Precambrian Geology of the Cottonwood Cliffs Area, Mohave County, Arizona

Abstract

A belt of Early Proterozoic rocks crops out in the Cottonwood Cliffs area, northwest Arizona. The belt contains an eastern and a western assemblage separated by the Slate Mountain fault. The western assemblage consists of mafic to felsic metavolcanic rocks, metapelites, and metaconglomerates. The eastern assemblage consists of phyllites, felsic to intermediate metavolcanic rocks, metagraywackes, and metagabbro bodies. The belt is bounded to the east by foliated granodiorite. The Valentine granite intruded the belt on the west and north. Steeply-plunging lineations and fold axes, and northeast-trending vertical foliation dominate the structural fabric. The regional elongation direction is near-vertical, as indicated by mineral and pebble lineations, and is parallel to fold axes. Although only one deformational event is evident, the intensity of that event may have obliterated evidence of any earlier deformation. Tertiary basalts and the Peach Springs Tuff locally overly the metamorphic rocks. Cenozoic normal faults in the area are mostly of minor displacement.