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Glacial and Syntectonic Sedimentation: the Upper Proterozoic Kingston Peak Formation, Southern Panamint Range, Eastern California

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Glacial and Syntectonic Sedimentation: the Upper Proterozoic Kingston Peak Formation, Southern Panamint Range, Eastern California Glacial and syntectonic sedimentation: The upper Proterozoic Kingston Peak Formation, southern Panamint Range, eastern California JULIA M. G. MILLER* Department of Geological Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106 ABSTRACT and interpreted as lodgment till or glacioma- INTRODUCTION rine sediment, records the first ice advance. A A sedimentological-stratigraphic study of northward increase in diamictite thickness, The upper Proterozoic Kingston Peak Forma- the upper Proterozoic Kingston Peak Forma- decrease in clast size, and facies change from tion consists of a thick and variable sequence of tion in the southern Panamint Range shows diamictite to argillite and graywacke suggest predominantly clastic sedimentary strata, with that it was deposited under glacial conditions a southern source. Overlying laminated lime- minor carbonate and some extrusive igneous with contemporaneous volcanism and tec- stone marks a transgression. Succeeding rock. Diamictite is very abundant. The forma- tonic activity. Evidence for glaciation rests interbedded sandy limestone, thick-bedded tion is one of numerous upper Proterozoic primarily upon (1) the homogeneity, thick- graywacke, and parallel-laminated siltstone diamictite-bearing sequences which exist on all ness, and lateral extent of two diamictite and sandstone double in thickness over a few continents except Antarctica. Sedimentological units; (2) the facies association of the diamic- kilometres, demonstrating local subsidence studies have shown that many of these se- tite; and (3) presence of striated stones and and renewed terrigenous input. Trough, quences are glaciogenic (for example, Edwards, dropstones within the formation elsewhere in cross-laminated, arkosic sandstone and con- 1984; Link and Gostin, 1981), but the origin of the Death Valley area. In the Panamint glomerate overlain by predominantly massive most of them has been disputed (Schermerhorn, Range, pillowed basalt interbedded with di- diamictite, as much as 190 m thick with a 1974). Problems in their interpretation revolve amictite demonstrates synchronous subaque- locally erosive base, represent glaciofluvial in particular around three issues: (1) the rocks ous volcanism. Lower Kingston Peak units deposits and lodgment till and record the sec- were, in many places, deposited in areas of con- rest on a variable substrate and locally over- ond ice advance. temporaneous tectonism, making it difficult to lap faults, indicating tectonism prior to depo- sition. Tectonism during Kingston Peak dep- osition is inferred from abrupt thickness changes and buried faults. Sedimentation was chiefly on a submerged continental platform and locally terrestrial, during a period of in- cipient rifting. Two ice advances are recorded with associated sea-level fluctuations. The formation thickens northward from 40 to about 1,200 m over -40 km. Initial sedi- ments were fine grained and in basins a few kilometres across; nearby islands provided coarse debris. Overlying sandstone and con- glomerate indicate regression. Predominantly massive diamictite, as much as 450 m thick Figure 1. Map of Death Valley region showing distribution of Kingston Peak Formation (black), pre-Quaternary rocks (shaded), and Quaternary units (blank). AM = Avawatz Mountains, BM = Black Mountains, CDV = Central Death Valley, FM = Funeral Mountains, KR = Kingston Range, PR = Panamint Range, SH = Silurian Hills, SS = southern Salt Spring Hills, TM = Tucki Mountain, MP = Manly Peak quadrangle, TP = Telescope Peak quadrangle. •Present address: Department of Geology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235. Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 96, p. 1537-1553, 20 figs., December 1985. 1537 Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/96/12/1537/3419410/i0016-7606-96-12-1537.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 <z ZABRISKIE OUARTZITE ï 5000 m WOOD CANYON FORMATION <S <J -77- STIRLING OUARTZITE 4000 JOHNNIE FORMATION 3000 z< NOONDAY DOLOMITE v+p*-. s KINGSTON PEAK m 2000 2 FORMATION < PAHRUMP BECK SPRING DOLOMITE UJo GROUP (T 1000 CRYSTAL SPRING FORMATION IGNEOUS AND METAMORPHIC ROCKS Figure 2. General stratigraphy of the southern Death Valley region. Modified after Goud and others (1969). isolate glacial influences upon sedimentation; (2) the diamictites are commonly associated inti- mately with carltonate rocks; and (3) paleomag- netic studies in several cases have shown that demonstrably glacial rocks of this age were de- posited at low latitudes (for example, McWil- liams and McElhinny, 1980). This paper aims to demonstrate that both gla- ciation and faulting took place during deposition of the Kingston Peak Formation. Few, if any, criteria are unique to glaciogenic or syntectonic rocks, and therefore this interpretation is based primarily upon an understanding of the lithofa- cies and their associations. The case is made that glaciogenic rocks can be recognized through the fades assemblage even when few individual criteria (for example, striated stones) are present. Results come from a sedimentological and strat- igraphic study of the Kingston Peak Formation in the southern Panamint Range. Mapping and section descriptions were principally concen- trated in the Manly Peak quadrangle (Fig. 1). Many exposures of the formation in the adjacent Telescope Peak quadrangle were studied, as well as selected outcrops elsewhere within the range. The Kingston Peak Formation forms a north- south-trending inelt of outcrops more than 80 km long in the southern Panamint Range. The Kingston Peak Formation was described and mapped in the Manly and Telescope Peak re- gions by Murphy (1932), Johnson (1957), Lan- phere (1962), Labotka and others (1980), and Albee and others (1981). The formation is also exposed in the areas north, south, and southeast of Death Valley (Fig. 1). It is the youngest for- mation in the Pahrump Group (Fig. 2). In the Panamint Range, the contact with underlying Beck Spring Dolomite is generally conformable, but locally Beck Spring Dolomite is absent, and elsewhere the contact varies from interfingering Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/96/12/1537/3419410/i0016-7606-96-12-1537.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 GLACIAL AND SYNTECTONIC SEDIMENTATION, CALIFORNIA 1539 to unconformable (Labotka and Albee, 1977; r^Ton Labotka and others, 1980). No angular dis- a-alluvium II a n d s I i d e - Quaternary cordance is recognizable at the Kingston Peak- Noonday Dolomite contact, although the QEI Noonday rests on different Kingston Peak units slide breccia in different parts of the Panamint Range, and Cenozoic rnri the two formations interfinger in certain places - Tertiary (Miller, 1983). Little Chief Stock Although referred to in this paper as late QD Proterozoic, the age of the Kingston Peak For- rhyolite, andesite and basalt mation is poorly constrained. In the Panamint Range, the formation unconformably overlies |Khc| metamorphic rocks about 1,800 m.y. old that Cretaceous Hall Canyon Pluton are intruded by quartz monzonite -1,400 m.y. old (Lanphere and others, 1964). Early Cam- Mg brian fossils are present in the upper Wood Mesozoic intrusive Canyon Formation (Palmer, 1971) -2,000 m Mesozoic rocks stratigraphically above. The formation therefore must be between about 1,400 and 570 m.y. old. LEJ Tentative correlations based on the similarities Mesozoic sedimentary between (1) diabase sills in the Crystal Spring and volcanic rocks Formation and in the Apache Group in Arizona (Wrucke and Shride, 1972) and (2) algal struc- m tures in the Noonday Dolomite and some of late Cambrian sedimentary Cambrian - Paleozoic Riphean age in Siberia (P. Cloud, 1983, written rocks commun. and in Wright and others, 1978) nar- row the Kingston Peak age brackets to 1,200 to uP-e 700-800 m.y. In addition, regional correlations Upper Precambrian sedi- in western North America (Christie-Blick and mentary rocks (includes others, 1980) and interfingering with the Noon- Wood Canyon Formation) day Dolomite in the Panamint Range (Miller, 1983) suggest that the age of the formation may be less than 700 m.y. (Armstrong and others, Kingston Peak Formation 1982; Evenchick and others, 1984). Pahrump Mesozoic regional metamorphism has af- •Du Group - Precambrian fected all rocks of the Panamint Range. The Crystal Spring Formation metamorphic grade increases from south to and Beck Spring Dolomite north and east to west, reaching upper amphibo- lite facies (Labotka and others, 1980). Thermal wb eP-e metamorphism has affected areas close to Meso- qf zoic and Cenozoic plutons. The structure of the : wb World Beater Complex range is dominated by a north-northwest-trend- : qf quartzo-feldspathic gneiss complex ing anticline exposing a core of lower to middle eP-G •" undifferentiated earlier Precambrian Proterozoic igneous and metamorphic rocks (Fig. 3), with intense stretching deformation in places on its steeper western limb (Miller, 1983). Rocks of the Kingston Peak Formation have been locally severely recrystallized and de- Geologic Contact formed; lithologic variation within the forma- tion remains clear, but preservation of sedimen- Fault tary structures is variable. In this study, I was careful to avoid misinterpreting the effects of Slide Plane Mesozoic and Cenozoic deformation. Location of section, Figs.5, 15. KINGSTON PEAK FORMATION: DESCRIPTION Figure 3. Generalized geologic map of the Manly and Telescope Peak quadrangles, showing location of sections in Figures 5 and 15. Modified after Carlisle
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