Stratigraphy and geochronology of Miocene and Pliocene volcanic rocks in the Sierra San Fermín and southern Sierra San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico
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Abstract
Geological mapping and 40Arf39Ar geochronology in the Sierra San Fermin and southern Sierra San Felipe (between latitudes 30°30' and 30°44' N and longitudes 114°42' and 114°51' W), northeastern Baja California, reveal a history of Miocene to Pliocene volcanism from 21 Ma to at least 3 Ma. The area is located within part of the early to middle Miocene, subduction-related volcanic arc which reached the length of the Baja California peninsula. The study area also straddles two major, post-subduction vent areas 11 and - 6 Ma in age which have been dismembered by normal and sinistral strike-slip faulting within the Gulf of California Extensional Province. Prior to 11 Ma, basement-derived arkosic sandstone, basalt and pyroclastic flows, and volcaniclastic sedimentary rocks locally covered Cretaceous and older batholithic and prebatholithic rocks. Around 11 Ma, a 40-m thick regional pyroclastic flow, local hornblende andesite flows, and epiclastic volcanic units were deposited. At about 6 Ma, eruptions covered the region with an additional 220 m of pyroclastic flows, ash fall deposits, epiclastic volcanic units, and local rhyolite flows. Tuffs in this package thicken southwards across a major east-northeast-striking structure in the central Sierra San Fermin, which may be part of a caldera wall. The youngest of the tuffs in the 6 Ma sequence appear to have ponded against this structural barrier, causing the youngest units to be very thin or absent north of this boundary. Angular discordance between 11 and 6 Ma units indicates that major extensional -basins formed in this time interval. A hiatus in deposition throughout much of the study area occurred between 11 Ma and -6 Ma ago, although 8 Ma deposits crop out locally. This hiatus may not represent a lull in regional volcanic activity but merely the presence of local topography in the Sierra San Fermin with basins nearby, controlled by caldera collapse or normal faulting. Between 6 Ma and about 3 Ma, an additional 600 m of rhyolite and pyroxene andesite flows and breccias and pyroclastic flows were deposited in fault-controlled basins.
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