Recent work in the western U.S. Cordillera has focussed on possible substantial Mesozoic displacement on faults between the Sierra Nevada and the western Great Basin. However, the location, timing and sense of movement on these faults is poorly constrained. One of these, the Pine Nut fault in western Nevada, juxtaposes two coeval Mesozoic assemblages that have very different structural histories. This study will use an integrated structural, paleomagnetic, geochronologic and geothermobarometric approach to constrain the kinematic history of the Pine Nut fault. The results will clarify the late Mesozoic tectonic evolution of the western Cordillera, and will have broad implications for displacement field partitioning in active plate margin settings.
