The convergent margin of southern Alaska is considered one of the type areas for understanding the growth of continental margins through collisional tectonic processes. Collisional processes that formed this margin were responsible for multiple episodes of sedimentary basin development, subduction complex growth, magmatism, and deformation. Two main collisional episodes shaped this Mesozoic-Cenozoic continental margin. The first event was the Mesozoic collision of the allochthonous Wrangellia composite terrane. This event represents the largest addition of juvenile crust to western North America in the past 100 m.y. The second event is the ongoing collision of the Yakutat terrane along the southeastern margin of Alaska. This Cenozoic event has produced the highest coast mountain range on Earth (Saint Elias Mountains), the Wrangell continental arc, and sedimentary basins throughout southern Alaska. Active collisional processes continue to shape the southern margin of Alaska, mainly through crustal shortening and strike-slip deformation, large-magnitude earthquakes, and rapid uplift and exhumation of mountain belts and high sedimentation rates in adjacent sedimentary basins. This volume contains 24 articles that integrate new geophysical and geologic data, including many field-based studies, to better link the sedimentary, structural, geochemical, and magmatic processes that are important for understanding the development of collisional continental margins. |
