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Downloaded from gsabulletin.gsapubs.org on January 26, 2010 Geological Society of America Bulletin Post-Paleozoic alluvial gravel transport as evidence of continental tilting in the U.S. Cordillera Paul L. Heller, Kenneth Dueker and Margaret E. McMillan Geological Society of America Bulletin 2003;115;1122-1132 doi: 10.1130/B25219.1 Email alerting services click www.gsapubs.org/cgi/alerts to receive free e-mail alerts when new articles cite this article Subscribe click www.gsapubs.org/subscriptions/ to subscribe to Geological Society of America Bulletin Permission request click http://www.geosociety.org/pubs/copyrt.htm#gsa to contact GSA Copyright not claimed on content prepared wholly by U.S. government employees within scope of their employment. 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Notes Geological Society of America Downloaded from gsabulletin.gsapubs.org on January 26, 2010 Post-Paleozoic alluvial gravel transport as evidence of continental tilting in the U.S. Cordillera Paul L. Heller² Kenneth Dueker Margaret E. McMillan³ Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming 82071, USA ABSTRACT means of relating constructional landforms THREE WIDESPREAD to mantle-driven processes. CONGLOMERATES The western United States contains three thin but remarkably widespread alluvial Keywords: paleohydraulics, tectonics, dy- The three widespread gravel units of the conglomeratic units that record episodes of namic topography, U.S. Cordillera, con- U.S. Cordillera are the Shinarump Conglom- large-scale tilting across the U.S. Cordille- glomerate, paleotopography, syntectonic erate Member of the Chinle Formation (Late ran orogen in post-Paleozoic time. These sedimentation. Triassic) found in the southwestern USA (Fig. units are: (1) the Shinarump Conglomerate 2A); the Lower Cretaceous conglomerates of Late Triassic age exposed in northern INTRODUCTION found over much of the U.S. Rocky Moun- Arizona and adjacent parts of Utah, Neva- tains (Fig. 2B); and gravelly parts of the Ogal- da, and New Mexico; (2) Lower Cretaceous A common characteristic of synorogenic al- lala Group (Miocene±Pliocene) exposed along gravel deposits that overlie the Morrison luvial conglomerates is the relatively limited the western Great Plains (Fig. 2C).1 Formation throughout the Rocky Mountain distance they prograde from their uplifted region; and (3) the gravel-rich parts of the source areas out into the adjacent basinsÐ Shinarump Conglomerate Miocene-Pliocene age Ogallala Group in most are found within a few tens of kilometers western Nebraska and adjacent southeast- of their associated mountain fronts (Fig. 1, A± The Shinarump Conglomerate lies at the ern Wyoming. Paleoslopes of the rivers de- G). The restricted distance of gravel deposi- base of the Chinle Formation, a ¯uvial and positing these units were in the range of tion re¯ects the long-term balance between the lacustrine unit of Late Triassic age (Carnian; 1024 to 1023, based on paleohydraulic cal- rate of delivery of coarse sediment supply and Lucas, 1993) exposed in the southwestern culations. However, depositional thickness basin subsidence rate that acts to trap the grav- USA (Stewart et al., 1972a). Rivers of the trends of these units are not suf®cient to el. Since on an elastic plate both supply and Chinle Formation ¯owed generally north from have generated such steep paleoslopes. subsidence are proportional to the size of ad- the ``Mogollon highlands,'' an interpreted re- Thus, long wavelength tilting of the Earth's jacent mountain belts, it is no surprise that ba- gional uplands in southern Arizona and adja- surface must have occurred for these grav- sin sedimentation patterns have a similar cent regions (Stewart et al., 1972a; Blakey and els to be transported. Although these units length scale. Gubitosa, 1983), eventually joining major were deposited adjacent to large tectonic In contrast, a few conglomeratic units seen tributaries from farther east. Together they features, including an evolving and migrat- in the U.S. Cordillera are unusually wide- ¯owed northwest to the contemporaneous ing continental arc, and, for the Ogallala spread in distribution (Stokes, 1950; Stewart shoreline (Riggs et al., 1996). While the Shi- Group, the northward-propagating Rio et al., 1972a; Heller and Paola, 1989), being narump Conglomerate is dominantly sand- Grande Rift, the tilting occurred over deposited over many hundreds of kilometers stone, conglomerate is common. Unit thick- wavelengths too broad to be directly gen- downstream from their source areas (Fig. 1), ness varies, but it is typically a few meters erated by these features. These widespread yet being relatively thin over their entire ex- thick. Gravel composition includes abundant gravel units attest to the interplay between tent. These gravels are related to the temporal quartz, quartzite, and chert grains (Blakey and the creation of subduction-related isostatic and spatial pattern of subduction and late Ce- Gubitosa, 1983). The Shinarump Conglomer- and dynamic topography and continental nozoic uplift of the central and southern ate forms an irregular sheet that rests erosion- sedimentation. Hence, paleotopography, as Rocky Mountains. We argue that the occur- ally upon older Triassic and Permian units determined from calculated transport gra- rence of these thin, widespread gravel units (Blakey and Gubitosa, 1983) and is overlain dients of sedimentary deposits, provides a does not re¯ect climatic controls, but must re- by bentonitic shales and mudstones of the cord times of large-wavelength/low-amplitude Chinle Formation (Stewart et al., 1972a). Lo- tilting of the continental interior. Thus, we be- ²E-mail: [email protected]. lieve they are the stratigraphic records of deep ³Present address: University of Arkansas at Little 1Color photos and ®gures to accompany this pa- Rock, Department of Earth Sciences, Little Rock, processes affecting the western U.S. during per can be found at: http://faculty.gg.uwyo.edu/hell- Arkansas 72204, USA. post-Paleozoic time. er/pubs.htm. GSA Bulletin; September 2003; v. 115; no. 9; p. 1122±1132; 8 ®gures; Data Repository item 2003121. For permission to copy, contact [email protected] 1122 q 2003 Geological Society of America Downloaded from gsabulletin.gsapubs.org on January 26, 2010 TILTING OF THE U.S. CORDILLERA Figure 1. Reported distances of gravel de- position (measured normal to orogenic Figure 2. Maps of three gravel units: (A) Late Triassic time showing Shinarump Con- front) with respect to their orogenic source glomerate Member of Chinle Formation (Stewart et al., 1972a; Blakey and Gubitosa, 1983; areas. Examples A±G are from ancient Dubiel and Brown, 1993); (B) Early Cretaceous time showing Cloverly Formation (in foreland basins (Heller and Paola, 1989); Wyoming) and its lithostratigraphic correlatives, including Buckhorn Member of Cedar these are, in order, the Alps, Andes, Ap- Mountain Formation (in Utah), Lytle and Burro Mountain Formations (in Colorado), ennines, Himalayas, Pyrenees, Catalan Lakota Formation (in South Dakota), and lower member of Ephraim Conglomerate (in Coast Range, and Sevier belt. The three un- Idaho and western Wyoming) (Heller and Paola, 1989); and (C) Miocene time showing usually widespread alluvial gravels in the Ogallala Formation of western Great Plains (Swinehart et al., 1985; Gustavson and Wink- U.S. Cordillera are also shown. ler, 1988). Maps include observed (black) and inferred (shaded) original distribution of units, generalized paleo¯ow trends of units (white arrows); line of reconstructed topog- raphy (Fig. 7) is shown as white line with round end points, and associated tectonic fea- cal relief of up to 80 m along the basal un- tures are discussed in text (Baldridge et al., 1991; Armstrong and Ward, 1993; Chapin conformity suggests that the conglomerate and Cather, 1994; Erslev, 2001). In Part B, heavy dashed line shows subsequent site of ®lled paleovalleys, especially in its more up- thrusting in Sevier belt. Generalized extension orientation of Rio Grande Rift is shown stream parts (Stewart et al., 1972a; Blakey and with double arrows and its interpreted northward extent (Tweto, 1979; Mears, 1993; Er- Gubitosa, 1983). Valley development dimin- slev, 2001) shown with dashed lines. ishes downstream (northward), indicating that pre-Shinarump valley cutting was not likely due to sea-level change. Toward the north the unit is inferred to record deposition in a broad alluvial plain, and the preservation of mottled facies (Stewart et al., 1972a) is interpreted to represent soil formation in low-lying inter- ¯uves (Hasiotis et al., 2000). Deposition of the Shinarump Conglomerate was penecontemporaneous with the onset of intrusive igneous activity in southeastern Cal-