Large-scale, crustal-block vertical extrusion between the Hines Creek and Denali faults coeval with slip localization on the Denali fault since ca. 45 Ma, Hayes Range, Alaska, USA

Abstract

Abstract Oblique convergence along strike-slip faults can lead to both distributed and localized deformation. How focused transpressive deformation is both localized and maintained along sub-vertical wrench structures to create high topography and deep exhumation warrants further investigation. The high peak region of the Hayes Range, central Alaska, USA, is bound by two lithospheric scale vertical faults: the Denali fault to the south and Hines Creek fault to the north. The high topography area has peaks over 4000 m and locally has experienced more than 14 km of Neogene exhumation, yet the mountain range is located on the convex side of the Denali fault Mount Hayes restraining bend, where slip partitioning alone cannot account for this zone of extreme exhumation. Through the application of U-Pb zircon, 40Ar/39Ar (hornblende, muscovite, biotite, and K-feldspar), apatite fission-track, and (U-Th)/He geo-thermochronology, we test whether these two parallel, reactivated suture zone structures are working in tandem to vertically extrude the Between the Hines Creek and Denali faults block on the convex side of the Mount Hayes restraining bend. We document that since at least 45 Ma, the Denali fault has been bent and localized in a narrow fault zone (<160 m) with a significant dip-slip component, the Mount Hayes restraining bend has been fixed to the north side of the Denali fault, and that the Between the Hines Creek and Denali faults block has been undergoing vertical extrusion as a relatively coherent block along the displacement “free faces” of two lithospheric scale suture zone faults. A bent Denali fault by ca. 45 Ma supports the long-standing Alaska orocline hypothesis that has Alaska bent by ca. 44 Ma. Southern Alaska is currently converging at ~4 mm/yr to the north against the Denali fault and driving vertical extrusion of the Between the Hines Creek and Denali faults block and deformation north of the Hines Creek fault. We apply insights ascertained from the Between the Hines Creek and Denali faults block to another region in southern Alaska, the Fairweather Range, where extreme topography and persistent exhumation is also located between two sub-parallel faults, and propose that this region has likely undergone vertical extrusion along the free faces of those faults.