Plate Tectonics reading list 3
Continental extensional tectonics: Case study of the Basin and Range province in North
America. Important questions include: What is the dominant crustal extension mechanism in the
Basin and Range province (pure-shear vs. simple-shear model)? How is extension
accommodated in the lower crust? How does the architecture of crustal extension in this area
compare to oceanic divergent plate boundaries?
Background reading assigned to everyone:
Chapter 5 of Moores, E.M., and Twiss, R.J., 1995, Tectonics: W. H. Freeman & Company, New
York, 415 p.
Papers to be presented:
Miller, E. L., Gans, P. B., and Garing, J., 1983, The Snake Range décollement: an exhumed
mid-Tertiary ductile–brittle transition: Tectonics, v. 2, p. 239–263.
Bartley, J. M., and Wernicke, B. P., 1984, The Snake Range décollement interpreted as a major
extensional shear zone: Tectonics, v. 3. p. 647–657.
Wernicke, B. and Axen, G.J., 1988, On the role of isostacy in the evolution of normal fault
systems: Geology, v. 16, p. 848–851.
Gans, P.B., 1987, An open-system, two-layer crustal stretching model for the eastern Great
Basin: Tectonics, v. 6, p. 1–12.
MacCready, T., Snoke, A. W., Wright, J. E., and Howard, K. A., 1997, Mid-crustal flow during
Tertiary extension in the Ruby Mountains core complex, Nevada: Geological Society of
America Bulletin, v. 109, p. 1576–1594.
Read for Basin and Range Lab:
Thatcher, W., Foulger, G.R., Julian, B.R., Svarc, J., Quilty, E., and Bawden, G.W., 1999,
Present-day deformation across the Basin and Range Province, western United States:
Science, v. 283, p. 1714–1718.