Geologic map of the Centennial Wash quadrangle, Mohave and La Paz Counties, Arizona
The Centennial Wash quadrangle is important for understanding the tectonic framework of west-central Arizona because it includes the north boundary of the Rawhide Mountains. These mountains are part of one of the most extensive metamorphic core complexes (as defined by Coney, 1980) in the Cordillera. The quadrangle includes the three tectonic elements that characterize metamorphic core complexes: upper plate, lower plate, and the detachment fault separating the two. In this area, the fault is known as the Rawhide detachment fault. This quadrangle is one of several that have been mapped along a northeast-trending belt of nearly continuous exposures extending from the Buckskin-Rawhide metamorphic core complex to the Colorado Plateau near Wikieup, Arizona (figs. 1,2) (Lucchitta and Suneson, 1988a, b, 1990, and in press a, b, c; Lucchitta and Beard, unpub. mapping, 1980-84). These maps explore the structural transition from the highly extended terrane of the metamorphic core complexes to the relatively stable Colorado Plateau.