing mylonitic foliation which formed within the long-lived Straight River Shear Zone at the western edge of the Misty Pluton when it was reactivated in the Cretaceous (~126-110 Ma) during a pulse of arc magmatism. We place maximum P and T estimates on mylonitic fabric development in our samples based on amphibole crystallization pressures of 8.5 -10 kbar and temperatures of 940-1000ºC derived from electron microprobe analyses of an adjacent undeformed hornblendite. We use electron backscatter diffraction to investigate deformation mechanisms of naturally deformed amphibole in the hornblendite. Microstructural, pole figure, and misorientation data indicate that dynamic recrystallization (DRX) and grain size reduction led to the transition from dislocation creep to the onset of DisGBS-mediated superplasticity in the mylonites. Our data are consistent with a textural evolution in which easy slip on (100)[001] initially drives subgrain rotation DRX and CPO development in porphyroclasts during dislocation creep, producing dislocations that quickly climb out of the grains, leaving behind dislocations indicative of a harder slip system such as (010)[100] or {110}1/2<110>. Matrix grains show textural traits of DisGBS-mediated superplasticity including four grain junctions, aspect ratios >1.5, a paucity of subgrains, and the operation of a single hard slip system. This discovery of superplasticity in a natural example of amphibole-rich lower crust has profound implications for the ease of strain localization leading to the creation of crustal-scale shear zones that reactivate and drive plate tectonic boundary development. 

Abstract Structural analyses combined with U-Pb zircon petrochronology show the influence of arc magmatism on the evolution of two transpressional shear zones in the deep root of the Late Cretaceous Southern California batholith. The mid-crustal Black Belt and lower-crustal Cucamonga shear zones (eastern San Gabriel Mountains, California, USA) formed at ca. 84 Ma, shortly after a large mass of tonalite and granodiorite intruded the lower crust. Both shear zones were active until at least ca. 74 Ma and probably until 72–70 Ma. In the mid-crustal shear zone, rheological contrasts between mingling magmas localized deformation at dike margins. The deformation began as hypersolidus flow in partially crystallized dikes and then transitioned to deformation below the solidus when alternations between viscous creep and brittle faulting produced interlayered pseudotachylyte, cataclasite, and mylonite. As the dikes solidified, strain hardening drove shear zone growth and created thin (10–30 m) high-strain zones and faults that are widely spaced across ~1 km. In contrast, the lower-crustal Cucamonga shear zone was magma-starved, lacks the variety of shear zone fabrics exhibited by its mid-crustal counterpart, and formed by the reactivation of a preexisting fabric that records pure reverse displacements at 124–93 Ma. The two shear zones created a partitioned style of intra-arc transpression where sinistral-reverse (mostly arc-parallel with some arc-oblique) displacements were accommodated on moderately dipping faults and shear zones and arc-normal shortening was accommodated by coeval folds. This study shows how a magmatic surge influenced the architecture and style of Late Cretaceous transpression in the Southern California batholith, including the evolution of high-strain zones that record alternating episodes of brittle, ductile, and hypersolidus deformation. The results illustrate how magmatism localizes strain on deep-crustal faults during orogenesis and oblique convergence. 

We investigate the root of an Early Cretaceous continental magmatic arc (Fiordland, New Zealand) where field and petrographic observations show physical evidence for cyclic mafic recharge and the rejuvenation of crystal-rich magma reservoirs through time. We observe that ultramafic sheets were syn- magmatically emplaced into a voluminous sequence of host hornblende and two-pyroxene diorites at 25-50 km depth. These sheets range from meter- to kilometer-thick bodies and are primarily composed of hornblendites, with lesser amounts of websterites and hornblende peridotites. Websterites and hornblende peridotites are always enveloped and/or intruded by hornblendite. Contacts between ultramafic rocks and host diorite also show mutually intrusive cross-cutting relationships, evidence for crystal exchange, and lobate and cuspate margins, all of which suggest physical mixing in the presence of melt. In addition, granitic segregations are commonly concentrated near contacts with ultramafic sheets and are locally associated with peritectic garnets, likely signaling changing thermal and/or chemical compositions of the melt at the margins of the ultramafic sheets. Petrographic investigation of the ultramafic rocks shows that hornblendites are dominated by pargasitic amphibole, with minor ilmenite and/or ortho- and clinopyroxene. Websterites display adcumulate textures with relict banding composed of varying modal concentrations of ortho- and clinopyroxene. In all cases, pyroxenes in websterites display reaction replacement textures with pargasite. In weakly reacted samples, pargasite forms micron-scale films along pyroxene grain boundaries. In more reacted samples, pargasite is concentrated in mm- to cm-thick veins where pyroxenes only occur as relict inclusions within large euhedral pargasite grains. In the hornblende peridotites, olivine grains are enveloped by orthopyroxene and pargasite. Rare clinopyroxene grains also display reaction replacement textures with pargasite. We interpret field and petrographic observations to indicate that hydrous mafic melts intruded as sheets into dioritic mush. These mafic melts underwent extensive fractional crystallization forming peridotite and pyroxenite cumulates. Interaction between partially crystallized mafic sheets and the host dioritic melts led to two key reactions involving: 1) olivine + silicic melt -> orthopyroxene, and 2) clinopyroxene + silicic melt -> pargasite. We conclude that hornblendites and associated ultramafic rocks in the lower crust reflect repeated pulses of mafic recharge and open-system chemical interactions between mafic melts and dioritic mush leading to chemical hybridization, granitic melt segregation, and mobilization. 

Varias zonas de fallas continentales registran la influencia de estructuras preexistentes en su desarrollo y comportamiento. Aquí usamos ejemplos de Nueva Zelanda y California del sur para mostrar cómo las fallas normales antiguas localizan la deformación e influyen el desarrollo de fallas activas en dos límites de placas transpresivas. La falla Alpina en Nueva Zelanda es una falla transforme transpresiva dextral que acomoda 60-90% del movimiento relativo entre las placas Australiana y del Pacífico. Su segmento más meridional es inusual porque está particionado, con movimiento de deslizamiento lateral acomodado en la falla principal y el acortamiento acomodado en fallas inversas separadas. La partición está controlada por la reactivación de dos conjuntos de fallas normales preexistentes. El primer conjunto se formó durante el Cretácico Superior cuando Nueva Zelanda se separó de Australia y Antártica. La segunda ocurrió durante el Eoceno-Oligoceno, cuando se formaron una serie de cuencas transtensionales en Fiordland. Después de que comenzó la transpresión en el Mioceno, dos orientaciones de fallas normales (rumbo NE y N) se reactivaron como fallas de deslizamiento lateral e inversas, respectivamente. Una consecuencia de esta reactivación fue la exposición de la sección más profunda a nivel mundial de la corteza de un arco continental. En California del sur, las montañas de San Gabriel se encuentran entre las trazas activas de la Falla de San Andrés (SAF) y la falla de Sierra Madre-Cucamonga (SCFZ). SAF es parte de un sistema transpresivo en que las fallas de deslizamiento lateral dextrales e inversas acomodan el movimiento relativo entre las placas del Pacífico y Norteamericana. SCFZ muestra movimientos inversos y oblicuos. Su pared colgante conserva fallas normales del Mioceno temprano que se reactivaron como fallas sinistrales y oblicuas-inversas después del inicio de la transpresión en el Mioceno medio. La reactivación de las fallas normales explica por qué los terremotos en la región exhiben movimientos complejos, incluyendo aquellos que son antitéticos al movimiento en SAF. Los resultados de este estudio nos permiten determinar el origen de patrones complejos de movimientos de fallas en dos límites de placas transformes continentales y explican por qué algunas fallas normales preexistentes se reactivaron en transpresión mientras que otras no. 

Abstract We explore the growth of lower-continental crust by examining the root of the Southern California Batholith, an ~500-km-long, paleo-arc segment of the Mesozoic California arc that lies between the southern Sierra Nevada Batholith and northern Peninsular Ranges Batholith. We focus on the Cucamonga and San Antonio terranes located in the eastern San Gabriel Mountains where the deep root of the Mesozoic arc is exhumed by the Quaternary Cucamonga thrust fault. This lower- to mid-crustal cross section of the arc allows us to investigate (1) the timing and rates of Mesozoic arc construction, (2) mechanisms of sediment incorporation into the lower crust, and (3) the interplay between mantle input and crustal recycling during arc magmatic surges. We use U-Pb detrital zircon geochronology of four quartzites and one metatexite migmatite to investigate the origin of the lower-crustal Cucamonga metasedimentary sequence, and U-Pb zircon petrochronology of 26 orthogneisses to establish the timing of arc magmatism and granulite-facies metamorphism. We find that the Cucamonga metasedimentary sequence shares broad similarities to Sur Series metasedimentary rocks in the Salinia terrane, suggesting that both were deposited in a late Paleozoic to early Mesozoic forearc or intra-arc basin marginal to the Southern California Batholith. This basin was progressively underthrust beneath the arc during the Middle Jurassic to Late Cretaceous and was metamorphosed during two high-grade (>750 °C), metamorphic events at ca. 124 Ma and 89–75 Ma. These metamorphic events were associated with 100 m.y. of arc magmatism that lasted from 175 Ma to 75 Ma and culminated in a magmatic surge from ca. 90 Ma to 75 Ma. Field observations and petrochronology analyses indicate that partial melting of the underthrust Cucamonga metasedimentary rocks was triggered by the emplacement of voluminous, mid-crustal tonalites and granodiorites. Partial melting of the metasedimentary rocks played a subsidiary role relative to mantle input in driving the Late Cretaceous magmatic flare-up event. 

We investigate the deformation conditions of coeval mylonites and pseudotachylytes (pst) exposed in the brittle-ductile transition (BDT) in the Black Belt Shear Zone (BBSZ) in the Southern California Batholith using SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) imaging, and Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) analysis. We selected four representative samples along a strain gradient of the BBSZ. The BBSZ is a transpressional shear zone developed within hornblende and biotite tonalites and diorites. The shear zone is discontinuous over a ~ 1.5 - 2 km wide zone, and kinematic indicators show oblique top-to-SW, sinistral-reverse to thrust-sense motion. Metamorphic titanite grains aligned within the mylonitic fabric date the deformation to ~ 83 Ma. SEM and EBSD data show mm-thick seams of pst contained within and parallel to mylonitic foliation, and mutually overprinting relationships between brittle and plastic deformation. We observe a brittle overprint of mylonitic fabric in sample 46 and fractured porphyroclasts reworked into mylonitic fabric in samples 45 and 47. EBSD maps from sample 45 and 47 show decreasing modal percentages of hydrous mafic minerals (biotite and hornblende) in the mylonites with proximity to pst seams, suggesting these melted to form pst. In pst seams, there are embayed and rounded/elliptical plagioclase survivor clasts and acicular and aligned biotite microlites parallel to mylonitic fabric (45 & 47). EBSD maps show pst survivor clasts with the same shear sense as the mylonitic fabric, suggesting co-development. Pole figures show weak CPO in hornblende and plagioclase of sample 46. Samples 45 and 47 have no CPO present in plagioclase, however samples 45, 46, and 47 show strong CPO patterns for quartz that are consistent with prism slip. We interpret dislocation creep as the deformation mechanism accommodating plastic deformation in host mylonites. Quartz CPO patterns provide evidence of mylonitic deformation at temperatures ~ 600o C, and the presence of plagioclase survivor clasts as evidence of pst temperatures of ~1100oC. The kinematically consistent sense of shear between pst and host mylonitic fabrics suggests coeval development that indicate shifts from brittle to ductile deformation. Our results suggest periodic pst-generating events involving melting of hydrous mafic minerals aided the development of coeval mylonites and pst in the BDT. 

Paleomagnetic data from the Insular superterrane and related terranes in the western Canadian and northern US Cordillera argue for large-magnitude (~4000 km), northward translations along the western margin of the North American Cordillera in the Late Cretaceous (the Baja-BC hypothesis). This model postulates that initial collision of the Insular superterrane occurred in southern California and/or northern Baja Mexico prior to dextral translation along the western North American margin from 85-55 Ma. A major unresolved problem with the Baja-BC hypothesis is that faults that could have accommodated large-magnitude translation are missing or obscured by later Cenozoic faulting and/or sedimentary cover. Here, we investigate the deformation record of Late Cretaceous ductile shear zones in southern California with the goal of understanding the timing and kinematics of deformation at this time. We focus on the Alamo Mountain and Piru Creek shear zones, located within the central Transverse Ranges. We report new field observations and twenty-one U-Pb LA-ICPMS zircon ages from deformed and undeformed host rocks and dikes with the goal of documenting the timing of deformation. Our data show that the Alamo Mountain and Piru Creek shear zones were active at ~76-72 Ma and possibly included an earlier phase of deformation. Both shear zones record sinistral strike-slip to sinistral-normal motion in their present-day orientations. When Cenozoic block rotations are restored, we find that the Alamo Mountain and Piru Creek shear zones originated as NNW-SSE striking, moderately ENE dipping shear zones that formed at mid-crustal conditions (500-600C and 4 kbars). Structural analysis of the shear zones indicates that the dominant component of motion was sinistral strike-slip and that the dip-slip component of motion was minor. The timing and kinematics of deformation in the Alamo Mountain and Piru Creek shear zones are similar to other Late Cretaceous shear zones in the Southern California Batholith. When palinspastic reconstructions are considered, these shear zones comprise a regionally extensive shear zone system over 200 km long. The presence of this regionally extensive, sinistral shear zone system and the absence of dextral shear zones requires reevaluation of the Baja-BC hypothesis in southern California during the Late Cretaceous.