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Abstract

Following previous work on the Colorado Basin using a 3D crustal structural model, we now investigate the presence of lower crustal bodies at the base of the crust using 3D lithospheric gravity modelling and calculations of the conductive thermal field. Our first study highlighted two fault directions and depocentres associated with thinned crust (NW-SE in the West and NE-SW at the distal margin). Fault relative chronology argues for two periods of extension: (1) NW-SE faulting and thinning in the western Colorado Basin and (2) NE-SW faulting and thinning related to the continental breakup and formation of the NE-SW-striking volcanic margins of the Atlantic Ocean. In this study, the geometry of modelled high-density Lower Crustal Bodies (LCBs) enables the reproduction of the gravimetric field as well as of the temperature measured in wells down to 4500 m. The modelled LCBs correlate with geological observations: (1) NW-SE LCBs below the deepest depocentres in the West, (2) NE-SW LCBs below the distal margin faults and the seaward dipping reflectors. Thus the proposed poly-phased evolution of the margin could as well correspond to two emplacement phases of the LCBs. The calculated conductive thermal field fits the measured temperatures best if the thermal properties (thermal conductivity and radiogenic heat production) assigned to the LCBs correspond to either high-grade metamorphic rocks or to mafic magmatic intrusions. To explain the possible lithology of the LCBs, we propose that the two successive phases of extension are accompanied by magma supply, emplaced (1) in the thinnest crust below the older NW-SE depocentres, then (2) along the NE-SW continentward boundary of the distal margin and below the volcanic seaward dipping reflectors. The South African conjugate margin records only the second NE-SW event and we discuss hypotheses which could explain these differences between the conjugate margins.