Dynamic topography of the western Great Plains: landscape evidence for mantle-driven uplift associated with the Jemez lineament of NE New Mexico and SE Colorado

Dynamic topography results when viscous stresses created by flow within the mantle are transmitted through the lithosphere and interact with, and deform, the Earth's surface. Because dynamic topography is characterized by low amplitudes and long wavelengths, its subtle effects may be best recorded in low-relief areas such as the Great Plains of the USA where they can be readily observed and measured. We apply this concept to a unique region of the western Great Plains in New Mexico and Colorado where basalt flows of the Jemez lineament (Raton-Clayton and Ocate fields) form mesas (inverted topography) that record the evolution of the Great Plains surface through time. This study uses multiple datasets to evaluate the mechanisms which have driven the evolution of this landscape. Normalized channel steepness index (k_sn) analysis identifies anomalously steep river gradients across broad (50-100 km) convexities within a NE- trending zone of differential river incision where higher downstream incision rates in the last 1.5 Ma suggest headwater uplift. At 2-8 Ma timescales, ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages of basalt-capped paleosurfaces in the Raton-Clayton and Ocate volcanic fields indicate that rates of denudation increase systematically towards the NW from a NE-trending zone of approximately zero denudation (that approximately coincides with the high k_sn zone), also suggestive of regional warping above the Jemez lineament. Onset of more rapid denudation is observed in the Raton-Clayton field beginning at ca. 3.6 Ma. Furthermore, two 300-400-m-high NE-trending erosional escarpments impart a staircase-like topographic profile to the region. Tomographic images from the EarthScope experiment show that NE-trending topographic features of this region correspond to an ~8 % P-wave velocity gradient of similar trend at the margin of the low-velocity Jemez mantle anomaly. We propose that the erosional landscapes of this unique area are, in large part, the surface expression of dynamic mantle-driven uplift along the Jemez anomaly in the last 3.6 Ma. Apatite fission-track ages indicate a tilted 30 Ma 110C isotherm, however, suggesting that Jemez mantle-driven uplift is superimposed on earlier Rocky Mountain uplift that was initiated in the mid-Tertiary.