Structure of Conjugate Rifted Margins of the Northern Gulf of California

加利福尼亚州北部横跨太平洋-北美板块边界从海洋形变到大陆形变的过渡，自中新世以来至少经历了300公里的相对运动，但在两者之间尚未产生真正的洋壳。这引发了关于这种大规模斜向裂谷早期阶段如何发生的争议。该项目建立在先前工作的基础上，该工作表明，墨西哥湾两岸两个地区的详细火山历史与单一破火山口杂岩的部分相匹配，这意味着墨西哥湾下面的物质是全新的，而不是高度延伸的陆壳变薄的残留物。这项工作将严格检验这一重要假设。这些结果应该会增加对加利福尼亚州海湾斜向裂谷早期阶段的理解，这应该广泛适用于类似的构造情况。

0001248StockThe northern Gulf of California straddles the transition from oceanic to continental deformation along the Pacific-North American plate boundary, and has accommodated at least 300 km of relative motion since Miocene time, but has not yet produced true oceanic crust in between. This has led to controversy about how early stages of such large-scale oblique rifting occurs. This project builds on prior work that indicates that detailed volcanic history of two areas on either shore of the Gulf are matching portions of a single caldera complex, implying that material underlying the gulf is entirely new rather than being highly extended remnants of thinned continental crust. This work will rigorously test this important hypothesis. Results should increase understanding of early stages of oblique rifting of the Gulf of California, and this should be broadly applicable to similar tectonic situations.