A geological transect between the Klamath Mountains and the Pacific Ocean (Southwestern Oregon): A model for paleosubductions

A geological cross-section between Vulcan Peak (Klamath Mountains) and Gold Beach (Pacific Ocean) shows several tectonic sheets thrust to the west. From the coast to the east, in tectonic superposition:

1. (1) The metamorphosed Franciscan Complex includes the Tithonian-Neocomian Otter Point and Dothan Formations, and, above them, a mélange unit and the Colebrooke Schist.

2. (2) Over them all lie the Red Flat, Game Lake and Snow Camp peridotite units, which are cut by granodioritic dykes of the Nevadan Orogeny and covered by Tithonian-Neocomian sediments (Myrtle Group). We have considered these granite-bearing ultramafic units as klippen thrust westward from the Klamath Mountains.

Several stages of deformation are superimposed:

1. (1) Disconformable upon the Otter Point Formation are the unmetamorphosed detrital Cape Sebastian and Hunters Cove Formations. Their Late Cretaceous age gives here an upper limit to the Franciscan metamorphism and tectonics.

2. (2) The first reworked fragments of Colebrooke Schist or ultramafic units are not found in the Campanian Cape Sebastian basal conglomerates (which are affected by some thrusting), but in the Middle Eocene Lookingglass Formation. Thus, major thrusting happened during Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary times.

A geodynamic model is given: in southwestern Oregon, the Franciscan was probably deposited during Late Jurassic and earliest Cretaceous (Tithonian and Neocomian) times in a marginal basin, between an island arc to the west (Otter Point Formation in part) and the North American continent (Klamath Mountains) to the east. This Franciscan marginal basin was probably closed during the Early Cretaceous (i.e. Franciscan subduction). The present day structures (thrust plates, folds) are probably due mainly to the later collision between the continental margin and the arc and, to a much lesser degree, to early subduction, the marginal basin being consumed by subduction first, and then by collision.