Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1995 Tectonic Subsidence of the Cretaceous Western Interior Basin, United States. Ming Pang Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Pang, Ming, "Tectonic Subsidence of the Cretaceous Western Interior Basin, United States." (1995). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 5926. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/5926 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. 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TECTONIC SUBSIDENCE OF THE CRETACEOUS WESTERN INTERIOR BASIN, UNITED STATES A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Geology and Geophysics by Ming Pang B.S., Chengdu College of Geology, 1982 M.S., China University of Geosciences, 1985 May 1995 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9530493 UMI Microform 9530493 Copyright 1995/ by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17/ United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my sincere thanks to members of my dissertation committee, Dr. Roy Dokka, Dr. Joseph Hazel, Dr. Richard Kesel, Dr. Juan Lorenzo, Dr. C. M. Molenaar, Dr. Jeffrey Nunn, and Dr. Andrew Schedl, and especially my advisor, Dr. Dag Nummedal for their interest, encouragement, and constructive criticism. Dr. Dag Nummedal's guidance was most instrumental to the completion of this dissertation. Many of the ideas presented in this dissertation came about as the result of discussions and arguments with him. Because of his careful reviewing and editing, the structure and clarity of the manuscript has been greatly improved. Discussions with Dr. Andrew Schedl on many aspects of foreland basins were very helpful in early stages of this dissertation. Dr. Joseph Hazel taught me the essence of biostratigraphy and generously provided me his own research results. Dr. Jeffrey Nunn's knowledge of sedimentary basin mechanisms led to many significant improvements in the approach taken in this study. Discussions with Dr. Roy Dokka on many occasions were very constructive to the analysis of the subsidence data. His insights on the tectonics of foreland basins resulted in improvements in this dissertation. "K" Molenaar helped me in many ways throughout my work. Much of the subsurface data used in this dissertation was obtained with his help and guidance at the USGS at Denver. More important, his expertise and knowledge of the Cretaceous stratigraphy proved most valuable to the compilation of the stratigraphic data base of my work. Discussions with fellow students at LSU have also been constructive to this dissertation. In particular, I recognize with appreciation Drs. Greg Riley, Mark Pasley, Mr. Xiaogong Xie, and Mr. Mingji Chu for their interest and support of my work. I would like to thank all those extremely helpful people at the Office of the Department of Geology and Geophysics, especially Liz Keller and Thea Burchell. I wish to thank Drs. R. Johnson, K. Franczyk, T. Fouch, and T. Dyman of the USGS at Denver, each of whom contributed to my dissertation by making available their ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. own research results on the Cretaceous stratigraphy of the Western Interior basin. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists is thanked for a grant-in-aid. iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................ii List of tables ......................................................................................................................... vi List of figures .......................................................................................................................vii A bstract................................................................................................................................ xi Chapter 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................1 A statement of work .................................................................................................... 1 The Cretaceous Western Interior basin, a tectonic overview ............................... 4 Objectives.................................................................................................................. 7 Dissertation structure ...................................................................................................8 2. The tectonic framework of the Cretaceous Western Interior basin, U.S.A 10 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 10 Precambrian basins and provinces ............................................................................11 Archean Provinces ............................................................................................11 Proterozoic basins ......................................................................................... 14 Late Proterozoic rifting ....................................................................................15 Basement faults .................................................................................................19 Paleozoic orogenies ................................................................................................... 21 The early Paleozoic passive margin ............................................................... 21 The Antler orogeny .........................................................................................21 The ancestral rocky Mountain deformation ................................................... 23 Transformation into an active margin ............................................................ 25 The Sevier orogeny ....................................................................................................25 Style of deformation .................................................................................... 25 Times of movement ......................................................................................... 27 Magnitude of thrust loads ............................................................................ 37 Basement controls on the Sevier thrusting ........................................................... 38 The overlap province and buttressing .............................................................38 Inferred buttresses and their consequences ....................................................40 3. Stratigraphy of the Upper Cretaceous rocks, the U.S. Western Interior basin ...........44 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 44 Depositional setting ...................................................................................................46 The molluscan biostratigraphic time scale .............................................................