THE STRATIGRAPHIC HIERARCHY AND TECTONIC HISTORY OF THE MID-CRETACEOUS FORELAND BASIN OF CENTRAL UTAH

Author(s):  
MICHAEL H. GARDNER
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rod Graham ◽  
Adam Csicsek

<p><strong>The Barreme Basin and the Gevaudan diapir - an example of the interplay between compressional tectonics and salt diapirism </strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Adam Csicsek and Rod Graham</strong></p><p>Imperial College London</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>Our understanding of the role of salt diapirism in determining the finite geometry of fold and thrust belts has grown apace in the last few years, but the interplay between the two remains a significant problem for structural interpretation. The Gevaudan diapir in the fold and thrust belt of the sub-Alpine chain of Haute Provence is well known and has been documented by numerous eminent alpine structural geologists. Graciansky, Dardot, Mascle, Gidon and Lickorish and Ford have all described and illustrated the geometry and evolution of the structure, and Lickorish and Ford’s interpretation is figured as an example of  diapirism  in a compressional setting by Jackson and Hudec in their text on salt tectonics. We review these various interpretations and present another.</p><p>The differences between the various interpretations say much about the complex interplay of salt diapirism and thin-skinned thrusting and have profound implications for the way we interpret the tectonic and sedimentary evolution of the Barreme basin which lies adjacent to the diapir</p><p>The Barreme basin is a thrust-top fragment of the Provencal foreland basin and has been described in detail from both sedimentological (e.g. Evans and Elliott, 1999) and structural (e.g. Antoni and Meckel, 1997) points of view. Here we make the case that it is also a salt related minibasin - a secondary minibasin developed on a now welded allochthonous Middle Cretaceous salt canopy.  We believe that within the basin it is possible to interpret successive depocentres which may record progressive salt withdrawal. We argue that though thrust loading must be the fundamental driving mechanism responsible for salt movement late in the tectonic history of the region, thrusting has not done much more than modify existing salt related geometry.    </p>


2018 ◽  
pp. 335-387
Author(s):  
Allan Ludman ◽  
John Aleinikoff ◽  
Henry N. Berry IV ◽  
John T. Hopeck

SHRIMP U–Pb zircon ages from Ganderia in eastern Maine clarify the ages and provenance of basement units in the Miramichi and St. Croix terranes and of cover rocks in the Fredericton trough and Central Maine/Aroostook-Matapedia basin (CMAM). These new data constrain timing of orogenic events and help understand the origin of the cover rock depocenters.Detrital zircon data generally confirm suggested ages of the formations sampled. Zircon grains with ages of ca. 430 Ma in both depocenters, only slightly older than their host rocks, were probably derived from the earliest volcanic eruptions in the Eastport-Mascarene belt. Their presence indicates that unnamed CMAM sandstone units may be as young as Pridoli and their absence from the Appleton Ridge and Digdeguash formations suggests that these formations are older than initial Eastport-Mascarene volcanism. Detrital and volcanic zircon ages confirm a Late Cambrian to Middle Ordovician age for the Miramichi succession and date Miramichi volcanism at 469.3 ± 4.6 Ma. In the St. Croix terrane, zircon grain with an age of 477.4 ± 3.7 Ma from an ashfall at the base of the Kendall Mountain Formation and age spectra and fossils from overlying quartz arenite suggest that the formation may span Floian to Sandbian time. The main source of CMAM and Fredericton sediment was recycled Ganderian basement from terranes emergent after Late Ordovician orogenesis, supplemented by Silurian tephra. Zircon barcodes and lithofacies and tectonic models suggest little, if any, input from Laurentia or Avalonia.Zircon- and fossil-based ages indicate coeval Upper Ordovician deformation in the St. Croix (ca. 453 to 442 Ma) and Miramichi (ca. 453 to 446 Ma) terranes. Salinic folding in the southeastern Fredericton trough is bracketed between the 421.9 ± 2.4 Ma age of the Pocomoonshine gabbro-diorite and 430 Ma detrital zircons in the Flume Ridge Formation. Zircon ages, lithofacies analysis, and paleontological evidence support the origin of the Fredericton trough as a Salinic foredeep. The CMAM basin cannot have been an Acadian foreland basin, as sedimentation began millions of years before Acadian subduction.


2006 ◽  
Vol 177 (6) ◽  
pp. 323-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Claude Plaziat ◽  
M’hamed Aberkan ◽  
Jean-Louis Reyss

Abstract The high coastal cliffs of Sidi Moussa reveal a complex, reliably dated coastal series of Late Pleistocene age. The lagoon, beach and dunes sequence shows repeated seismically induced deformation. These seismites range from the classic hydroplastic load-casts and convolute laminations to a new type of seismite, which corresponds to an oblique fracturation with respect to the horizontal substratum, parallel to the leeside bedding (avalanche foresets) of the overlying dune sequence. Three major earthquakes are thus identified in two high sea-level deposits (lagoonal and paleocliff foot beach), both related to Eemian sea-level peaks (Marine Isotope Stages, MIS 5.53; 5.51), associated with shoreline dune complexes (MIS 5.52; 5.54). The most destructive historical earthquake to affect this Moroccan coast is the so-called Lisbon, 1755 megaseism , the 350 km eastward Atlantic origin of which must be excluded because stratigraphic analysis locally demonstrates repeated co-seismic subsidence. Rather, the tectonic history of the Gharb foreland basin (basement faults reactivation) accounts for the location of major seismicity changing from the Neogene to Pleistocene to the recent times activity. This example of paleo-earthquake reconstruction demonstrates the need for precise chronology and environmental interpretation of the host sedimentary sequence. The discovery of a new structure-type also exemplifies the unbounded diversity of syn-diagenetic seismites, including those found in early lithified eolianites.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2.1) ◽  
pp. 1-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Manzotti ◽  
Michel Ballèvrei
Keyword(s):  

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 67-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
ReBecca K. Hunt-Foster ◽  
Martin G. Lockley ◽  
Andrew R.C. Milner ◽  
John R. Foster ◽  
Neffra A. Matthews ◽  
...  

Although only recognized as a discrete stratigraphic unit since 1944, the Cedar Mountain Formation represents tens of millions of years of geological and biological history on the central Colorado Plateau. This field guide represents an attempt to pull together the results of recent research on the lithostratigraphy, chronostratigraphy, sequence stratigraphy, chemostratigraphy, and biostratigraphy of these medial Mesozoic strata that document the dynamic and complex geological history of this region. Additionally, these data provide a framework by which to examine the history of terrestrial faunas during the final breakup of Pangaea. In fact, the medial Mesozoic faunal record of eastern Utah should be considered a keystone in understanding the history of life across the northern hemisphere. Following a period of erosion and sediment bypass spanning the Jurassic–Cretaceous boundary, sedimentation across the quiescent Colorado Plateau began during the Early Cretaceous. Thickening of these basal Cretaceous strata across the northern Paradox Basin indicate that salt tectonics may have been the predominant control on deposition in this region leading to the local preservation of fossiliferous strata, while sediment bypass continued elsewhere. Thickening of overlying Aptian strata west across the San Rafael Swell provides direct evidence of the earliest development of a foreland basin with Sevier thrusting that postdates geochemical evidence for the initial development of a rain shadow.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 67-100
Author(s):  
ReBecca Hunt-Foster ◽  
Martin Lockley ◽  
Andrew Milner ◽  
John Foster ◽  
Neffra Matthews ◽  
...  

Although only recognized as a discrete stratigraphic unit since 1944, the Cedar Mountain Formation represents tens of millions of years of geological and biological history on the central Colorado Plateau. This field guide represents an attempt to pull together the results of recent research on the lithostratigraphy, chronostratigraphy, sequence stratigraphy, chemostratigraphy, and biostratigraphy of these medial Mesozoic strata that document the dynamic and complex geological history of this region. Additionally, these data provide a framework by which to examine the history of terrestrial faunas during the final breakup of Pangaea. In fact, the medial Mesozoic faunal record of eastern Utah should be considered a keystone in understanding the history of life across the northern hemisphere. Following a period of erosion and sediment bypass spanning the Jurassic–Cretaceous boundary, sedimentation across the quiescent Colorado Plateau began during the Early Cretaceous. Thickening of these basal Cretaceous strata across the northern Paradox Basin indicate that salt tectonics may have been the predominant control on deposition in this region leading to the local preservation of fossiliferous strata, while sediment bypass continued elsewhere. Thickening of overlying Aptian strata west across the San Rafael Swell provides direct evidence of the earliest development of a foreland basin with Sevier thrusting that postdates geochemical evidence for the initial development of a rain shadow.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 101-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Kirkland ◽  
Marina Suarez ◽  
Celina Suarez ◽  
ReBecca Hunt-Foster

Although only recognized as a discrete stratigraphic unit since 1944, the Cedar Mountain Formation represents tens of millions of years of geological and biological history on the central Colorado Plateau. This field guide represents an attempt to pull together the results of recent research on the lithostratigraphy, chronostratigraphy, sequence stratigraphy, chemostratigraphy, and biostratigraphy of these medial Mesozoic strata that document the dynamic and complex geological history of this region. Additionally, these data provide a framework by which to examine the history of terrestrial faunas during the final breakup of Pangaea. In fact, the medial Mesozoic faunal record of eastern Utah should be considered a keystone in understanding the history of life across the northern hemisphere. Following a period of erosion and sediment bypass spanning the Jurassic–Cretaceous boundary, sedimentation across the quiescent Colorado Plateau began during the Early Cretaceous. Thickening of these basal Cretaceous strata across the northern Paradox Basin indicate that salt tectonics may have been the predominant control on deposition in this region leading to the local preservation of fossiliferous strata, while sediment bypass continued elsewhere. Thickening of overlying Aptian strata west across the San Rafael Swell provides direct evidence of the earliest development of a foreland basin with Sevier thrusting that postdates geochemical evidence for the initial development of a rain shadow.


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