Dr. Ernest M. Duebendorfer
Professor
Education
PhD, University of Wyoming
Specialty
Structural geology
Research interests
My research interests lie in the fields of structural
geology and tectonics and are quite broad. All of my research projects are
strongly field based and many are augmented with petrographic, microstructural,
and microprobe work. In addition, I work regularly with U/Pb and 40Ar/39Ar
geochronologists to constrain the timing of deformational events. I currently
have two active research projects.
Proterozoic accretionary tectonics in the southwestern
U.S. The period between 1780 and 1650 Ma was one of major crustal growth in
North America. Crustal growth occurred by the generation, collision, and
amalgamation of juvenile crustal material such as oceanic island arcs and their
associated basins, magmatic additions to the crust through rifting and,
possibly, the involvement of fragments of older continental crust. This
accretionary episode was similar in scale to the addition of numerous “suspect”
terranes to western North America in the Mesozoic. A complicated and enigmatic
boundary zone between the Mojave and Yavapai Proterozoic crustal provinces
occurs in northwestern Arizona. Determining the timing and mode of
juxtaposition those provinces and the manner in which isotopically mixed crust
is formed are the primary objectives of this work.
Tertiary extensional tectonics in southern Nevada and
northwestern Arizona. The Lake Mead area, southern Nevada and northwestern
Arizona, has been the locus of large-magnitude extension (perhaps as much as
300%, according to some workers) in the middle Miocene and studies in this
region have been the basis for development of several models for crustal
extension. A major question has centered on the types of structures that have
accommodated extension, specifically, the relative roles of strike-slip and
detachment faulting. An outgrowth of this project focuses on how along-strike
variations in displacement along large-scale, low-angle normal fault systems
(detachments) are accommodated.
Selected publications of Ernie Duebendorfer
Bonamici, C.E. and Duebendorfer, E.M., Scale-invariance and
self-organized criticality in migmatites of the southern Hualapai Mountains,
Arizona: Journal of Structural Geology (in press).
Duebendorfer, E.M., Faulds, J.E., Fryxell, J.E., 2010, The
South Virgin-White Hills Detachment fault, southeastern Nevada and northwestern
Arizona: Significance, displacement gradient, and corrugation formation, in
Umhoefer, P.J., Beard, L.S., Lamb, M.A., eds., Miocene Tectonics of the Lake
Mead region, central Basin and Range: Geological Society of America Special
Paper 463, p. 275-287.
Swaney, Z.A., Duebendorfer, E.M., Fitzgerald, P., and
McIntosh, W.C., 2010, New core complex model for the eastern Lake Mead area,
southern Nevada and northwestern Arizona, in Umhoefer, Beard, L.S., Lamb, M.A.,
eds., Miocene Tectonics of the Lake Mead region, central Basin and Range:
Geological Society of America Special Paper 463, p. 353-370.
Bonamici, C.E. and Duebendorfer, E.M., 2009, Gravitational
collapse of a Paleoproterozoic orogen, southern Hualapai Mountains, Arizona:
Precambrian Research, v. 175, p. 35-50.
Fitzgerald, P.G., Duebendorfer, E.M., Faulds, J.E.,
O’Sullivan, P., 2009, The South Virgin-White Hills detachment fault of SE
Nevada and NW Arizona: The application of apatite fission track
thermochronology to constraining displacement gradient accommodation along a
major detachment: Tectonics, v. 28,TC2001, 31p, doi:10.1029/2007TC002194.
Duebendorfer, E.M., 2007, Research focus: Crust formation in
the western United States: Geology, v. 35, p. 191.
Duebendorfer, E.M., Chamberlain, K.R., and Fry, B., 2006,
Mojave-Yavapai boundary zone, southwestern United States: A rifting model for
the formation of an isotopically mixed crustal boundary zone: Geology, v. 34,
p. 681-684.
Duebendorfer, E.M., Chamberlain, K.R., and Heizler, M.,
2006, Filling the North American Proterozoic tectonic gap: 1.60-1.59 Ga
deformation and orogenesis in southern Wyoming, USA.: Journal of Geology, v.
114, p. 19-42.
Fryxell, J.E., and Duebendorfer, E.M., 2005, Origin and
trajectory of the Frenchman Mountain block, an extensional allochthon on the
Basin and Range province, southern Nevada: Journal of Geology, v. 113, p. 355-371.
Ferguson, C.B., Duebendorfer, E.M., and Chamberlain, K.R.,
2004, Synkinematic intrusion of the 1.4 Ga Boriana Canyon pluton, northwestern
Arizona: Implications for ca. 1.4 Ga regional strain in the western U.S.:
Journal of Geology, v. 112, p. 165-184.
Duebendorfer, E.M., 2003, The interpretation of stretching
lineations in multiply deformed terranes: An example from the Hualapai
Mountains, Arizona, USA: Journal of Structural Geology, v. 25, p. 1393-1400.
Duebendorfer, E.M., and Vazquez, K.L., 2002, Penetrative
strain at shallow crustal levels: The role of pressure solution in
accommodating regional shortening strain, Ventura basin, western Transverse
Ranges, California, in Barth, A., ed.: Crustal evolution of the southwestern
United States: Geological Society of America Special Paper 365, p. 295-314.
Duebendorfer, E.M., 2002, Regional correlation of
Mesoproterozoic structures and deformational events in the Albany-Fraser
orogen, Western Australia: Precambrian Research, v. 116, p. 129-154.
Duebendorfer, E.M., Chamberlain, K.R., Jones, C.S., 2001,
Paleoproterozoic tectonic history of the Mojave-Yavapai boundary zone:
Perspective from the Cerbat Mountains, northwestern Arizona: Geological Society
of America Bulletin, v. 113, p. 575-590.
Harlan, S.S., Duebendorfer, E.M., and Deibert, J., 1998,
40Ar/39Ar age determinations from Miocene volcanic rocks in the western Lake
Mead area and in the southern Las Vegas Range: Canadian Journal of Earth
Sciences, v. 35, p. 495-503.
Duebendorfer, E.M., and Sharp, W.D., 1998, Variation in
extensional strain along-strike of the South Virgin-White Hills detachment
fault: Perspective from the northern White Hills, northwestern Arizona:
Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 110, p. 1574-1589.
Duebendorfer, E.M., Nyman, M.W., Chamberlain, K.R., and
Jones, C.S., 1998, Proterozoic rocks within the Mojave-Yavapai boundary zone,
northwestern Arizona: Comparison of metamorphic and structural evolution across
a major lithospheric(?) structure, in Duebendorfer, E.M., ed., Geologic
Excursions in Northern and Central Arizona: Geological Society of America,
Field Trip Guidebook, p. 127-148.
Duebendorfer, E.M., Beard, L.S., and Smith, E.I., 1998,
Restoration of Tertiary deformation in the Lake Mead region, southern Nevada,
in, Faulds, J., and Stewart, J., eds., Accommodation zones and transfer zones:
The regional segmentation of the Basin and Range province: Geological Society
of America Special Paper 323, p. 127-148.
Duebendorfer, E.M., Vermilye, J., Geiser, P.A., and Davis, T.L.,
1998, Evidence for aseismic deformation in Southern California: Implications
for seismic risk assessment: Geology, v. 26, p. 271-274.
Duebendorfer E.M., and Rees, M.N., 1998, Evidence for
Cambrian deformation in the Ellsworth-Whitmore Mountains terrane, Antarctica:
Stratigraphic and tectonic implications: Geology, v. 26, p. 55-58.
Contact
Office: 211 Geology Annex (Building 13)
Phone: 928-523-7510
E-mail: Ernie.D@nau.edu