Abstract
The Colebrooke Schist of the Pickett Peak terrane, southwestern Oregon,
is the easternmost, structurally highest unit of the Late
Mesozoic-Cenozoic Franciscan Accretionary Complex. The Colebrooke
Schist consists of mostly transitional greenschist-blueschist-facies
meta-sedimentary rocks with common blocks of meta-volcanics and
serpentinites, rare talc-schists and meta-plutonic rocks. The
Colebrooke Schist meta-volcanic blocks are greenstones, in many cases
with visible relict pillow structures and relict igneous textures.
Fifteen meta-volcanic samples and one meta-plutonic sample were
analyzed by XRF and ICP-MS and were plotted with analyses from Plake
(1989) and Coleman (1972). The Colebrooke Schist meta-volcanic rocks
plot in mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB), island arc tholeiite (IAT) and
transitional MORB/IAT fields on V-Ti, Th/Yb-Ta/Yb and Cr-Y diagrams.
The range of magma types suggests that the Colebrooke Schist
meta-volcanic blocks are derived from a back-arc basin basalt source.
The Colebrooke Schist contains unusually high iron and titanium (Fe-Ti)
MORB. The Colebrooke Schist analyses were separated into five
individual large blocks. The Quosatana Butte, Skookumhouse Butte and
Copper Canyon blocks have MORB affinities, whereas blocks, in a
serpentinite melange underlying the Colebrooke Schist, from Mineral
Hill and Saddle Mountain are transitional MORB/IAT. The geochemical
similarity of Colebrooke Schist samples with Coast Range ophiolite and
Josephine ophiolite, the similar age of a block in the Colebrooke to
the Josephine ophiolite, as well as geochemical similarities and
probable pebbly mudstone matrix all suggest that some of the Colebrooke
Schist meta-igneous blocks may be sedimentary blocks derived from the
Josephine and possibly also Coast Range ophiolites, deposited as
olistostromes in the Early Cretaceous trench off western North America.
Very large, MORB affinity blocks allows the possibility that at least
some of the Colebrooke Schist blocks are dismembered remains of the
ocean floor basement.
The Colebrooke Schist has undergone three deformation events. D1
consists of foliation first observed by Coleman (1972) and later
described by Plake (1989) as alignment of platy minerals and the
flattening of relict pillow structures. D2 consists of crenulation
cleavage, S2, and folds, F2 (Coleman, 1972 and Plake, 1989). Plake
(1989) described D3 features as an S3 crenulation cleavages and F3
folds without axial planar cleavage. Foliations, equivalent to S1 from
Plake (1989), measured throughout the field area generally vary in
strike from northwest to northeast and dip to the east and define a
broad girdle on an equal area projection. The orientations of
stretching lineations (equivalent to L1 of Plake, 1989) are scattered
with no clear average value, although most plunge gently to moderately
southeast or northwest. These shallow plunges and variable trends are
consistent with rotation about a vertical axis, which supports Plake's
(1989) proposal that the Colebrooke Schist has undergone rigid block
rotation. The variation in foliation and lineation measurements is
likely the result of one or a combination of three possibilities: 1)
post-metamorphic folding following D3, 2) drag folding along the late
north- to northeast-striking strike-slip faults, or 3) extensive
shearing associated with veining throughout the Colebrooke Schist.
Katrib, J., 2006. Source of meta-igneous blocks and structure
of the Colebrooke Schist in the Snowcamp Peak area, Pickett Peak
terrane, southwestern Oregon.
Unpublished MSc. thesis, State University of New York at Albany.
111 pp., + xiii
University at Albany Science Library call number: SCIENCE
Oversize
(*) QE 40 Z899 2005 K38