Middle Miocene extension in the Gulf Extensional Province, Baja California: Evidence from the southern Sierra Juarez

New geologic mapping, structural studies, and geochronology of Miocene volcanic and sedimentary rocks in the southern Sierra Juarez, Baja California, shed light on the extensional history of the Gulf Extensional Province prior to sea-floor spreading in the Gulf of California. The southern Sierra Juarez is underlain by lower–middle Miocene rocks including fluvial strata, intermediate composition volcanic deposits, basalt lava flows and cinder cones, and dacite pyroclastic deposits and lavas that nonconformably overlie the Cretaceous Peninsular Ranges batholith. The 40Ar/39Ar geochronology indicates that basaltic rocks are 16.90 ± 0.05 Ma and dacite pyroclastic deposits are between 16.69 ± 0.11 Ma and 15.98 ± 0.13 Ma. These strata were subsequently cut by two generations of faults. First generation faults comprise a dominant set of north-south–striking, west-dipping normal faults, a secondary set of north-south–striking, east-dipping normal faults, and a lesser set of variably oriented strike-slip faults. All three fault sets are temporally and spatially related and were produced by east-west extension. The dominant west-dipping faults, which are antithetic to and oblique to the east-dipping Main Gulf Escarpment, may have been a precursor or an early phase accommodation zone along the escarpment. West-dipping normal faults are cut by a 10.96 ± 0.05 Ma dacite hypabyssal intrusion, thus bracketing the age of east-west extension between 15.98 ± 0.13 Ma and 10.96 ± 0.05 Ma. Hence, this faulting event clearly indicates a period of extension that predates the onset of oceanic rifting and even predates other dated Miocene extension within Baja California. Second generation faults, which are comprised of east-west–striking strike-slip faults that cut first generation faults and associated northwest-striking, northeast-dipping normal faults, may be related to early development of the Transpeninsular Strike-slip Province. Global plate reconstructions suggest that transtensional motion between the North American and Pacific plates along the western margin of Baja California began during middle Miocene time, coeval with east-west extension in the southern Sierra Juarez. This observation supports a hypothesis that middle Miocene transtensional plate motion was partitioned into two components: a strike-slip component parallel to active faults along the western offshore margin of Baja California, and an extensional component normal to the margin, but located in what is now the Gulf Extensional Province. Hence, the onset of extension within the circum-gulf region was in response to plate boundary processes