WESTERN USA TRIPLET: BASIN AND RANGE, COLORADO PLATEAU, AND THE SIERRAS
It all began with the shallow Cretaceous seas, where an extensive layer of silts and shales was deposited. This acted as a thermal blanket for the HEAT FROM RADIOACIVITY, which was to arrive during the Tertiary. Deposits of radioactive logs, shale, and borders of oilfields attest to an unusual amount of K, Th, and U in the
Colorado Plateau, CP, in Ambrosia Lake, NM and other areas near basaltic vents and extrusions throughout the area.
The region of the TRIPLET includes the states of the 4 corners- AZ, CO, NM, and UT- as well as the Basin and Range, B&R, of NV, and its bordering state CA.
After the collision-forming Laramide Revolution, the lowlands of the west USA began to heat from radioactivity (noticed from high geothermal gradients in oil wells- 1.6 degrees F/hundred feet, compared to 1.0 in large basins in Texas). This created thermal expansion of the Crust, specifically the CP. The rise of CP was a movement which the Coriolis Force could act upon, and CP began to rotate counter-clockwise, CCW. This may be noticed by the CW occurrence of basaltic vents starting in the Rio Grande rift and proceeding around the perimeter of CP to St, George UT now. The B&R is also rotating, but in the CW motion, particularly noticed on the east (the WASATCH LINE) and south sides to the Valley of Fire, NV.
As noticed in the MODEL, the B&R is sinking (it is a closed basin), while the CP is rising- both on the order of 1 mm/year, as noticed by GPS readings at Fredonia and by my calculations from diagonal slickensides. With counter-current rotation, there is no brittle friction, except at locations where divergence of faulting occurs- such as at the Black Ridge and Hurricane UT areas, where many basaltic vents lie dormant. This might be interpreted as a vertical rotation, where the thick crust of the CP moves side-by-side with B&R, allowing high density limestone (with its thin crust) to equilibrate with low density silicates of thicker column. There is also a ion and re-mineralization occurring, where K emerges while Na disappears from surface waters, and phase changes occur. This is shown for a log of drill cuttings from a geothermal area in Kizildere, Turkey (close to Pamukkale hot bathe area)
Here is the sequence so far:
a. CP rises, and B&R sinks, creating the WASATCH LINE.
b. CP rotates CCW, while B&R spins oppositely- CW;
c. The Earth contracts continually, due to slowing from tidal friction with the moon, and the shrinking creates lateral compression to form the Sierras uplift, post-Laramide and post CHICXULUB;
d. Tidal friction drags the Sierras westward (relative to normal slowing of lowlands) and the transforms from the CA coast to Midway and the HI chain develop. There is no vulcanism in this latitude band, short of the chain, since there is no subduction in this 36-40N band;
e. Sierras’ movement to the west creates extension in B&R, terminating at the Wasatch Line and CP. Simultaneously for the 13 major basins in UT and NV, there are 13 rhyolite sites to the north- each of which extrude violent Yellowstone type eruptions;
f. The rhyolite extrusions proceed eastward with time, because of the continual stretching of B&R, and the extension can proceed no further eastward, because of the westward shove of the Rockies (under the impetus of tidal friction also, but lesser than that of the Sierras, due to lower elevations of the peaks generally- compared to the highest Whitney elevation);
g. The Sierras continue to move to the west, creating the Garlock fault and the 40N transform at Mendocino, and,
h. The Sierras rotate vertically, creating a sinking Central Valley and heat for intrusives on the west side and metamorphic rocks on the east of Yosemite NP.
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