scholarly journals Early Pliocene Marine Transgression into the Lower Colorado River Valley, Southwestern USA, by Re-Flooding of a Former Tidal Strait

2021 ◽  
pp. SP523-2021-57
Author(s):  
Rebecca J. Dorsey ◽  
Juan Carlos Braga ◽  
Kevin Gardner ◽  
Kristin McDougall ◽  
Brennan O'Connell
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of California ◽  
Colorado River ◽  
Large River ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Marine Waters ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Shallow Marine ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Supplementary Material ◽  
Lower Colorado River

AbstractMarine straits and seaways are known to host a wide range of sedimentary processes and products, but the role of marine connections in the development of large river systems remains little studied. This study explores a hypothesis that shallow marine waters flooded the lower Colorado River valley at ∼ 5 Ma along a fault-controlled former tidal straight, soon after the river was first integrated to the northern Gulf of California. The upper bioclastic member of the southern Bouse Formation provides a critical test of this hypothesis. The upper bioclastic member contains wave ripple-laminated bioclastic grainstone with minor red mudstone, pebbly grainstone with HCS-like stratification and symmetrical gravelly ripples, and calcareous-matrix conglomerate. Fossils include upward-branching segmented coralline-like red algae with no known modern relatives but confirmed as marine calcareous algae, echinoid spines, barnacles, shallow marine foraminifers, clams, and serpulid worm tubes. These results provide evidence for deposition in a shallow marine bay or estuary seaward of the transgressive backstepping Colorado River delta. Tsunamis generated by seismic and meteorologic sources likely produced the HCS-like and wave-ripple cross-bedding in poorly-sorted gravelly grainstone. Marine waters inundated a former tidal strait within a fault-bounded tectonic lowland that connected the lower Colorado River to the Gulf of California. Delta backstepping and transgression resulted from a decrease in sediment output due to sediment trapping in upstream basins and relative sea-level rise produced by regional tectonic subsidence.Supplementary material at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5740426

scholarly journals Early Pliocene Marine Transgression into the Lower Colorado River Valley, Southwestern USA, by Re-Flooding of a Former Tidal Strait

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Dorsey ◽  
Juan Carlos Braga Alarcón ◽  
Kevin Gardner ◽  
Brennan O'Connell
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of California ◽  
Colorado River ◽  
Large River ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Marine Waters ◽  
Shallow Marine ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Regional Tectonic ◽  
Southwestern Usa ◽  
Lower Colorado River

Marine straits and seaways are known to host a wide range of sedimentary processes and products, but the role of marine connections in the development of large river systems remains little studied. This study explores a hypothesis that shallow marine waters flooded the lower Colorado River valley at ~ 5 Ma along a fault-controlled former tidal straight, soon after the river was first integrated to the northern Gulf of California. The upper bioclastic member of the southern Bouse Formation provides a critical test of this hypothesis. The upper bioclastic member contains wave ripple-laminated bioclastic grainstone with minor red mudstone, pebbly grainstone with HCS-like stratification and symmetrical gravelly ripples, and calcareous-matrix conglomerate. Fossils include upward-branching segmented coralline-like red algae with no known modern relatives but confirmed as marine calcareous algae, echinoid spines, barnacles, shallow marine foraminifers, clams, and serpulid worm tubes. These results provide evidence for deposition in a shallow marine bay or estuary seaward of the transgressive backstepping Colorado River delta. Tsunamis generated by seismic and meteorologic sources likely produced the HCS-like and wave-ripple cross-bedding in poorly-sorted gravelly grainstone. Marine waters inundated a former tidal strait within a fault-bounded tectonic lowland that connected the lower Colorado River to the Gulf of California. Delta backstepping and transgression resulted from a decrease in sediment output due to sediment trapping in upstream basins and relative sea-level rise produced by regional tectonic subsidence.

Volcano-sedimentary processes at Las Derrumbadas rhyolitic twin domes, Serdán-Oriental basin, Eastern Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt

2021 ◽  
pp. SP520-2021-144
Author(s):  
Marie-Noëlle Guilbaud ◽  
Corentin Chédeville ◽  
Ángel Nahir Molina-Guadarrama ◽  
Julio Cesar Pineda-Serrano ◽  
Claus Siebe
Keyword(s):  
Volcanic Belt ◽  
Debris Avalanche ◽  
Density Currents ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mexican Volcanic Belt ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Eruptive Episode ◽  
Basin Floor ◽  
Supplementary Material ◽  
Trans Mexican Volcanic Belt

AbstractThe eruption of the ∼10 km3 rhyolitic Las Derrumbadas twin domes about 2000 yrs ago has generated a wide range of volcano-sedimentary deposits in the Serdán-Oriental lacustrine basin, Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt. Some of these deposits have been quarried, creating excellent exposures. In this paper we describe the domes and related products and interpret their mode of formation, reconstructing the main phases of the eruption as well as syn-and-post eruptive erosional processes. After an initial phreatomagmatic phase that built a tuff ring, the domes grew as an upheaved plug lifting a thick sedimentary pile from the basin floor. During uplift, the domes collapsed repeatedly to form a first-generation of hetero-lithologic hummocky debris avalanche deposits. Subsequent dome growth produced a thick talus and pyroclastic density currents. Later, the hydrothermally-altered over-steepened dome peaks fell to generate 2nd generation, mono-lithologic avalanches. Subsequently, small domes grew in the collapse scars. From the end of the main eruptive episode onwards, heavy rains remobilized parts of the dome carapaces and talus, depositing lahar aprons. Las Derrumbadas domes are still an important source of sediments in the basin, and ongoing mass-wasting processes are associated with hazards that should be assessed, given their potential impact on nearby populations.Supplementary material at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5752296

scholarly journals Review and analysis of the age and origin of the Pliocene Bouse Formation, lower Colorado River Valley, southwestern USA

Geosphere ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 444-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon E. Spencer ◽  
P. Jonathan Patchett ◽  
Philip A. Pearthree ◽  
P. Kyle House ◽  
Andrei M. Sarna-Wojcicki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Colorado River ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Southwestern Usa ◽  
Lower Colorado River

A History of Date Palms in the Lower Colorado River Valley

2019 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 863-879
Author(s):  
Dennis V. Johnson ◽  
Jane C. MacKnight
Keyword(s):  
Colorado River ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Date Palms ◽  
History Of ◽  
Lower Colorado River

The Archaeological Delineation of a Cultural Boundary in Papagueria

1955 ◽  
Vol 20 (4Part1) ◽  
pp. 367-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul H. Ezell
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of California ◽  
Colorado River ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Gila River ◽  
The North ◽  
Ethnic Boundary ◽  
Cultural Boundary ◽  
Imaginary Line ◽  
River Valleys

The area dealt with in this report is that portion of northwestern Sonora and southwestern Arizona bounded on the southwest by the Gulf of California, on the west by the Colorado River valley below the junction of the Gila River, on the north by the Gila River valley, and on the east by an imaginary line from the vicinity of Gila Bend south along the western edge of the Papago Reservation and thence southwest to the mouth of the Sonoyta River on the Gulf of California (Fig. 106). Within this area Sauer has suggested a boundary between the Piman-speaking people of southern Arizona and northern Sonora, and the Yuman-speaking tribes of the lower Colorado and Gila River valleys, based on linguistic affiliations described in early historical sources (Sauer 1934, map). On archaeological evidence Gifford has suggested that the locality between Punta La Cholla and the mouth of the Sonoyta River represented a point on an ethnic boundary (Gifford 1946: 221).

Seasonal Habitat Selection by Birds in the Lower Colorado River Valley

Ecology ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 61 (6) ◽  
pp. 1402-1411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jake Rice ◽  
Bertin W. Anderson ◽  
Robert D. Ohmart
Keyword(s):  
Habitat Selection ◽  
Colorado River ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Lower Colorado River

Microbial and Thermochemical Controlled Sulfur Cycle in the Early Triassic Sediments of the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin

2021 ◽  
pp. jgs2020-175
Author(s):  
Mastaneh H. Liseroudi ◽  
Omid H. Ardakani ◽  
Per K. Pedersen ◽  
Richard A. Stern ◽  
James M. Wood ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sedimentary Basin ◽  
Isotopic Analysis ◽  
Isotopic Signature ◽  
Sulfur Cycle ◽  
Early Triassic ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Thermochemical Processes ◽  
Supplementary Material ◽  
Montney Formation

Pyrite is one of three main sulfur reservoirs and one of the biggest fluxes in the global sulfur cycle. The sulfur isotopic signature of hydrogen sulfide, pyrite, and their parent sulfate is widely used as a proxy for tracking sulfur cycle variations in diagenetic environments. The Early Triassic Montney Formation in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin is characterized by distinct regional variations in pyrite abundance, type, sulfur isotopic signature, and H2S concentrations in natural gas. Two main types of framboidal and crystalline pyrite were identified to have formed during various stages of diagenesis. The wide range of δ34Spyrite values (-34.4 to +57.8‰ V-CDT) demonstrates that the sulfur cycle in the Montney Formation is governed by both microbial and thermochemical processes. The comparison of δ34S of the produced-gas H2S with pyrite, anhydrite, and solid bitumen of the Montney, and underlying and overlying formations suggests a mixture of dominantly in situ and minor migrated H2S with TSR origin in the Montney Formation. The large diagenetic variations in pyrite types and δ34Spyrite values suggest a lack of direct biogeochemical connection to the sulfur cycle and emphasize the importance of careful petrographic observations and micro-scale isotopic analysis of sedimentary units to accurately reconstruct paleoenvironmental conditions.Supplementary material:https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5272484

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