Polyphase brittle and ductile deformation of Late Jurassic ophiolitic basalt-argillite matrix mélange and stratigraphic overlap sequence, northwestern Washington State

A belt of Jurassic to Cretaceous ophiolitic rocks borders the western margin of the U.S. Cordillera and stretches from central California to northwestern Washington State. The northern end of this belt lies between the San Juan Islands and the Northwest Cascades. Within this region, ophiolitic rocks consist of a succession of oceanic and arc-affinity igneous and sedimentary rocks which form a sedimentary mélange and sedimentary overlap sequence which is imbricated during the mid-Cretaceous. The mélange contains blocks and olistoliths of peridotite, plagiogranite, chert, basalt, and volcanoclastic conglomerate which range in size from a meter to over 1 km and are contained within a matrix of argillite and volcanoclastic breccia and conglomerate. Peridotites were exposed to the sub-aqueous surface along serpentinized shear zones prior to their incorporation into the mélange, and the sedimentary matrix of the mélange underwent brittle deformation during the earliest stages of its structural history. Mélange rocks are overlain in angular unconformity by a Jura-Cretaceous arc-sourced sedimentary succession which is at least 500 meters thick and passes upward from a basal breccia containing clasts of plagiogranite, gabbro, tonalite, chert, and basalt into argillite containing Late Jurassic radiolarians. The argillite is overlain by poorly-sorted greywacke and conglomerate with clast populations similar to those of the basal breccia. The conglomerate fines upward into a massive to bedded, feldspathic-lithic arenite and greywacke that yields mid-Cretaceous detrital zircons. The overlap succession and the mélange are deformed by two generations of highly-penetrative structures (D1a and D1b) which produced north-to-east vergent tight-to-isoclinal folds and axial-planar pressure-solution cleavages. All units are further deformed by three generations of penetrative structures. The successively younger NNE to NW, NE, and E-W to WNW trending folds have foliations that cross-cut the earlier structural fabrics and faults. Formation of the mélange required differential elevations during the time of deposition and the presence of rocks which are sourced from both arc and oceanic crust. Extension within the forearc provides a mechanism to exhume peridotites and generate differential topography for arc and oceanic affinity rocks to erode and be incorporated into the mélange as part of olistostromal deposits.