Yavapai orogeny

The Yavapai orogeny was an orogenic (mountain-building) event in what is now the Southwestern United States that occurred between 1710 and 1680 million years ago (Mya),[1] in the Statherian Period of the Paleoproterozoic.

Recorded in the rocks of New Mexico and Arizona, it is interpreted as the collision of the 1800-1700 Mya age[1] Yavapai island arc terrane with the proto-North American continent.

[2][3][4][5][6] Age and isotope data show that southern North America is composed of a series of northeast-trending provinces representing island arc terranes accreted onto the 1800 Mya core of Laurentia.

This created short-lived extensional basins at 1700 and 1650 Mya that accumulated sand and high-silica volcanic debris to form Paleoproterozoic quartzite-rhyolite successions.

[4] Individual island arc terranes accreted to Laurentia during the Yavapai Orogeny include the Elves Chasm block in the Grand Canyon, Green Mountain, Dubois-Cochetopa, Irving Formation, Moppin-Gold Hill, and Ash Creek-Payson.