Geology topics

J.A. Vazquez

Publications and source records attributed to J.A. Vazquez.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2014

Towards the definition of AMS facies in the deposits of pyroclastic density currents

Anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) provides a statistically robust technique to characterize the fabrics of deposits of pyroclastic density currents (PDCs). AMS fabrics in two types of pyroclastic deposits (small-volume phreatomagmatic currents in the Hopi Buttes volcanic field, Arizona, USA, and large-volume caldera-forming currents, Caviahue Caldera, Neuquén, Argentina) show similar patterns. Near the vent and in areas of high topographical roughness, AMS depositional fabrics are poorly grouped, with weak lineations and foliations. In a densely welded proximal ignimbrite, this fabric is overprinted by a foliation formed as the rock compacted and deformed. Medial deposits have moderate–strong AMS lineations and foliations. The most distal deposits have strong foliations but weak lineations. Based on these facies and existing models for pyroclastic density currents, deposition in the medial areas occurs from the strongly sheared, high-particle-concentration base of a density-stratified current. In proximal areas and where topography mixes this denser base upwards into the current, deposition occurs rapidly from a current with little uniformity to the shear, in which particles fall and collide in a chaotic fashion. Distal deposits are emplaced by a slowing or stalled current so that the dominant particle motion is vertical, leading to weak lineation and strong foliation.

Arizona;Neuquï¿½n↗

USGS2010

Zircon-scale insights into the history of a Supervolcano, Bishop Tuff, Long Valley, California, with implications for the Ti-in-zircon geothermometer

Zircon has the outstanding capacity to record chronological, thermal, and chemical information, including the storage history of zoned silicic magma reservoirs like the one responsible for the Bishop Tuff of eastern California, USA. Our novel ion microprobe approach reveals that Bishop zircon rims with diverse chemical characteristics surround intermediate domains with broadly similar compositions. The highest Y, REE, U, and Th concentrations tend to accompany the largest excesses in Y + REE3+:P beyond what can be explained by xenotime substitution in zircon. Apparent Ti-in-zircon temperatures of <720??C for zircon rims are distinctly lower than most of the range in eruption temperatures, as estimated from FeTi-oxide equilibria and zircon solubility at quench. While permissive of crystallization of zircon at near-solidus conditions, the low Ti-in-zircon temperatures are probably better explained by sources of inaccuracy in the temperature estimates. After apparently nucleating from different melts, zircons from across the Bishop Tuff compositional spectrum may have evolved to broadly similar chemical and thermal conditions and therefore it is possible that there was no significant thermal gradient in the magma reservoir at some stage in its evolution. There is also no compelling evidence for punctuated heat ?? chemical influxes during the intermediate stages of zircon growth. Judging by the zircon record, the main volume of the erupted magma evolved normally by secular cooling but the latest erupted portion is characterized by a reversal in chemistry that appears to indicate perfusion of the magma reservoir by-or zircon entrainment in-a less evolved melt from the one in which the zircons had previously resided. ?? 2010 Springer-Verlag.

Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology↗

USGS2010

Reconnaissance geochronology of tuffs in the Miocene Barstow Formation: implications for basin evolution and tectonics in the central Mojave Desert

Early to middle Miocene lacustrine strata of the Barstow Formation are well dated in just a few places, limiting our ability to infer basin evolution and regional tectonics. At the type section in the Mud Hills, previous studies have shown that the lacustrine interval of the Barstow Formation is between ~16.3 Ma and ~13.4 Ma. Elsewhere, lake beds of the Barstow Formation have yielded vertebrate fossils showing the Hemingfordian/Bartovian transition at ~16 Ma but are otherwise poorly dated. In an attempt to clarify the age and depositional environments of the lake deposits, we are mapping the Barstow Formation and dating zircons from interbedded tuffs, as well as testing ash-flow tuffs for the distinctive remanent magnetization direction of the widespread Peach Spring Tuff. Thus far, our new U-Pb zircon ages inficate that the Barstow lake beds contain tuff beds as old as 19.1 Ma and as young as 15.3 Ma. At Harvard Hill, Barstow lake beds contain a thick tuff dated at 18.7 Ma. On the basis of zircon ages, mineralogy, zircon chemistry, and paleomagnetic results, we consider the thick tuff to be a lacustrine facies of the Peach Spring Tuff. We have identified the Peach Spring Tuff by similar methods at eight localities over a broad area, providing a timeline for several fluvial and lacustrine sections. The new dates indicate that long-lived lacustrine systems originated before 19 Ma and persisted to at least 15 Ma. The onset of lacustrine conditions predates the Peach Spring Tuff in most Barstow Formation sections and may be older than 19.5 Ma in some places. The new data indicate that the central Mojave Desert contained narrow to broad lake basins during and after extension, and that Barstow lacustrine deposits did not exclusively postdate extensional tectonics. At present, it is unclear whether several separate, small lake basins coexisted during the early to middle Miocene, or if instead several small early Miocene basins gradually coalesced over about 6 millions years to form one or two large middle Miocene lake basins.

Mojave Desert↗