EARLY PROTEROZOIC TURBIDITE DEPOSITION AND MELANGE DEFORMATION, SOUTHEASTERN ARIZONA

Abstract

Greenschist-facies, Lower Proterozoic metasedimentary rocks of the Johnny Lyon Rills and Little Dragoon Mountains of southeastern Arizona were deposited prior to the intrusion of an approximately 1690 Ma rhyodacite pluton. Well-preserved primary structures indicate deposition by turbidity currents in an intermediate to neardistal setting. Sandstone compositions suggest derivation from either a complex, heterogeneous source or multiple source terranes that provided mature, quartzose sediment as well as lesser quantities of volcaniclastic detritus. Earliest deformation, predating both intrusion of the rhyodacite and metamorphism, produced sections of melange composed primarily of dismembered turbidite beds, but also incorporating large (up to several km long) blocks of deformed basalt. Subsequent deformation, in part post-dating intrusion of the rhyodacite and in part coinciding with metamorphism, affected both melange and coherent strata, and involved isoclinal folding and layerparallel faulting and shearing. It is proposed that turbidite deposition occurred in a trench associated with a north-dipping subduction zone or on ocean floor outboard of such a trench. Melange formed primarily by ductile disruption of unlithified sediments within the subduction zone. Basalt blocks incorporated within the melange represent fragments of oceanic crust or seamounts detached from the lower plate during subduction. Later deformation and intrusion of the rhyodacite occurred within an accretionary prism above the subduction zone. Deformation within the prism ended prior to intrusion of the 1625 ± 10 Ma posttectonic Johnny Lyon Granodiorite.