Precambrian and Mesozoic Plate Margins: Montana, Idaho and Wyoming with Field Guides for the International Conference (8th) on Basement Tectonics.

摘要

Two field trips held in conjunction with the 8th International Conference on Basement Tectonics are the raison d'etre for this volume, which would perhaps otherwise seem an eclectic association. The unifying theme is an investigation of the nature of plate margins in time and space, consonant with the main theme of the conference, Characterization and Comparison of Precambrian Through Mesozoic Continental Margins. Papers presented at the conference will be published in a separate volume by the International Basement Tectonics Association, Inc. The first field trip is at least a preliminary attempt at an overview of the Precambrian (predominantly Archean) crystalline basement of southwestern Montana. A number of interesting investigations have been focused on this region in recent years. Thus, papers in the first part of this volume take the reader from the Stillwater Complex across the Beartooth Plateau, to the northern borders of Yellowstone National Park on to the southern Madison Range, and finally to some of the western-most (probable) Archean exposures in the Highland Mountains south of Butte. Moving considerably forward on the geologic time scale, the other broad topic dealt with in a second field trip and complementary articles is a relatively recent collisional terrane in central Idaho and eastern Oregon. Examined are portions of the Idaho batholith and its enigmatic and fascinating marginal rocks, and to the west, the heart of the suture zone itself in the Wallowa-Seven Devils terrane with its group of exotic intrusive, metavolcanic, and metasedimentary rocks. Individual papers are processed separately for the data base.