The Story of a Yakima Fold and How It Informs Late Neogene and Quaternary Backarc Deformation in the Cascadia Subduction Zone, Manastash Anticline, Washington, USA

Harvey Kelsey, Tyler Ladinsky, Lydia Staisch, Brian L. Sherrod, Richard J. Blakely, Thomas L. Pratt, William J. Stephenson, Jack Odum, & Elmira Wan

Published October 19, 2017, SCEC Contribution #11688

The Yakima folds of central Washington, USA are prominent anticlines that are the primary tectonic features of the backarc of the northern Cascadia subduction zone. What accounts for their topographic expression and how much strain do they accommodate and over what time period? We investigate Manastash anticline, a north-vergent fault propagation fold typical of structures in the fold province. From retrodeformation of line- and area-balanced cross sections, the crust has horizontally shortened by 11% (0.8-0.9 km). The fold, and by inference all other folds in the fold province, formed no earlier than 15.6 Ma as they developed on a landscape that was reset to negligible relief following voluminous outpouring of Grande Ronde Basalt. Deformation is accommodated on two fault sets including west-northwest-striking frontal thrust faults and shorter north- to northeast-striking faults. The frontal thrust fault system is active with late Quaternary scarps at the base of the range front. The fault-cored Manastash anticline terminates to the east at the Naneum anticline and fault; activity on the north-trending Naneum structures predates emplacement of the Grande Ronde Basalt. The west-trending Yakima folds and west-striking thrust faults, the shorter north to northeast striking faults, and the Naneum fault together constitute the tectonic structures that accommodate deformation in the low-strain-rate environment in the backarc of the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

Citation
Kelsey, H., Ladinsky, T., Staisch, L., Sherrod, B. L., Blakely, R. J., Pratt, T. L., Stephenson, W. J., Odum, J., & Wan, E. (2017). The Story of a Yakima Fold and How It Informs Late Neogene and Quaternary Backarc Deformation in the Cascadia Subduction Zone, Manastash Anticline, Washington, USA. Tectonics, 36(10), 2085-2107. doi: 10.1002/2017tc004558. https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2017TC004558