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7069328 
Journal Article 
Structural evolution of central Death Valley, California, using new thermochronometry of the Badwater turtleback 
Sizemore, T; Wielicki, MM; Cemen, I; Stockli, D; Heizler, M; Robinson, D; , 
2019 
1 
Lithosphere
ISSN: 1941-8264 
GEOLOGICAL SOC AMER, INC 
BOULDER 
436-447 
WOS:000477562500002 
The Badwater turtleback, Copper Canyon turtleback, and Mormon Point turtleback are three anomalously smooth, similar to 2-km-high basement structures in the Black Mountains of Death Valley, California. Their structural evolution is linked to the Cenozoic tectonic history of the region. To explore their evolution, we apply (U-Th)/He, Ar/Ar, and U-Pb analyses, with multi-domain diffusion modeling to 10 samples from the Badwater turtleback. The cooling history of the Badwater turtleback is used as a proxy for its exhumation history as it uplifted from warmer depths.We find slow (<2 degrees C/m.y.) cooling from ca. 32 to 6 Ma, followed by rapid (120-140 degrees C/m.y.) cooling from ca. 6 to 4.5 Ma, and finally moderate (30-120 degrees C/m.y.) cooling occurred from ca. 4.5 Ma until the present. When these data are added to previously published cooling paths of the Copper Canyon turtleback and Mormon Point turtleback, a northwest cooling pattern is broadly evident, consistent with a top-to-NW removal of the hanging wall along a detachment fault. We propose a six-phase tectonic history. Post-orogenic collapse and erosion dominated from ca. 32 to 16 Ma. At 16-14 Ma, a detachment fault formed with a breakaway south and east of the Black Mountains, with normal faults in the hanging wall. Moderate extension continued from 14 to 8 Ma causing exhumation of the turtlebacks through the brittle-ductile transition. Dextral transtension at 7-6 Ma produced a pull-apart basin across the Black Mountains with rapid extension. The locus of deformation transferred to the Panamint and Owens Valley fault systems from 4.5 to 3.5 Ma, slowing extension in the Black Mountains until present.