Evolution of a large Miocene growth structure in the upper plate of the Whipple detachment fault, northeastern Whipple Mountains, California

Miocene sedimentary and volcanic rocks in the north-eastern Whipple Mountains, California, and the north-western Aubrey Hills, Arizona, accumulated in the upper plate of the Whipple detachment fault during regional extension and slip on the detachment. Miocene rocks in this area can be divided into three sequences: (1) pre-18.5-Ma dominantly volcanic rocks; (2) the 18.5-Ma Peach Springs Tuff; and (3) post-18.5-Ma dominantly sedimentary rocks. Important stratigraphic markers in sequence 3 include a 100- to 14–0-m-thick basalt unit and the voluminous War Eagle landslide, both of which correlate across Lake Havasu from the north-east Whipple Mountains to the Aurbrey Hills. We divide clastic sedimentary rocks of sequence 3 into three informal members: (3a) conglomerate and sandstone stratigraphically beneath the basalt; (3b) conglomerate and sandstone above the basalt and below the War Eagle landslide; and (3c) conglomerate and sandstone that overlie the War Eagle landslide. Detailed stratigraphic analysis and field mapping reveal dramatic south-westward thickening of member 3b strata, from about 50 m in the Aubrey Hills to over 1500 m in the north-east Whipple Mountains. In the north-east Whipple Mountains, this thick dipping section is overlain by the War Eagle landslide along a major angular unconformity; in the Aubrey Hills the base of the War Eagle landslide is roughly parallel to bedding dips of underlying strata. The above stratigraphic relationships can be explained by syndepositional growth of a rollover monocline by progressive tilting of the hangingwall above a master listric normal fault (Whipple detachment fault). This phase of upper-plate deformation began shortly after deposition of the basalt and ended prior to emplacement of the War Eagle landslide. Interbedded breccias low in member 3b, about 100 m above the basalt, record the first appearance of mylonitic detritus in the section. Growth of this upper-plate rollover was thus initiated at about the same time (shortly after deposition of the basalt) that the lower plate of the Whipple detachment fault was first exposed at the earth's surface by tectonic denudation and large-scale crustal uplift. These events are interpreted to record initiation of a secondary breakaway fault on the north-east flank of the growing Whipple detachment dome shortly after deposition of the basalt at about 14.5 (±1.0) Ma.