Mississippian Stratigraphy of the Diamond Peak Area, Eureka County, Nevada
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Mississippian Stratigraphy of the Diamond Peak Area, Eureka County, Nevada GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 661 Mississippian Stratigraphy of the Diamond Peak Area, Eureka County, Nevada By DAVID A. BREW With a section on the BIOSTRATIGRAPHY AND AGE OF THE CARBONIFEROUS FORMATIONS By MACKENZIE GORDON, JR. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 661 More than 7,000 feet of Late Mississippian synorogenic detrital clastic and limy sediments of the Chainman and Diamond Peak Formations were deposited in a narrow trough east of the Antler orogenic belt UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON : 1971 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR WALTER J. HICKEL, Secretary GEOLOGICAL SURVEY William T. Pecora, Director Library of Congress catalog-card No. 70-608211 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402 CONTENTS Page Pare Abstract _________________________________ 1 Stratigraphy Continued Introduction ________________________________ 1 Cretaceous System _____ F9 Acknowledgments ____________________________ 2 Newark Canyon Formation ________ f? Location and geography ______________________ 3 Tertiary System __________ __ F3 Previous work _____________________________ 3 Fanglomerate and megabreccia _ F3 Terminology _______________________________ 3 Igneous rocks _______ JT4 Geologic setting _______________________________ 4 Quaternary deposits ____ F4 Regional stratigraphy _________________________ 4 Alluvium ___________________ _ F4 Regional structure _____________________________ 5 Colluvium ________ F4 Stratigraphic nomenclature _________________________ 5 Lake deposits ____ _ F4 Stratigraphy ______________________________________ 9 Biostratigraphy and age of the Carboniferous formations, Devonian System ___________________________ 9 by Mackenzie Gordon, Jr F4 Devils Gate Limestone _____________________ 9 Introduction ____________ F4 Devonian and Mississippian Systems ____________ 10 Joana Limestone and its regional relations f*5 Pilot Shale ________________________________ 10 Chainman Formation _______ _ F3 Mississippian System __________________________ 10 Diamond Peak Formation ___________ F7 Joana Limestone ___________________________ 10 Member A _____________________ F*» Relations of Chainman and Diamond Peak Member B __________________ f* Formations _____________________________ 12 Member C _____________________ F? Chainman Formation ______________________ 13 Member D ___________ _ 40 Water Canyon facies __________________ 13 Megafaunal evidence ______ 4-2 Black Point facies _____________________ 16 Microfaunal evidence ________ 42 Descriptive stratigraphy of Diamond Peak Correlation _____ 43 Formation ______________________________ 17 Meramec-Chester boundary __ 4$ Contact of Diamond Peak and Chainman Member E ___________________ Formations __________________________ 18 Member F __________________ Member A ____________________________ 19 Faunal hiatus _____ _ Member B 19 Member G _______________________ Member C 20 Member H _____________________ 46 Member D 20 Diamond Peak Formation of the lower plate of Member E 21 the Bold Bluff thrust fault ___________ 47 Member F 21 Regional relations of the Diamond Peak Formation Member G 22 and the Chainman Shale _ 47 Member H 23 Ely Limestone ______________________ 49 Contact of Diamond Peak Formation and Lower member _________________ PO Ely Limestone _________________________ 24 Criteria for recognizing the Mississippian- Diamond Peak Formation of lower plate Pennsylvanian boundary _____ 51 of Bold Bluff thrust fault ______________ 24 Regional distribution of the Mississippian Depositional environments _______________ 25 part of the Ely Limestone ____ PI Siltrock _____________________________ 25 Correlation with Homoceras zone E\ Sandstone ___________________________ 25 Upper member _______ PI Conglomerate ________________________ 25 Conclusions _ 52 Clayrock ____________________________ 27 Register of fossil collecting localities in the Diamond Limestone ___________________________ 27 Peak area, Nevada ________ ____ f2 I-imestone-phenoplast conglomerate ____ 27 Collections from Diamond Peak measured section 54 Summary _______________________________ 28 Foraminiferal collections _________ £5 Mississippian and Pennsylvanian Systems _________ 28 Structure _________________ P5 Descriptive stratigraphy of Ely Limestone _____ 28 Folds ____________________ re Lower member __________________________ 28 Cold Creek syncline __________ £6 Upper member __________________________ 29 Lesser folds and gentle warps _ P6 Depositional environment ____________________ 30 Faults __________________________ 57 Permian System _________________________________ 30 Low-angle faults __ 5? Carbon Ridge Formation _____________________ 31 Bold Bluff thrust fault ____________ 57 III IV CONTENTS Page Page Structure Continued Geologic history Continued Faults Continued Barly Mississippian deformation ____________ 64 Low-angle faults Continued Late Mississippian through Middle Pennsylvarian Bold Bluff thrust fault Continued sedimentation ______________________ 64 Related minor thrusts and folds ____ 57 Chainman Formation ________________ 64 Extent and significance _________ 57 Diamond Peak Formation _____________ 64 High-angle normal faults _____________ 59 Ely Limestone _____________________ 65 Boundary faults ________________ 59 Post-Middle Pennsylvanian deformation ______ 65 Alpha fault _________________ 59 Early Permian sedimentation _____________ 66 Newark Valley fault ___________ 59 Post-Early Permian deformation ___________ 66 Faults within the range (internal faults) __ 59 Early Cretaceous sedimentation ____________ 66 Newark fault ________________ 60 Later events ________________________ 66 Sadler Canyon fault complex ______ 60 Conclusions ____________________ ____ 67 Combination boundary and internal faults-_ 61 Stratigraphic section of the upper part of the Bl?ck Robinson Springs fault __________ 61 Point facies of the Chainman Formation, the type sec- Adobe Canyon fault ___________ 61 tion of the Diamond Peak Formation, and the lo-^er Summary _____________________ 62 part of the Ely Limestone __________________ 67 Geologic history _________________________ 62 References cited ______________ ___ __ 77 Late Devonian and Early Mississippian sedimentation 62 Index ___________ _ _ _ _ 81 ILLUSTRATIONS Page PLATE 1. Geologic map and sections of Diamond Peak and vicinity, Eureka and White Pine Counties, Nev In pocket FIGURE 1. Index map of east-central Nevada _______________________________ 2 2. Photograph of Diamond Range and Diamond and Newark Valleys from Diamond Peak 3 3. Nomenclature and correlation chart ______________________________ - 6 4. Generalized geologic map of the eastern part of the Eureka quadrangle __ 11 5. Correlation chart of rocks referred to the Chainman Shale, Diamond Peak Formation, and lithically equiva lent units __________________________________________________ 14 6. Photograph of outcrop area of Black Point facies of the Chainman Formation _______-_ 16 7. Generalized columnar section of the type section of the Diamond Peak Formation ______ 18 8. Photograph of Diamond Peak and cliff-forming member H of the Diamond Peak Formation 23 9. Graph showing variation and proportion of major lithic types in members of the Diamond Peak Formatter at the type section __________________________________________ 26 10. Photograph of nodular and lenticular chert, limestone, and sandy or silty limestone in lower member of the Ely Limestone __________________________________________________ 29 11. Correlation chart of Mississippian and earliest Pennsylvanian formations of the central part of the Great Basin, Utah and Nev. _________________________________________ 35 12. Photograph of south side of Diamond Table, showing nearly horizontal bedding in very thick conglomerates of Diamond Peak Formation above the Bold Bluff thrust fault __ _____ 57 13. Correlation diagram showing generalized thickness and lithologic character of rocks in the upper and lo^er plates of the Bold Bluff thrust fault _______________________________ 58 14. Generalized fault map of the Sadler Canyon-Water Canyon area _ ___ 60 15. Photograph of the Ely Limestone downfaulted against the Diamond Peak Formation along Adobe Canyon fault- 61 16. Diagrams showing inferred evolution of part of the western edge of the Chainman-Diamond Peak depositional basin ______________________________________1__________ _ 63 TABLES Page TABLE 1. Fauna from members B-D of the Diamond Peak Formation, Diamond Peak area, Nevada, and from Conical Hill, Eureka district, Nevada _________________________________ 39 2. Fossils from beds assigned to member D of the Diamond Peak Formation on the east slope of the Diamond Range and at Conical Hill, Eureka district, Nevada _____ 41 3. Calcareous foraminifers from member D of the Diamond Peak Formation, Diamond Peak area, Nevada 43 4. Fauna from members E-H of the Diamond Peak Formation, Diamond Peak area, Nevada 45 5. Fauna of the Ely Limestone, Diamond Peak area, Nevada 49 MISSISSIPPIAN STRATIGRAPHY OF THE DIAMOND PEAK AREA, EUREKA COUNTY, NEVADA By DAVID A. BREW ABSTRACT deposition of the Chainman and the lower two members of fre Synorogenic clastic rocks of Mississippian age deposited in Diamond Peak; then more irregular pulses of conglomeratic an elongate rapidly subsiding trough east of the Antler erogenic debris accompanying proportionally smaller amounts of fleer belt in east-central Nevada consist of about 7,000 feet of the elastics;