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Upper Triassic Chinle Formation) and Detrital U-Pb Zircon Data from the Sonsela

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Upper Triassic Chinle Formation) and Detrital U-Pb Zircon Data from the Sonsela Research Paper GEOSPHERE Regional correlation of the Sonsela Member (Upper Triassic Chinle Formation) and detrital U-Pb zircon data from the Sonsela GEOSPHERE, v. 15, no. 4 Sandstone bed near the Sonsela Buttes, northeastern Arizona, USA, https://doi.org/10.1130/GES02004.1 support the presence of a distributive fluvial system 7 figures; 1 table; 1 supplemental file Adam D. Marsh1,2, William G. Parker1, Daniel F. Stockli2, and Jeffrey W. Martz3 1 CORRESPONDENCE: [email protected] Petrified Forest National Park, Division of Science and Resource Management, 1 Park Road #2217, Petrified Forest, Arizona 86028, USA 2The University of Texas at Austin, Jackson School of Geosciences, 2305 Speedway Stop C1160, Austin, Texas 78712, USA 3The University of Houston-Downtown, Department of Natural Sciences, 1 Main Street Room 813-North, Houston, Texas 77002, USA CITATION: Marsh, A.D., Parker, W.G., Stockli, D.F., and Martz, J.W., 2019, Regional correlation of the Sonsela Member (Upper Triassic Chinle Formation) and detrital U-Pb zircon data from the Sonsela Sandstone bed ■ ABSTRACT progradation of these distributive systems may provide important clues as to near the Sonsela Buttes, northeastern Arizona, USA, support the presence of a distributive fluvial system: how depositional rates are linked to the tectonic history of basin subsidence Geosphere, v. 15, no. 4, p. 1128–1139, https://doi .org The Sonsela Sandstone bed was first named as an informal unit in the and source uplift (Kuhlemann and Kempf, 2002). /10.1130 /GES02004.1. lower part of the Chinle Formation in northern Arizona, USA, and it was later The Upper Triassic (Norian–Rhaetian) Chinle Formation consists of silici- assigned a type section near the Sonsela Buttes, where it is composed of two clastic sediments deposited primarily by fluvial, lacustrine, and paludal sys- Science Editor: Shanaka de Silva prominent sandstone units separated by a predominately siltstone unit. The tems (Blakey and Gubitosa, 1983; Dubiel and Hasiotis, 2011) on the landward Associate Editor: Christopher J. Spencer Sonsela Sandstone bed has been correlated to a number of specific sandstones side of the Cordilleran volcanic arc (Howell and Blakey, 2013; Ingersoll, 2012; Received 26 April 2018 within the thicker, formal Sonsela Member at Petrified Forest National Park in Riggs et al., 2016). The Cordilleran arc was an important source of sediment Revision received 30 January 2019 northern Arizona. Here, we present the first detrital U-Pb zircon data for the transported east and northeast across Arizona, USA, to feed the northwesterly Accepted 29 March 2019 Sonsela Sandstone bed at the Sonsela Buttes to hypothesize the maximum flowing Chinle stem fluvial system (Riggs et al., 2012, 2013, 2016). Compared deposition age of that unit (216.6 ± 0.3 Ma) that are consistent with the pro- with the Chinle stem river, the drastic differences in drainage direction for Late Published online 8 May 2019 posed lithostratigraphic correlation with the fossiliferous Jasper Forest bed of Triassic fluvial systems across Arizona, combined with their relative proximity the lower part of the Sonsela Member at the Park. These results are corrobo- to the arc sediment sources, raises the possibility that they were distributive rated by previous high-resolution U-Pb dates and detrital zircon provenance fluvial systems (sensu Weissmann et al., 2010, 2015). studies from Petrified Forest National Park and similar sections in northern Trendell et al. (2012) advocated such an interpretation for the Sonsela Mem- Arizona and western New Mexico, USA. The hypothesized chronostratigraphic ber (sensu Lucas, 1993; Heckert and Lucas, 2002; Woody, 2006; Martz and correlation of these sandstones throughout northern Arizona permits the Parker, 2010), a coarse-grained unit of the Chinle Formation that was deposited recognition of diachronous facies distributions in the lower part of the Chinle across northern Arizona by low- to high-sinuosity fluvial systems (Howell and Formation as these coarse sediments prograded from the southwest into a Blakey, 2013). Trendell et al. (2012) argued that the sediments of the uppermost continental basin already receiving finer-grained fluvial sediments from the Blue Mesa Member and overlying Sonsela Member were deposited by a large southeast. The new age data corroborate the Norian age designation for fluvial fan that prograded northeast across Arizona away from the Cordilleran the Sonsela Member (and the Sonsela Sandstone bed) and suggest that the arc, resulting in a coarsening upwards sequence being deposited in Petrified Sonsela Sandstone bed at the Sonsela Buttes is within the Adamanian land Forest National Park (PEFO), after 220 Ma (Ramezani et al., 2014). This inter- vertebrate estimated holochronozone. pretation is also supported by the radiating dispersal pattern of Late Triassic detrital zircon in the Sonsela Member at PEFO and the Vampire Formation and Waterman Formation in southern Arizona from a source in what is now the ■ INTRODUCTION Mojave Desert (Riggs et al., 2013). In this paper, we present new U-Pb data for the type section of the Sonsela Sandstone bed, a unit that may be correlative Prograding facies in terrestrial environments are likely to be associated with part of the Sonsela Member of PEFO, and discuss the implications for with large distributive fluvial systems (“megafans”) that form most of the sed- tracing the progradation of the Sonsela distributive fluvial system. This paper is published under the terms of the iment volume of modern continental basins, and which draw their sediments The Sonsela Sandstone bed was informally described as a course-grained CC-BY-NC license. directly from upland sources (Weissmann et al., 2010, 2015). Calibrating the unit within the Chinle Formation (Kiersch, 1955) but later was designated a © 2019 The Authors GEOSPHERE | Volume 15 | Number 4 Marsh et al. | Regional correlation of the Sonsela Member, Chinle Formation Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geosphere/article-pdf/15/4/1128/4800442/1128.pdf 1128 by guest on 25 September 2021 Research Paper type locality near the Defiance Uplift in the Navajo Nation of northern Arizona Martz and Parker, 2010) contains many of the enormous silicified Triassic pet- (Akers et al., 1958; Fig. 1) where it stands out prominently as two ledge-forming rified logs after which PEFO is named. This bed occurs in a thick sandstone se- sandstones in the middle of otherwise slope-forming, fine-grained siltstones quence that spans potentially as much as 9 m.y. (Ramezani et al., 2011; Atchley (Fig. 2). The Sonsela Sandstone bed was elevated to member-status within et al., 2013; Kent et al., 2018; Olsen et al., 2018) and its correlation to the type the Chinle Formation from work on stratigraphic sections at PEFO (Lucas, Sonsela Sandstone bed is not agreed upon by all workers (e.g., Lucas, 1993; 1993; Heckert and Lucas, 2002; Woody, 2006), but the correlation between the Heckert and Lucas, 2002; Woody, 2006). The age of the Sonsela Sandstone “Sonsela Sandstone bed” at its type locality and the fossiliferous subunits of bed at its type section could provide circumstantial support for the correlation the “Sonsela Member” at PEFO has been exclusively based on the lithology with a given sandstone unit within the Sonsela Member of PEFO, although it is and stratigraphic relationship of these units. important to emphasize that lithostratigraphic units can be diachronous. Here The Sonsela Member at PEFO contains numerous sandstone units, the most we report the first detrital U-Pb zircon data from the Sonsela Sandstone bed prominent of which is the Jasper Forest bed. The Jasper Forest bed (sensu from its type locality that are consistent with the correlation of the Sonsela Sandstone bed with the Jasper Forest bed of the Sonsela Member at PEFO. 100 km 109.0452°W 36.9990°N I-15 CP20 Nomenclature Associated with the Sonsela Sandstone Bed A’ I-25 We refer to the siliciclastic unit at the Sonsela Buttes between the un- Sonsela Sandstone SMC/Fort Wingate bed type locality derlying Bluewater Creek Member and overlying Petrified Forest Member of I-40 I-40 Flagstaff the Chinle Formation as the “Sonsela Sandstone bed” in order to retain its Albuquerque A historical use. The Sonsela Sandstone bed was originally named as an infor- St. Johns I-17 Chinde Mesa mal lithostratigraphic unit prior to the adoption of standardized stratigraphic Pilot Rock nomenclature (NACSN, 2005), but it was determined to be a scientifically I-10 Phoenix and economically meaningful unit (Kiersch, 1955), and it was described and I-40 assigned a type section (Akers et al., 1958). The Sonsela Sandstone bed at its I-8 Chinde Point type locality is composed of three lithological facies, and it was correlated with I-10 Tucson other sandstone beds (described below) throughout the region. We refer to I-19 KWI the formal “Sonsela Member” at PEFO as named by Lucas (1993) and defined by Woody (2003, 2006) and Martz and Parker (2010). The Devil’s Playground The Sonsela Member at PEFO includes five major units (Martz and Parker, 2010): the Camp Butte beds, the Lot’s Wife beds, the Jasper Forest bed, the Jim Camp Wash beds, and the Martha’s Butte beds. The Jasper Forest bed is N considered the stratigraphic equivalent of the Kellogg Butte bed in the Devil’s SBJ The Tepees Playground and the Rainbow Forest bed near the Rainbow Forest Museum, Blue Mesa PEFO, Arizona (Martz and Parker, 2010; Parker and Martz, 2011; Martz et al., 2012). 5 km Agate Mesa Private or State Trust Land Crystal Previous Lithostratigraphic Correlations of the Sonsela GPU, GPL Forest Petrified Forest National park Sandstone Bed Park Road US-180 The “Sonsela” bed (Kiersch, 1955, p. 5) was informally designated as a Rainbow Forest Administrative Boundary sandier division of the Petrified Forest Member of the Chinle Formation as Sample it was recognized at the time. This was later named the “Sonsela sandstone bed” (Akers et al., 1958, p.
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