Evolution of an Interbasin Mountain-Block Extensional Accommodation Zone Within the Central Colorado Rio Grande Rift, USA

Abstract:

Our understanding of extensional strain transfer and accommodation in continental rifts has grown considerably, but few studied transfer zones exhibit high internal topographic and structural relief. In the Rio Grande rift of Colorado the WNW-trending northern tip of the Sangre de Cristo Range separates the opposite-tilted Upper Arkansas River (UAR) and San Luis half grabens. We have investigated the development and role of faults flanking this “Poncha” intrarift mountain block in transferring extension between rift basins, mountain block surface uplift, and landscape evolution.

The topographically rugged Poncha block consists of Proterozoic metamorphic and plutonic rocks overlain on its west and southwest flanks by 34.5-33-Ma volcanic rocks and alluvial deposits of the Mio-Pliocene Dry Union Formation. Similar Dry Union sediments underlie a moderately elevated, strongly dissected older piedmont along the northern front of the mountain block. All of these units are tilted 10-35º to the W and SW. A WNW-trending, right-stepping fault system > 25 km in length separates the piedmont and UAR basin from the steep northern Poncha mountain front. Slip measurements along this fault system, cutting deposits as young as ~200 ka, indicate dextral-normal oblique movement. The NNW-striking, down-to-E southern Sawatch range-front fault system forms the western terminus of the Poncha block where it juxtaposes Dry Union deposits against Sawatch Proterozoic basement rocks. Gently tilted proximal diamicton and alluvial deposits on the downthrown blocks of both range-front faults likely mark Plio-Pleistocene(?) mountain block uplift. Arrays of NNW- to WNW-striking faults cutting volcanic and Dry Union units on the flanks of the Poncha block commonly have normal-oblique slip, with greater tendency for dextral strike-slip components on WNW-striking faults. Preliminary paleomagnetic data from the volcanic rocks detect no significant vertical-axis rotation that accompanied oblique-slip faulting on the Poncha flanks. W-SW tilting of the Dry Union deposits and initial uplift and erosion of the Poncha block to the east was likely associated with Mio-Pliocene movement on the southern Sawatch fault. Increasingly, however, uplift and oblique strain transfer was accommodated along the northern Poncha frontal fault.