Latest Miocene-Earliest Pliocene Evolution of the Ancestral Rio Grande at the Española-San Luis Basin Boundary, Northern New Mexico Daniel J
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Latest Miocene-earliest Pliocene evolution of the ancestral Rio Grande at the Española-San Luis Basin boundary, northern New Mexico Daniel J. Koning1, Scott Aby2, V.J.S. Grauch3, Matthew J. Zimmerer1 1 New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, 801 Leroy Place, Socorro, NM, 87801, USA; [email protected] 2 Muddy Spring Geology, P.O. Box 488, Dixon, NM 87527, USA 3 U.S. Geological Survey, MS 964, Federal Center, Denver, CO, 80225, USA Abstract playa-lake systems (Mack et al., 1997 and 2006; Connell et al., 2005). This southward expansion resulted in the We use stratigraphic relations, paleoflow data, fluvial integration of several previously closed basins and 40Ar/39Ar dating to interpret net aggradation, punctuated by at least two minor incisional events, in south-central New Mexico. Previous studies in the along part of the upper ancestral Rio Grande fluvial Socorro and Palomas Basins bracket the age of this system between 5.5 and 4.5 Ma (in northern New integration between ~6 and 4.6 Ma (Chamberlin, 1999; Mexico). The studied fluvial deposits, which we Chamberlin et al., 2001; Mack et al., 1998 and 2006; informally call the Sandlin unit of the Santa Fe Koning et al., 2015, 2016a). Workers have suggested this Group, overlie a structural high between the San Luis downstream-directed integration occurred because of 1) and Española Basins. The Sandlin unit was deposited orogenic-enhanced precipitation due to rift-flank uplift by two merging, west- to southwest-flowing, of mountains in the late Miocene (Chapin and Cather, ancestral Rio Grande tributaries respectively sourced 1994), 2) fluvial spillover because of reduced subsidence in the central Taos Mountains and southern Taos rates in rift basins (Cather et al., 1994; Connell et al., Mountains-northeastern Picuris Mountains. The river confluence progressively shifted southwestward 2005), 3) fluvial spillover due to paleoclimatic changes (downstream) with time, and the integrated river affecting water vs. sediment discharges (Kottlowski, (ancestral Rio Grande) flowed southwards into the 1953; Chapin, 2008; Connell et al., 2012), or 4) epei- Española Basin to merge with the ancestral Rio rogenic doming and mantle-driven uplift (Kottlowski, Chama. Just prior to the end of the Miocene, this 1953; Repasch, 2015a, b). Note that this southward fluvial system was incised in the southern part of the expansion of the Rio Grande occurred prior to the 0.43 study area (resulting in an approximately 4–7 km Ma integration of Lake Alamosa in the northern San Luis wide paleovalley), and had sufficient competency to Basin (Machette et al., 2013). transport cobbles and boulders. Sometime between As a step in understanding the downstream elon- emplacement of two basalt flows dated at 5.54± gation of the ancestral Rio Grande, this study explores 0.38 Ma and 4.82±0.20 Ma (groundmass 40Ar/39Ar ages), this fluvial system deposited 10–12 m of episodes of aggradation and incision that occurred in the sandier sediment (lower Sandlin subunit) preserved latest Miocene-earliest Pliocene at the boundary between in the northern part of this paleovalley. The fluvial the Española and San Luis Basins (Fig. 1). There, we system widened between 4.82±0.20 and 4.50±0.07 describe a gravelly sand deposited by two merging Rio Ma, depositing coarse sand and fine gravel up to 14 Grande tributaries that drained the southern San Luis km north of the present-day Rio Grande. This 10–25 Basin. The river below this merger, which we define as m-thick sediment package (upper Sandlin unit) buried the ancestral Rio Grande due to its geographic similarity earlier south- to southeast-trending paleovalleys to the modern Rio Grande and coarser texture of its sed- (500–800 m wide) inferred from aeromagnetic data. iment compared to underlying (late Miocene) deposits, Two brief incisional events are recognized. The flowed southwestward and joined with the ancestral Rio first was caused by the 4.82±0.20 Ma basalt flow impounding south-flowing paleodrainages, and the Chama in the middle to southern Española Basin (Koning second occurred shortly after emplacement of a and Aby, 2005; Koning et al., 2016b). This axial river 4.69±0.09 Ma basalt flow in the northern study area. then flowed into the northern Santo Domingo Basin, Drivers responsible for Sandlin unit aggradation may where a Rio Chama-dominated axial-fluvial system was include climate-modulated hydrologic factors (i.e., established by 6.96 Ma (Smith et al., 2001; Smith, 2004). variable sediment supply and water discharge) or a Whether the northern of these tributaries was fluvially reduction of eastward tilt rates of the southern San connected with the northern San Luis Basin in the latest Luis Basin half graben. If regional in extent, these Miocene-earliest Pliocene is not known. If the ancestral phenomena could also have promoted fluvial spillover Rio Grande only drained the southern San Luis Basin, that occurred in the southern Albuquerque Basin at then the Rio Chama (modern drainage area of 8,142 km2; about 6–5 Ma, resulting in southward expansion of the Rio Grande to southern New Mexico. U.S. Geological Survey, 2009) would have been the larger tributary at this time. Note that we use the term “river” Introduction in a broad sense to convey a geographically large fluvial system (e.g., having a drainage area >500 km2) that may An intriguing event in the history of the Rio Grande rift, be ephemeral, consistent with modern geographic usage occurring in the latest Miocene or earliest Pliocene, was in New Mexico of “river” and its Spanish variant, “rio.” a remarkable downstream elongation of the Rio Grande The studied fluvial sediment is locally underlain and from the Albuquerque Basin southward to southern overlain by four basalt flows whose 40Ar/39Ar ages (from New Mexico, where it alternately avulsed into several groundmass) bracket the unit between 5.5–4.5 Ma. 24 New Mexico Geology May 2016, Volume 38, Number 2 We synthesize these ages with stratigraphic relations Geologic Setting and aeromagnetic data to interpret a basic chronologic sequence of latest Miocene erosion, net aggradation The study area is located on the western margin of the between 5.5 and 4.5 Ma punctuated by episodic inci- southernmost Taos Plateau, overlying a structural high sion, followed by erosion. Complexities in this sequence between the San Luis and Española Basins of the northern of events are described below. Finally, we briefly discuss Rio Grande rift (Fig. 1). This structural high is manifested the implications of this fluvial history to the concomitant by a northwest-trending Bouguer gravity high (Cordell, downstream elongation of the Rio Grande. 1979; Manley, 1979a; Ferguson et al., 1995; Koning et al., 106°0'0"W 105°45'0"W 105°30'0"W Tv Ta Tvl Quaternary Trna Ta Td Tvl Tbom Xq Tbp Til Tv Qa 36°45'0"N Ta Alluvium Td Tvla Tvl Tlp Til Qa Qlc Eolian and sheetflood- Tvl QesQe Ta Til deposits Taos Plateau volcanic field Ta Xpc Xg Xvm Qlc Landslides and colluvium Xg Latir Taos Mtns R Xvm i o volcanic Tbom Xg Xvm Tusas Mtns G Til Qp Piedmont alluvial deposits Tv field Ta r S Xvm a Tvl Xpc San Luis Basinn a Basin-fill and high-level terrace n QTs d g Til Xs e r sediment (includes Pliocene strata) e d R Tbom Taos Plateau Td e Trer i o Tsf Taos-3 C r Xvm Tertiary (Pliocene) Xg T Til Xvf Tbp is u Ta Taos-2 t Xq s o a Qp Tsf f Ta Olivine andesite a Tpr s Xpc Qp Qlc u l Tbp t Basaltic rocks (includes Tsl Ta Tbp 36°30'0"N US Route 64 Servilleta Basalt) Tpr U.S. Highway 285 ˛m Trer Xs Tsf Qlc Td Dacite Xg Qa Tres Qlc Taos Qp Trna Rhyolite of No Agua Peaks Xq Orejas os Ta Xs Tbp Tbp de Qp Qp lo Tv Undifferentiated volcanic rocks eb Td u QTs P Xq Tsf Taos Mtns Tsf Qp io R e m Tertiary (Eocene-Miocene) Xs Taos-1 st Qp T32 sy T30 T31 flt Xvf do Santa Fe Group, includes MVR mbu Tsf i Qes E Tesuque and Abiquiu Formations OC o study Qp Tsb SA O area Xq Xg (Oligo-Miocene) Tp j o Tsl Xg Qp CA Xps Tpr Peña Tank Rhyolite (Oligo-Miocene) C Tbp Qp a Qp l Qp i Picuris Mtns e Xvf Xps Xq COLORADO n Tlp Los Pinos Formation (Oligo-Miocene) 36°15'0"N Qlc ELF Xg Españolat Basin Qlc Xg e Tsf Xps Tp Tbom Basaltic rocks (Oligo-Miocene) Xs BM TbpLM Xvm T Map Tsf F Qlc Xg Qa I area Tp Picuris formation (Oligo-Miocene) R Yg E VP D R Tbp QTs N A Latir volcanic field extrusive i o e R Tvl d Tsf Tsf BM n G rocks (Oligo-Miocene) C a NEW r Qa O h I G MEXICO Latir volcanic field intrusive R a o Til m i Qa Tsf TEXAS rocks (Oligo-Miocene) a Tsf R Qp MEXICO Ritito Conglomerate and El Rito Trer 0 5 10 20 30 mi Fm (Oligocene and Eocene) Paleozoic 0 10 20 30 40 km Permian and Pennsylvanian, undivided Paleoproterozoic m Madera Group Xg Granitic plutonic rocks Xvf Rhyolite and felsic volcanic schist M Mississippian rocks, undivided Xps Pelitic schist, includes Pilar Phyllite Xpc Calc-alkaline plutonic rocks Clast Mafic metavolcanic rocks with Highway Xq Quartzite Xvm Taos-1 count site subordinate felsic metavolcanic rocks Fault Contact Xs Metasedimentary rocks Figure 1. Geologic map of the southern San Luis Basin and northern Española Basin.