Distribution of late Cenozoic volcanic vents in the Cascade Range: Volcanic arc segmentation and regional tectonic considerations

Abstract

Spatial, temporal, and compositional distributions of approximately 4000 volcanic vents formed since 16 Ma in Washington, Oregon, northern California, and northwestern Nevada illustrate the evolution of volcanism related to subduction of the Juan de Fuca plate system and extension of the Basin and Range province. Vent data were obtained from published map compilations and include monogenetic and small polygenetic volcanoes in addition to major composite centers. On the basis of the distribution of 2821 vents formed since 5 Ma, the Cascade Range is divided into five segments, with vents of the High Lava Plains along the northern margin of the Basin and Range province in Oregon forming a sixth segment. Some aspects of the Cascade Range segmentation can be related to gross structural features of the subducting Juan de Fuca plate. The orientation of the volcanic front of segments one and two changes from NW in northern Washington to NE in southern Washington, paralleling the strike of the subducting Juan de Fuca plate. Segments one and two are separated by a 90-km volcanic gap between Mount Rainier and Glacier Peak that is landward of the portion of the subducting plate having the least average dip to a depth of 60 km. A narrow, N-S trending belt of predominantly andesitic vents in Oregon constitutes a third segment, which is landward of the seismically quiet portion of the subduction zone. The narrowness of this segment may indicate steep dip of the subducting plate beneath the Cascade arc in Oregon. Vents are sparse between segment four (containing the Mount Shasta and Medicine Lake centers) and segment five (containing Lassen Peak), where the Juan de Fuca and Gorda North plates are characterized by differing age, amounts of subcrustal seismicity, and probably geometry. From the relation between seismicity at depth of 60 km and the position of the volcanic front of vents formed since 5 Ma, transitions between subducting-plate segments of varying geometry likely occur near boundaries between independently defined volcanic segments in northern Oregon and northern California. In the Basin and Range province east of the Cascade arc, volcanism migrated into the region adjacent to the Cascade Range during the interval 5–10 Ma. Since 5 Ma, the impingement of the two provinces is characterized by cessation of basin-range volcanism in southern Oregon, continuation of basaltic volcanism in northeastern California where the impingement process may not yet be complete, and contraction of the area of mafic volcanism around Mount Shasta, Medicine Lake, and Lassen Peak. In central Oregon where the northern margin of basin-range volcanism (the High Lava Plains) intersects the Cascade arc, impingement of basin-range extensional volcanism approximately coincides in time and space with the development of the High Cascade graben between Three Sisters and Mount Jefferson.