The Sangre de Cristo Range in southern Colorado exposes some of the deepest Cenozoic structural levels in the Rocky Mountain region, including mylonitic shear zones associated with both the Laramide orogeny and Rio Grande rift. We investigated the relation between Laramide contraction and Rio Grande rift extension with detailed geologic mapping, kinematic analysis, and geochronometry in a 50 km(2) area centered on the Independence Mine shear zone (IMSZ). The 15-100-m-thick IMSZ is one of several shallowly to moderately (similar to 45 degrees +/- 20 degrees) W-SW-dipping brittle-plastic shear zones along the western flank of the range. These shear zones display microstructural evidence of initiation as top-NE contractional mylonite zones, consistent with regional Laramide kinematics, which have been pervasively overprinted by shear fabrics indicating top-SW extensional reactivation. Both top-NE and top-SW shear fabrics involve cataclasis and quartz dislocation creep, although top-SW shear is more commonly localized along phyllosilicate-lined shear bands. Shear zones are hosted predominately within Proterozoic gneiss, and contain abundant chlorite and white mica derived from alteration of hornblende and feldspar, which indicates that weakening driven by fluid reactions played an important role in localizing strain. Extensional overprinting appears to be most pervasive along more steeply dipping portions of shear zones and where secondary phyllosilicates form an interconnected weak phase, which suggests that reactivation was primarily controlled by geometry and rheological contrasts inherited from contraction. One top-SW shear zone adjacent to the IMSZ cuts a late Oligocene gabbro stock, and monazite grains synkinematic with top-SW shear in the IMSZ yielded late Oligocene to Early Miocene U-Th-Pb dates that correspond with initiation of the Rio Grande rift. Reactivation of weak reverse faults may represent an important structural control during initial extension in the middle crust, prior to slip along the high-angle Sangre de Cristo normal fault system.

The Punta del Cobre district near Copiapó is a center of iron oxide-copper–gold (IOCG) mineralization spatially and temporally associated with regional sodic-calcic hydrothermal alteration, the Atacama fault system (AFS), and two phases of Early Cretaceous magmatism. Here, we investigate the spatiotemporal and geochemical relationships between magmatism, ductile deformation, and hydrothermal alteration along the 200 to 300-m-thick steeply NW-dipping Sierra Chicharra shear zone, interpreted to be the major strand of the AFS. Mylonitic fabrics and oblique sinistral-reverse kinematic indicators together record coaxial flattening in a transpressional regime. Deformation on the AFS took place before, during, and after intrusion of the synkinematic Sierra Chicharra quartz diorite of the Coastal Cordillera arc at 122 Ma and terminated before intrusion of the unstrained 114 Ma Sierra Atacama diorite of the Copiapó batholith. Geochemical data show that the Copiapó batholith was more mafic and more K-rich than the calc-alkaline Coastal Cordillera arc. This time period thus overlaps IOCG mineralization in the Punta del Cobre district ( 120 to 110 Ma). Multiple phases of sodic-calcic alteration in and around the AFS shear zone are recognized. Textures of altered rock in the shear zone show both synkinematic assemblages and post-kinematic hydrothermal oligoclase. A 775-m-long andradite vein that cuts the shear zone formed broadly at the end of magmatism in the district ( 95 Ma). Oxygen isotope ratios from the vein indicate that hydrothermal fluids were likely magmatically derived. Together, this work shows the AFS-related shear zone and nearby IOCG mineralization developed in a regional transpressional regime produced by SE-directed oblique convergence across a NE-striking shear zone. IOCG-related magmatic-hydrothermal fluids exploited this transcrustal shear zone to produce multiple episodes of regional sodic-calcic alteration formed from fluids exsolved from magmas or driven by the heat of the Coastal Cordillera arc and Copiapó batholith.

Laboratory experiments demonstrate that intragranular water exerts an important control on deformation within quartz, causing weakening and promoting plasticity. The role of water in natural quartz deformation, however, remains unclear, as recent studies find an inverse relationship between water content and the magnitude of plastic strain. Furthermore, little work has investigated the effects, if any, of water on the relative activity of various slip systems in quartz. We focus on a naturally strained quartzite from the Antietam Formation of the Blue Ridge in Virginia, USA. Quartz water content ranges from < 50 to > 2000 ppm H2O. Water content and crystallographic data were correlated for 968 grains, enabling us to explore the relationship between water content and quartz crystallographic preferred orientation (CPO) patterns. "Dry" (< 150 ppm H2O) and "wet" (> 500 ppm H2O) subsets show distinct CPOs; c axes of dry grains define a cross girdle oriented perpendicular to the extension direction (x), whereas c axes of wet grains are concentrated along the perimeter of the pole figure. All water content subsets show grains clustered near the direction of maximum shortening (z), consistent with activity of the basal < a > slip system. The cross girdle in the driest grains suggests activity of prism < a > and possibly rhomb < a >, whereas the orientation of the wettest grains implies a contribution from prism [c] slip. These slip system interpretations are supported by analyses of intragranular misorientations. These results indicate that water content impacts the relative activity of various slip systems in natural quartz, potentially affecting application of the quartz opening angle thermometer.

The similar to 173-164 Ma Papudo-Quintero plutonic complex near 32.5 degrees S in central Chile records three deformation events that provide insight into the tectonic development of the early Andean margin. The first event (D-1) includes: (a) high-temperature (>600 degrees C), coaxial-dominated strain along NE- to N-striking subvertical shear zones; (b) widespread emplacement of granitic dikes that dip gently to steeply NE; and (c) development of narrow (<10 cm thick) strike-slip and oblique-reverse shear zones. These D-1 structures record NW-SE to WNW-ESE transpressional shortening with a component of sinistral shear parallel to the N-S trending magmatic arc. Zircon and apatite U-Pb dates and cross-cutting relations constrain most D-1 deformation to similar to 166-164 Ma. The second event (D-2) occurred during postmagmatic cooling in the Late Jurassic and was characterized by development of pervasive E-W-striking veins with alteration halos and minor strike-slip and normal faults that record N-S extension in a transtensional regime. Structures associated with the last deformation event (D-3) include Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous mafic dikes, veins, and conjugate strike-slip faults that record NW-SE to N-S shortening in a strike-slip regime. D-1 deformation is consistent with studies from other areas that document NW-SE shortening +/- sinistral transpression along the arc throughout the Jurassic, suggesting this deformation was regional in scale and driven by oblique subduction convergence. Deformation associated with oblique convergence was localized within the active magmatic arc, which was an important process in the early Andean orogeny. As the arc migrated eastward, D-2 and D-3 structures formed in a low-stress regime in an arc margin or forearc setting.

The evolution of strain in nascent continental plate boundaries commonly involves distributed deformation and transitions between different styles of deformation as the plate boundary matures. Distributed NW-striking faults, many with km-scale right-lateral separation, are prevalent near Blythe, California, and have been variably interpreted to have accommodated either Middle Miocene NE-SW extension as normal faults or Late Miocene to Pliocene dextral shear as strike-slip faults. However, with poor timing and kinematic constraints, it is unclear how these faults relate to known domains of Neogene deformation and the evolution of the Pacific–NorthAmerica plate boundary. We present kinematic data (n = 642 fault planes, n = 512 slickenlines) that demonstrate that these faults dominantly dip steeply northeast; ~96% of measured faults record normal, dextral, or oblique dextral-normal kinematics that likely reflect a gradational transition between normal and dextral oblique kinematic regimes. We constrain fault timing with 11.7 Ma and 7.0 Ma 40Ar/39Ar dates of rocks cut by faults, and laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry U-Pb dating of calcite mineralized during oblique dextral faulting that demonstrates fault slip at ca. 10–7 Ma and perhaps as late as ca. 4 Ma. This Late Miocene dextral oblique faulting is best compatible with a documented regional transition from Early to Middle Miocene NE-directed extension during detachment fault slip to subsequent NW-directed dextral shear. We estimate 11–38 km of cumulative dextral slip occurred across a 50-km-wide zone from the Palen to Riverside mountains, including up to 20 km of newly documented dextral shear that may partly alleviate the regional discrepancy of cumulative dextral shear along this part of the Late Miocene Pacific–North America plate boundary.

Metamorphic core complexes in the western North American Cordillera are commonly interpreted as the result of a single phase of large‐magnitude extension during the middle to late Cenozoic. We present evidence that mylonitic shear zones in the Harcuvar and Buckskin‐Rawhide core complexes in west‐central Arizona also accommodated an earlier phase of extension during the Late Cretaceous to early Paleocene. Microstructural data indicate substantial top‐NE mylonitization occurred at amphibolite‐facies, and 40 Ar/ 39 Ar thermochronology documents post‐tectonic footwall cooling to <500°C by the Paleocene to mid‐Eocene. Amphibolite‐facies mylonites are spatially associated with voluminous and variably deformed footwall leucogranites that were emplaced from ca. 74–64 Ma, and a late kinematic ca. 63 Ma dike indicates this phase of mylonitization had waned by the early Paleocene. Reconstruction of the footwall architecture indicates that this latest Cretaceous—early Paleocene deformation occurred within a NE‐dipping extensional shear zone. The leucogranites were likely the result of crustal melting due to orogenic thickening, consistent with a model whereby crustal heating triggered gravitational collapse of overthickened crust. Other tectonic processes, such as the Laramide underplating of Orocopia Schist or mantle delamination, may have also contributed to this episode of orogenic extension. Miocene large‐magnitude extension was superimposed on this older shear zone and had similar kinematics, suggesting that the location and geometry of Miocene extension was strongly influenced by tectonic inheritance. We speculate that other Cordilleran core complexes also experienced a more complex and polyphase extensional history than previously recognized, but in many cases the evidence may be obscured by later Miocene overprinting.

Table S1A: Detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology data at University of California–Santa Cruz, Table S1B: Detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology data at the University of Arizona Laserchron Center, Table S2: Finite strain data, and Table S3: Raman spectroscopy of carbonaceous material data