U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1787-A-C
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Sedimentology and Paleogeographic Significance of Six Fluvial Sandstone Bodies in the Maroon Formation, Eagle Basin, Northwest Colorado Sedimentology of an Eolian Sandstone from the Middle Pennsylvanian Eagle Valley Evaporite, Eagle Basin, Northwest Colorado Burial Reconstruction of the Early and Middle Pennsylvanian Belden Formation, Oilman Area, Eagle Basin, Northwest Colorado U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 1787-A-C Sedimentology and Paleogeographic Significance of Six Fluvial Sandstone Bodies in the Maroon Formation, Eagle Basin, Northwest Colorado By SAMUEL Y. JOHNSON Sedimentology of an Eolian Sandstone from the Middle Pennsylvanian Eagle Valley Evaporite, Eagle Basin, Northwest Colorado By CHRISTOPHER J. SCHENK Burial Reconstruction of the Early and Middle Pennsylvanian Belden Formation, Oilman Area, Eagle Basin, Northwest Colorado By VITO F. NUCCIO and CHRISTOPHER J. SCHENK U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 1787 EVOLUTION OF SEDIMENTARY BASINS-UINTA AND PICEANCE BASINS DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR DONALD PAUL MODEL, Secretary U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Dallas L. Peck, Director UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON: 1987 For sale by the Books and Open-File Reports Section U.S. Geological Survey Federal Center Box 25425 Denver, CO 80225 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Johnson, Samuel Y. Evolution of sedimentary basins Uinta and Piceance basins. (U.S. Geological Survey bulletin ; 1787 A-C) Includes bibliographies. Contents: Sedimentology and paleogeographic significance of six fluvial sandstone bodies in the Maroon Formation, Eagle basin, northwest Colorado / by Samuel Y. Johnson Sedimentology of an eolian sandstone from the Middle Pennsylvanian Eagle Valley Evaporite, Eagle basin, northwest Colorado / by Christopher J. Schenk Burial reconstruction of the Early and Middle Pennsylvanian Belden Formation, Gilman area, Eagle basin, northwest Colorado / by Vito F. Nuccio and Christopher J. Schenk. 1. Sedimentation and deposition. 2. Geology West (U.S.) I. Schenk, Christopher J. II. Nuccio, Vito F. III. Title. IV. Series. QE75.B9 no. 1787 A-C 557.3s 87-27737 [QE571] [551.3] Any use of trade names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey. Chapter A Sedimentology and Paleogeographic Significance of Six Fluvial Sandstone Bodies in the Maroon Formation, Eagle Basin, Northwest Colorado By SAMUEL Y. JOHNSON A multidisciplinary approach to research studies of sedimentary rocks and their constituents and the evolution of sedimentary basins, both ancient and modern U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 1787 EVOLUTION OF SEDIMENTARY BASINS-UINTA AND PICEANCE BASINS CONTENTS Abstract 1 Introduction 1 Regional geology 1 Analysis of fluvial sandstone bodies 2 Methods 4 Description of the sandstone bodies 6 Sandstone body 1 6 Location 6 Description 6 Interpretation 7 Sandstone body 2 7 Location 7 Description 8 Interpretation 8 Sandstone body 3 9 Location 9 Description 9 Interpretation 9 Sandstone bodies 4-1 and 4-2 10 Location 10 Description 10 Interpretation 11 Sandstone body 5 11 Location 11 Description 12 Interpretation 12 Sandstone body 6 12 Location 12 Description 12 Interpretation 13 Paleogeography 13 Conclusions 16 References cited 16 PLATE 1. Profiles of fluvial sandstone bodies in the Maroon Formation, Eagle basin, Colorado In pocket Contents FIGURES 1. Map showing location of ancestral Rocky Mountain highlands and basins in Colorado 2 2. Map showing locations of Maroon Sandstone and six sandstone bodies described in report 3 3. Schematic time-stratigraphic section of Pennsylvanian and Lower Per mian rocks, Eagle basin 4 4. Maps showing locations of profiles of six sandstone bodies, Eagle basin 5 5-14. Photographs showing: 5. Parts of several channel elements in sandstone body 1 7 6. Crossbedded sandstone in sandstone body 2 8 7. Stacked crossbedded sedimentation units in sandstone body 2 8 8. Large-scale convolute laminations and water-escape structures in sandstone body 2 8 9. Sheetlike channel elements in sandstone body 3 9 10. Plane-bedded and crossbedded sandstone in sandstone body 4-1 11 11. Crossbed cosets enclosed by erosional bounding surfaces in sand stone body 4-1 11 12. Deformed interval at the base of sandstone body 4-2 overlain by foreset-macroform element 11 13. Channeled base and shale drape in sandstone body 5 12 14. Plane-bedded and ripple-laminated fine- to very fine grained sand stone in sandstone body 6 13 15. Paleogeographic model of fluvial sedimentation in the Eagle basin during late Maroon Formation time 14 METRIC CONVERSION FACTORS To convert from To Multiply by Centimeter (cm) Inch (in.) 0.39 Meter (m) Feet (ft) 3.28 Kilometer (km) Mile (mi) .62 Gram (g) Ounce avoirdupois (oz) .03527 Kilogram (kg) Pound avoirdupois Ob) 2-205 Degrees Celsius (°C) Degrees Fahrenheit (°F) Temp °F= 1.8 (Temp°C + 32) VI Contents EVOLUTION OF SEDIMENTARY BASINS-UINTA AND PICEANCE BASINS Sedimentology and Paleogeographic Significance of Six Fluvial Sandstone Bodies in the Maroon Formation, Eagle Basin, Northwest Colorado By Samuel Y. Johnson Abstract and setting. Six fluvial sandstone bodies were analyzed and interpreted as the deposits of proximal and medial Architectural element analysis is used to examine the braided rivers, and mudflats. The distribution of these sedimentology of six fluvial sandstone bodies from the Penn- facies suggests that the upper Maroon fluvial system(s) sylvanian and Permian Maroon Formation in the Eagle basin, generally decreased in depth, flow strength, and discharge northwest Colorado. Five of these sandstone bodies were in the downstream direction. derived from the ancestral Uncompahgre uplift on the south Acknowledgments. This paper has benefited from western basin margin and occupy similar stratigraphic positions constructive reviews by Thomas E. Moore and Christopher in the upper part of the Maroon Formation. The sixth sand stone body was derived from the ancestral Front Range uplift J. Schenk, U.S. Geological Survey. The work on which and, although in the lower part of the Maroon Formation sec this report is based was done as part of the U.S. Geologi tion, is considered representative of the sedimentation style of cal Survey Evolution of Sedimentary Basins Program. the upper Maroon at its location. The two sandstone bodies located closest to the basin margins consist of channel and gravel-barform architectural REGIONAL GEOLOGY elements of conglomerate and conglomeratic sandstone and are interpreted as proximal braided-river deposits. Three medial Pennsylvanian and Early Permian tectonism in the sandstone bodies are dominated by foreset-macroform and Western United States resulted in development of the sand-bedform architectural elements of fine- to coarse-grained ancestral Rocky Mountains (Curds, 1958; Mallory, 1972; sandstone and represent deposition in sandy braided streams. Tweto, 1977; Kluth and Coney, 1981). Orogenic The most distal sandstone body comprises a laminated- sandsheet element of very fine to fine-grained sandstone and highlands in Colorado include the ancestral Uncom was deposited by sheetfloods over a low-relief mudflat. Facies pahgre and Front Range uplifts, which bound the changes suggest downstream decreases in depth, flow strength, northwest-trending central Colorado trough, and the and discharge, characteristics that have been noted for some ancestral Sawatch uplift (DeVoto, 1972), which sub modern and ancient fluvial systems in arid to semiarid basins. divided this trough into several subbasins (fig. 1). The Facies and paleocurrent data indicate that during late Maroon Eagle basin, generally regarded as the area in the central time the depositional axis of the Eagle basin was probably Colorado trough where the Middle Pennsylvanian Eagle strongly skewed to the northeast and located in the vicinity of Valley Evaporite occurs, is one of these subbasins. In this the Vail-McCoy trough. report, the Eagle basin is defined as the part of the cen tral Colorado trough north of the ancestral Sawatch uplift INTRODUCTION and south of the northern boundary of the Laramide White River uplift (fig. 2). The Pennsylvanian and Per The goal of this basin analysis study is to recon mian strata in Eagle basin dip to the west and northwest struct the fluvial depositional system of the upper part off the White River uplift into the subsurface below the of the Pennsylvanian and Permian Maroon Formation Paleogene Piceance basin. Deposition in Eagle basin was in the Eagle basin, northwest Colorado (fig. 1). This goal strongly controlled by local tectonics, relative sea-level is mainly accomplished through "architectural element changes, and climate (Mallory, 1971, 1972; Bartleson, analysis," a method of sedimentary-facies analysis (Alien, 1972; Walker, 1972). 1983; Miall, 1985) that emphasizes recognition of the The Belden Formation, mostly a dark-gray or black lateral characteristics of fluvial sandstone bodies and shale of deltaic and shallow marine origin, comprises the allows increased resolution of their depositional history oldest (Early and early Middle Pennsylvanian) sediments Fluvial Sandstone Bodies in the Maroon Formation _____WYOMING ___ _NEBRASKA__ COLORADO f i'3fcc- x^T/;\sSAWATCH \ ^v / ~^i' X ^ '\~"x i~ \ \_» "i N v * i >vr» - /~.» .~\ V\'-* I NFU/MPVlTv^ Figure 1. Ancestral Rocky Mountain highlands and basins in Colorado. Location of line of section of figure 3 is shown by line/A-B. Modified from Mallory (1972) and DeVoto (1980). of the Eagle basin (fig. 3; Mallory, 1972). During later