The Calera Limestone, part of the Franciscan Complex of northern California, may have formed in a palaeoenvironment similar to Hess and Shatsky Rises of the present north-west Pacific1. We report here new palaeomagnetic results, palaeontological data and recent plate-motion models that reinforce this assertion. The Calera Limestone may have formed on Farallon Plate plateaus, north of the Pacific-Farallon spreading centre as a counterpart to Hess or Shatsky Rises. In one model2, the plateaus were formed by hotspots close to the Farallon_Pacific ridge axis. On accretion to North America, plateau dissection in the late Cretaceous to Eocene (50-70 Myr) could explain the occurrence of large volumes of pillow basalt and exotic blocks of limestone in the Franciscan Complex. Partial subduction of the plateaus could have contributed to Laramide (70-40 Myr) compressional events3. © 1985 Nature Publishing Group.
CITATION STYLE
Tarduno, J. A., Mcwilliams, M., Debiche, M. G., Sliter, W. V., & Blake, M. C. (1985). Franciscan complex calera limestones: Accreted remnants of farallon plate oceanic plateaus. Nature, 317(6035), 345–347. https://doi.org/10.1038/317345a0
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