Geologic Map of the Fish Creek Reservoir 7.5' Quadrangle, Blaine County, Idaho
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Geologic Map of the Fish Creek Reservoir 7.5’ Quadrangle, Blaine County, Idaho Scientific Investigations Map 3191 U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey Idavada volcanics measured section Fish Creek Reservoir dam West Fork Fish Creek CRATER Fish Creek NORTH Fish Creek Reservoir Road Mcb FRONT COVER: View looking west from low hill on east side of Fish Creek (see red star on geologic map), showing Fish Creek dam and reservoir, nearly dry; location of measured section (white dashed line on ridge) of lower Paleozoic carbonate rocks (Skipp and Sandberg, 1975); rim of crater, source for basalt flow of Snake River Group, and the junction of Fish Creek and West Fork of Fish Creek. Flat-lying distant caprock on Wood River Formation is rhyolitic ignimbrite of Miocene Idavada Volcanics. Mcb = Copper Basin Group Geologic Map of the Fish Creek Reservoir 7.5´ Quadrangle, Blaine County, Idaho By Betty Skipp and Theodore R. Brandt Scientific Investigations Map 3191 U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey U.S. Department of the Interior KEN SALAZAR, Secretary U.S. Geological Survey Marcia K. McNutt, Director U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia: 2012 For more information on the USGS—the Federal source for science about the Earth, its natural and living resources, natural hazards, and the environment, visit http://www.usgs.gov or call 1–888–ASK–USGS. For an overview of USGS information products, including maps, imagery, and publications, visit http://www.usgs.gov/pubprod To order this and other USGS information products, visit http://store.usgs.gov Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Although this report is in the public domain, permission must be secured from the individual copyright owners to reproduce any copyrighted materials contained within this report. Suggested citation: Skipp, Betty, and Brandt, T.R., 2012, Geologic map of the Fish Creek Reservoir 7.5’ quadrangle, Blaine County, Idaho: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3191, 1 sheet, scale 1:24,000, pamphlet, 15 p. iii Contents Introduction.....................................................................................................................................................1 Regional Geology ...........................................................................................................................................1 Acknowledgments .........................................................................................................................................3 Description of Map Units ..............................................................................................................................4 Surficial Deposits ..................................................................................................................................4 Basalt Lava Flows .................................................................................................................................5 Craters of the Moon Volcanic Field ..........................................................................................5 Snake River Group .......................................................................................................................5 Idavada Volcanics (Miocene) .............................................................................................................5 Jasperoid.......................................................................................................................................6 Gossan ...........................................................................................................................................6 Challis Volcanic Group (Eocene) ........................................................................................................6 Intrusive Rocks ......................................................................................................................................7 Pre-Mesozoic Sedimentary Rocks ....................................................................................................8 Hanging Wall of Pioneer Thrust Fault .......................................................................................8 Footwall of Antler-age Thrust Fault ..........................................................................................9 Hanging Wall of Antler-age Thrust Fault..................................................................................9 Footwall of Pioneer Thrust Fault ...............................................................................................9 Copper Basin Group (Mississippian) ...............................................................................9 References Cited..........................................................................................................................................12 Figure 1. Diagrammatic map of south-central Idaho showing location of the Fish Creek Reservoir quadrangle in relation to geographic and geologic features .............................2 Geologic Map of the Fish Creek Reservoir 7.5’ Quadrangle, Blaine County, Idaho By Betty Skipp and Theodore R. Brandt Introduction Reservoir quadrangle, the thrust fault is buried beneath Eocene volcanics of the Challis Volcanic Group (Skipp and others, 2009; fig. 1). Where the thrust fault crops out in the southern The Fish Creek Reservoir quadrangle in south-central Fish Creek Reservoir area, younger carbonate rocks of the Idaho lies on the north-central margin of the Cenozoic Snake Pennsylvanian and Permian Wood River Formation directly River Plain at the southern end of the Pioneer Mountains overlie older flysch of the Mississippian Copper Basin Group. (fig. 1). Rocks exposed in the quadrangle range in age from Younger-over-older thrust relations are not typical for Paleozoic through Cenozoic. Mesozoic rocks are absent. thrust faults formed during a single compressional event, even Though Triassic and Jurassic sedimentary rocks may have when normal movement in the opposite direction is a factor. been deposited in this area, they would have been removed by In this area, however, the relations are interpreted to have erosion following uplift and thrusting of the Late Cretaceous resulted from complications resulting from two separate, but to early Tertiary Sevier orogeny (Skipp and others, 2009). areally overlapping, periods of compression of different ages, Mesozoic igneous rocks, satellites of the Atlanta lobe of in addition to later extensional movement. The first period of the Idaho batholith, may be present at depth (Rodgers and thrusting is interpreted to represent the Antler (latest Devonian others, 1995). to Early Mississippian) period of compression; the second, a Late Cretaceous to early Tertiary Sevier orogenic event. The period of Antler thrusting is interpreted to be represented by the Ordovician through Devonian rocks of differing western Regional Geology and eastern facies, exposed in two closely spaced windows eroded through overlying Tertiary volcanic rocks in the The region is underlain by Precambrian (Archean southern part of the Fish Creek Reservoir quadrangle. and Proterozoic) rocks shown to be present in the Pioneer Lower Paleozoic western facies rocks exposed in Mountains core complex to the northwest (PMCC, fig. 1; one structural window in the southwestern part of this Link and others, 2007; Link and others, 2010). Two facies of quadrangle west of Fish Creek have been assigned to the Paleozoic sedimentary rocks were deposited on this western Ordovician and Silurian Phi Kappa (SOp) and Trail Creek margin of Paleozoic North America (Laurentia). The two (St) Formations of Ordovician age and unnamed Devonian faulted and folded Paleozoic sequences are in contact along and Silurian calcareous sandstones as described by Dover the Pioneer thrust fault of probable Late Cretaceous age (1981, 1983), and Link and others (1995) in the central (Dover, 1983; Link and others, 1995; Kuntz and others, 2007; Pioneer Mountains. Graptolites of Ordovician age that Skipp and others, 2009). Both north and immediately south support these formation assignments were recovered locally of the Pioneer Mountain core complex, the westernmost from the Phi Kappa Formation (SOp) (Otto and Zieg, 2003; Paleozoic sequence consists of Devonian black argillite and Kuntz and others, 2007; fossil localities F-2, F-3, and F-4 quartzite deep-water facies of the Milligen Formation overlain on map). These lower Paleozoic rocks are interpreted to unconformably by Upper Paleozoic basinal carbonates of be deformed along an older-over-younger thrust segment the Pennsylvanian and Permian Wood River Formation. This overlain unconformably by fossiliferous rocks of the Middle western sequence is thrust over Mississippian western-derived Pennsylvanian Hailey Member (*wh), the lowest member flysch of the Copper Basin Group (Mcb) that unconformably of the basinal Pennsylvanian and Permian Wood River overlies lower Paleozoic carbonate rocks (Skipp and Formation. Cross sections A–A´ and B–B´ illustrate these Sandberg, 1975; Link and others, 1995; Skipp and others, structural interpretations. A different structural interpretation 2009). In the northern PMCC area, the older Devonian black of this southwestern window was published by Otto and Zieg, shales overlain by the Wood River Formation are in thrust (2003) who did not recognize the presence of the Wood River contact with the younger