Field and Numerical Analyses of the Thermal, Mechanical, and Fluid Evolution of Extensional Detachment Zones

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This project is a combined field-based and numerical modeling study of the circulation of surface fluids in zones of orogenic collapse. The study focuses on extensional detachment zones that define metamorphic core complexes and are located between the brittle upper crust and the hot and commonly partially molten lower crust. Surface fluids penetrate the crust down to the detachment zones and likely play a major role in the heat transfer and deformation localization that characterize detachments. Several detachment sections along the North American Cordillera, from British Columbia to Arizona, are sampled and analyzed for microstructures, oxygen isotopic ratios, and thermochronology. These results are used as input to develop and test permeability models of the upper crust and detachment zones. Models address fluid flow from the crustal scale, where fluid circulation is a heat-transfer agent, to the grain scale where fluids interact with ductile deformation processes. This study evaluates the degree of fluid-rock interaction in detachment zones and the thermal and mechanical role of fluids in orogenic collapse. In addition, knowing the isotopic fluid composition of surface fluids promotes an evaluation of the topographic and environmental changes that took place during the collapse of the North American Cordillera in Cenozoic time.Who would think that rain water can descend 10 miles into the Earth?s crust? There is now ample evidence this is the case in regions that meet two conditions: (1) the crust is being pulled apart by the forces of tectonics, resulting in open cracks and fractures that canalize fluids; and (2) the region has a high geothermal gradient because it is heated from below by the rapid upward transfer of hot rocks and magma. These conditions promote the convective circulation of surface waters that remove heat from the crust as a radiator coolant fluid cools a car?s engine. Convective water flow is active today in regions such as the Great Basin in the southwestern United States where recharge of cool fluids and discharge of hot fluids (hot springs, mineralized areas) define hydrothermal systems. This project explores the deepest regions of fossil hydrothermal systems that formed during Cenozoic time (last 50 million years) in the North American Cordillera and that have been brought to the surface by tectonics and erosion. A combined field and modeling study of these regions helps understand how fluid circulations influence the thermal budget and the deformation of the crust. In addition, retrieving the composition of water that originated at the Earth surface at different times during the Cenozoic gives information on the topographic evolution of the Cordillera that evolved from a majestic Andean-like plateau to a dissected mountain range.