Mantle plume influence on the Neogene uplift and extension of the U.S. western Cordillera?

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Abstract
Despite its highly extended and thinned crust, much of the western Cordillera in the United States is elevated over 1 km above sea level. Thus this region cannot be thought of as thick crust floating in a uniform mantle isostatically; rather, the lithospheric mantle and/or the upper asthenosphere must vary in thickness or density across the region. Utilizing crustal thickness and density constraints we modeled the residual mass deficit that must occur in the mantle lithosphere and asthenosphere beneath the western Cordillera. A major hot spot broke out during a complex series of Cenozoic tectonic events that included lithospheric thickening, back- arc extension, and transition from a subduction to a transform plate boundary. We suggest that many of the characteristics that make the western Cordillera unique among extensional provinces can be attributed to the mantle plume that created the Yellowstone hot spot.

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