SEDIMENTARY RESPONSE TO EOCENE TECTONIC ROTATION IN WESTERN OREGON (WASHINGTON, PACIFIC NORTHWEST, PETROLOGY).

Abstract

Published paleomagnetic studies have shown that the Oregon Coast Range has rotated 60° clockwise since middle Eocene time, probably by pivoting either during collision of a seamount terrane or during an episode of asymmetric extension within western North America. Eocene sedimentary deposits within the Oregon Coast Range basin, in particular the Tyee Formation, document changes in basin evolution that provide geologic constraints for proposed rotation models. The Tyee Formation comprises an arkosic petrofacies which is different from underlying lithic sandstones that were derived from the adjacent Klamath Mountains. Isotopic study of sandstones of the arkosic petrofacies, including Sm-Nd, Rb-Sr, K-Ar, and ¹⁸O analyses, indicate that much of the sandstone was not derived from the Klamath Mountains or nearby Sierra Nevada. The source area most likely included S-type granites of the Idaho Batholith. Lithofacies within the Tyee Formation include a sandy deltaic system to the south, a thin muddy shelf/slope sequence farther north, and a thick basinal sequence of sandy high-density turbidites that grade northward into low-density turbidites. Absence of facies segregation within the turbidite sequence precludes application of classical deep-sea fan depositional models and forms the basis for the delta-fed submarine ramp model introduced here. Delta-fed submarine ramps are short-lived sandy systems that result from rapid rates of progradation as well as aggradation. Synchronous changes in depositional style, structural deformation, sandstone composition, and rates of tectonic subsidence of the Oregon Coast Range basin are interpreted to record the transition from collisional trench-fill deposition to a subsiding forearc basin. The Tyee Formation was deposited after collision was complete and yet is rotated as much as the seamounts on which it lies; therefore, rotation must have occurred subsequent to collision. Since these sediments were partially derived from the Idaho Batholith region, the Oregon Coast Range probably lay much farther east during deposition and subsequently rotated westward to its present position. Tectonic rotation of the Oregon Coast Range may have resulted from continental extension that began in the Pacific Northwest about 50 Ma. Paleogeographic reconstructions show that basin development was synchronous with regional extension, arc migration, and tectonic rotation throughout the Pacific Northwest.