STRUCTURE, PALEOGEOGRAPHY, AND EXTENSIONAL FOUNDERING OF THE KINGMAN UPLIFT, NORTHWEST ARIZONA AND SOUTHEAST NEVADA
Paleocanyons cut into the SW Colorado Plateau contain Paleocene and Oligocene fill, capped by ~ 18-20 Ma volcanic rocks that were sourced west of the plateau and deposited eastward across the beveled surface. Therefore, the uplift was still high relative to the plateau at 18 Ma. The Peach Springs paleocanyon is the deepest and broadest. A similar ENE-trending paleovalley lies between the Cerbat and Hualapai Mountains at Kingman. Surface profiles of these two paleovalleys are strikingly similar in width and depth and are herein correlated.
The northern Grand Wash and Cerbat Mountain faults may represent reactivated west-dipping Laramide reverse faults, separating a terrane of two-mica, garnet-bearing 64 -73 Ma plutons intruded as much as 10 km deep from similar age but shallowly intruded plutons east of these faults. If so, the faults formed a steep east side to the north-plunging uplift just west of Kingman and most likely lost displacement northward; the paleocanyons may have originated along the faulted east front of the uplift and have relatively local sources. The highest part of the Kingman uplift subsequently foundered and evolved into the northern Colorado River Extensional corridor, as large-magnitude extension ripped across the central part of the highlands beginning ~ 16 Ma.