Journal
GEOLOGY
Volume 38, Issue 7, Pages 611-614Publisher
GEOLOGICAL SOC AMER, INC
DOI: 10.1130/G31031.1
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- Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP) at Los Alamos National Laboratory
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The Colorado Plateau of the southwestern United States is characterized by a bowl-shaped high elevation, late Neogene-Quaternary magmatism at its edge, large gradients in seismic wave velocity across its margins, and relatively low lithospheric seismic wave velocities. We explain these observations by edge-driven convection following rehydration of Colorado Plateau lithosphere. A rapidly emplaced Cenozoic step in lithosphere thickness between the Colorado Plateau and adjacent extended Rio Grande rift and Basin and Range province causes small-scale convection in the asthenosphere. A lithospheric drip below the plateau is removing lithosphere material from the edge that is heated and metasomatized, resulting in magmatism. Edge-driven convection also drives margin uplift, giving the plateau its characteristic bowl shape. The edge-driven convection model shows good consistency with features resolved by seismic tomography.
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