Collaborative Research: Testing the Degree of Correspondence between Surface Tectonic Features and Upper Mantle Structure and Composition by Study of Volcanic-Hosted Xenoliths

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Saleeby 0087347Ducea 0087125An important concern in the study of a currently active tectonic system is the role of inherited features. This project will explore the relationships between the structure and composition of the upper mantle and major surface tectonic features in the southwest Cordillera, that may be inherent from the shallow segment of the Laramide slab having been emplaced beneath the Mojave Desert region, thus strengthening against the modern plate juncture system. To the north, the intact batholithic segment in the Sierra Nevada retained its high-density keel which was susceptible to delamination and foundering into the mantle as rifting and transform tectonic propagated into the region. Results should help explain the dramatically different response of the Sierra Nevada and the Mojave desert to onset of the modern tectonic system.