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B.L. Murchey

Publications and source records attributed to B.L. Murchey.

13 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2012

Pillow basalts of the Angayucham terrane: Oceanic plateau and island crust accreted to the Brooks Range

The Angayucham Mountains (north margin of the Yukon-Koyukuk province) are made up of an imbricate stack of four to eight east-west trending, steeply dipping, fault slabs composed of Paleozoic (Devonian to Mississippean), Middle to Late Triassic, and Early Jurassic oceanic upper crustal rocks (pillow basalt, subordinate diabase, basaltic tuff, and radiolarian chert). Field relations and geochemical characteristics of the basaltic rocks suggest that the fault slabs were derived from an oceanic plateau or island setting and were emplaced onto the Brooks Range continental margin. The basalts are variably metamorphosed to prehnite-pumpellyite and low-greenschist facies. Major element analyses suggest that many are hypersthene-normative olivine tholeiites. Classification based on immobile trace elements confirms the tholeiitic character of most of the basalts but suggests that some had primary compositions transitional to alkali basalt. Although field and petrographic features of the basalts are similar, trace element characteristics allow definition of geographically distinct suites. A central outcrop belt along the crest of the mountains is made up of basalt with relatively flat rare earth element (REE) patterns. This belt is flanked to the north and south by LREE (light rare earth element)-enriched basalts. Radiolarian and conodont ages from interpillow and interlayered chert and limestone indicate that the central belt of basalts is Triassic in age, the southern belt is Jurassic in age, and the northern belt contains a mixture of Paleozoic and Mesozoic ages. Data for most of the basalts cluster in the “within-plate basalt” fields of trace element discriminant diagrams; none have trace-element characteristics of island arc basalt. The Triassic and Jurassic basalts are geochemically most akin to modern oceanic plateau and island basalts. Field evidence also favors an oceanic plateau or island setting. The great composite thickness of pillow basalt probably resulted from obduction faulting, but the lack of fault slabs of gabbro or peridotite suggests that obduction faults did not penetrate below oceanic layer 2, a likely occurrence if layer 2 were anomalously thick, as in the vicinity of an oceanic island. The presence of basaltic tuff interbeds indicates proximity to an explosive basaltic eruptive center. The juxtaposition of submarine basalts of differing chemical affinity and age, adjacent to higher-grade Paleozoic metamorphic rocks of the Brooks Range to the north, may be explained by obduction of internally complex (thickened) oceanic crust formed in an ocean plateau setting. Emplacement and rotation of thrust plates to steep attitudes occurred during accretion of the Brooks Range passive margin, probably beginning in the Late to Middle Jurassic.

Journal of Geophysical Research Solid Earth↗
USGS1999

A late Frasnian (Late Devonian) radiolarian, sponge spicule, and conodont fauna from the Slaven Chert, northern Shoshone Range, Roberts Mountains allochthon, Nevada

Co-occuring conodonts, radiolarians, and sponge spicules from the type locality of the Slaven Chert, northern Shoshone Range, Nevada, indicate that the radiolarian and sponge spicule assemblage described herein correlates with the Late rhenana conodont Zone (late Frasnian). The moderately well preserved radiolarians are the first Frasnian-age fauna described from the Western Hemisphere. They include spumellarians, Ceratoikiscum, and Paleoscenidium, and a radiolarian which we have assigned to a new genus, Durahelenifore Boundy-Sanders and Murchey, with its type species, Durahelenifore robustum Boundy-Sanders and Murchey. Sponge spicules include umbellate microscleres of the Subclass Amphidiscophora, Order Hemidiscosa, previously documented only in Pennsylvanian and younger rocks.

Nevada↗
USGS1996

Equatorial origin for Lower Jurassic radiolarian chert in the Franciscan Complex, San Rafael Mountains, southern California

Lower Jurassic radiolarian chert sampled at two localities in the San Rafael Mountains of southern California (∼20 km north of Santa Barbara) contains four components of remanent magnetization. Components A , B ′, and B are inferred to represent uplift, Miocene volcanism, and subduction/accretion overprint magnetizations, respectively. The fourth component ( C ), isolated between 580° and 680°C, shows a magnetic polarity stratigraphy and is interpreted as a primary magnetization acquired by the chert during, or soon after, deposition. Both sequences are late Pliensbachian to middle Toarcian in age, and an average paleolatitude calculated from all tilt-corrected C components is 1° ± 3° north or south. This result is consistent with deposition of the cherts beneath the equatorial zone of high biologic productivity and is similar to initial paleolatitudes determined for chert blocks in northern California and Mexico. This result supports our model, in which deep-water Franciscan-type cherts were deposited on the Farallon plate as it moved eastward beneath the equatorial productivity high, were accreted to the continental margin at low paleolatitudes, and were subsequently distributed northward by strike-slip faulting associated with movements of the Kula, Farallon, and Pacific plates. Upper Cretaceous turbidites of the Cachuma Formation were sampled at Agua Caliente Canyon to determine a constraining paleolatitude for accretion of the Jurassic chert sequences. These apparently unaltered rocks, however, were found to be completely overprinted by the A component of magnetization. Similar in situ directions and demagnetization behaviors observed in samples of other Upper Cretaceous turbidite sequences in southern and Baja California imply that these rocks might also give unreliable results.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗
USGS1996

Paleomagnetism of Jurassic radiolarian chert above the Coast Range ophiolite at Stanley Mountain, California, and implications for its paleogeographic origins

Upper Jurassic red tuffaceous chert above the Coast Range ophiolite at Stanley Mountain, California (lat 35°N, long 240°E), contains three components of remanent magnetization. The first component (A; removed by ≈100–≈200°C) has a direction near the present-day field for southern California and is probably a recently acquired thermoviscous magnetization. A second component (B; removed between ≈100 and ≈600°C) is identical to that observed by previous workers in samples of underlying pillow basalt and overlying terrigenous sedimentary rocks. This component has constant normal polarity and direction throughout the entire section, although these rocks were deposited during a mixed polarity interval of the geomagnetic field. The B magnetization, therefore, is inferred to be a secondary magnetization acquired during accretion, uplift, or Miocene volcanism prior to regional clockwise rotation. The highest temperature component (C; removed between ≈480 and 680°C) is of dual polarity and is tentatively interpreted as a primary magnetization, although it fails a reversal test possibly due to contamination by B. Separation of the B and C components is best shown by samples with negative-inclination C directions, and a corrected mean direction using only these samples indicates an initial paleolatitude of 32°N ± 8°. Paleobiogeographic models relating radiolarian faunal distribution patterns to paleolatitude have apparently been incorrectly calibrated using the overprint B component. Few other paleomagnetic data have been incorporated in these models, and faunal distribution patterns are poorly known and mostly unquantified. The available data, therefore, do not support formation of the Coast Range ophiolite at Stanley Mountain near the paleoequator or accretion at ≈10°N paleolatitude, as has been previously suggested based on paleomagnetic data, but indicate deposition near expected paleolatitudes for North America (35°N ± 4°) during Late Jurassic time.

California↗
USGS1992

Setting and occurrence of Late Paleozoic radiolarians in the Sylvester allochthon, part of a proto-Pacific ocean floor terrane in the Canadian Cordillera

Late Paleozoic radiolarians have been used to establish th allochthon of the Slide Mountain terrane in British Columbia, and have thereby greatly clarified the geology and tectonic history of the terrane. As the Sylvester radiolarian fauna is limited, age assignments were based on a few distinctive and diagnostic robust forms. Radiolarians occur in cherts from a wide variety of different oceanic sequences that are structurally juxtaposed within the Sylvester allochthon. Like others in a suite of correlative terranes that lie along the length of the Cordillera, the Sylvester allochthon and the radiolarian bearing cherts in it derive from the telescoping together of slices from what was, in the late Paleozoic, a large area of the proto-Pacific ocean.

Canadian Cordillera↗
USGS1992

A mid-Permian chert event: Widespread deposition of biogenic siliceous sediments in coastal, island arc and oceanic basins

Radiolarian and conodont of Permian siliceous rocks from twenty-three areas in teh the circum-Pacific and Mediterranean regions reveal a widespread Permian Chert Event during the middle Leonardian to Wordian. Radiolarian- and (or) sponge spicule-rich siliceous sediments accumulated beneath high productivity zones in coastal, island arc and oceanic basins. Most of these deposits now crop out in fault-bounded accreted terranes. Biogenic siliceous sediments did not accumulate in terranes lying beneath infertile waters including the marine sequences in terranes of northern and central Alaska. The Permian Chert Event is coeval with major phosphorite deposition along the western margin of Pangea (Phosphoria Formation and related deposits). A well-known analogue for this event is middle Miocene deposition of biogenic siliceous sediments beneath high productivity zones in many parts of the Pacific and concurrent deposition of phosphatic as well as siliceous sediments in basins along the coast of California. Interrelated factors associated with both the Miocene and Permian depositional events include plate reorientations, small sea-level rises and cool polar waters.

western North America↗