Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1991 Analysis of Lacustrine Deltaic Sedimentation in the Green River Formation, Southern Uinta Basin, Utah. (Volumes I and II). Robert Reginald Remy Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Remy, Robert Reginald, "Analysis of Lacustrine Deltaic Sedimentation in the Green River Formation, Southern Uinta Basin, Utah. (Volumes I and II)." (1991). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 5143. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/5143 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]. 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(Volumes I and n) Remy, Robert Reginald, Ph.D. The Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical Col., 1991 UMI 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ANALYSIS OF LACUSTRINE DELTAIC SEDIMENTATION IN THE GREEN RIVER FORMATION, SOUTHERN UINTA BASIN, UTAH 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 Volume I by Robert Reginald Remy B.A. Providence College, 1978 M.S. University of Colorado, 1984 May 1991 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page VOLUME 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT IV CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER II. STRATIGRAPHY OF THE EOCENE PART OF THE 9 GREEN RIVER FORMATION IN THE SOUTH-CEN­ TRAL UINTA BASIN, UTAH CHAPTER III. DEPOSITIONAL PROCESSES OF A FLUVIALLY- 59 DOMINATED LACUSTRINE DELTA AND OF TRANSGRESSIVE DEPOSITS IN THE GREEN ' RIVER FORMATION, SOUTH-CENTRAL UINTA BASIN, UTAH CHAPTER IV. LACUSTRINE HUMMOCKY CROSS-STRAT­ 214 IFICATION PRODUCED BY COMBINED FLOWS, GREEN RIVER FORMATION, UTAH CHAPTER V. DISTRIBUTION AND ORIGIN OF ANALCIME IN 234 MARGINAL LACUSTRINE MUDSTONES OF THE GREEN RIVER FORMATION, SOUTH-CEN­ TRAL UINTA BASIN, UTAH CHAPTER VI. (FIELD GUIDE TO) DELTAIC AND LACUSTRINE 272 FACIES OF THE GREEN RIVER FORMATION, SOUTHERN UINTA BASIN, UTAH CHAPTER VII. CONCLUSIONS 301 COMBINED REFERENCES 309 CHART 1. STRATIGRAPHIC NOMENCLATURE OF THE in pocket GREEN RIVER FORMATION, SOUTH-CEN­ TRAL UINTA BASIN, UTAH CHART 2. STRATIGRAPHIC CROSS-SECTION A-A' in pocket SHOWING THE STRATIGRAPHY, LITH- OLOGY, AND INTERPRETED DEPOSITIONAL ASSEMBLAGES OF THE GREEN RIVER FORMATION, SOUTH-CENTRAL UINTA BASIN, UTAH Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHART 3. STRATIGRAPHIC CROSS-SECTION B-B' in pocket SHOWING THE STRATIGRAPHY. LITH- OLOGY. AND INTERPRETED DEPOSITIONAL ASSEMBLAGES OF THE GREEN RIVER FORMATION, SOUTH-CENTRAL UINTA BASIN, UTAH VOLUME II APPENDICES 340 Appendix 1. Thickness, Location, and Stratigraphie Markers 341 of Measured Stratigraphie sections Appendix 2. Maps Showing Locations of Measured Sections 342 Appendix 3. Explanation for Symbols Used in Measured 349 Stratigraphie Sections Appendix 4. Measured Sections 350 VITA 394 III Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT Detailed llthofacles analysis of over 4,500 m of measured sections of most of the Eocene portion of the fluvial and lacustrine Green River Formation in the south-central Uinta Basin documents twelve lithofacies: Sa (nonsinuous trunk streams), Sb (meandering delta distributary channels). Sc (amalgamated delta mouth bars), Sd (regressive deltaic sandsheets). Se (overbank and shallow-lacustrine sandsheets), Sf (crevasse channels and splays), 0 (passively-filled abandoned channels). Mg (subaqueous mudflats), Mr (subaerial mudflats), L (lake-margin carbonate flats), and la and lb (open- lacustrine deposits). The lower half of the study section consists of the carbonate marker unit (130 m) and the overlying Sunnyside delta interval (375 m), which record marginal-lacustrine sedimentation along the southern shore of Lake Uinta within and adjacent to a large, fluvially-dominated lacustrine delta informally named the Sunnyside delta. Meandering delta distributary channels on the delta plain cannibalized most delta mouth bars. Shallow water depths in the southern half of Lake Uinta atttenuated waves and wave-generated currents, thereby preventing the development of shoreface ravinement, beaches, barriers, or significant siliciclastic bars. Evaporative pumping on subaerially- exposed mudflats produced brines which altered detrital clay minerals to analcime. The combination of moderately high local subsidence and variations in lake volume produced low amplitude (less than 12 m) fluctuations in relative lake level which, due to the gentle gradient of the delta plain, produced shifts in shoreline position on the order of 40-50 km. During periods of rapid relative lake level rise most siliciclastic sediment was trapped upstream, resulting in iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the development of extensive, but thin, transgressive shallow-lacustrine carbonates. The regressive portion of each depositional cycle consists of upper and lower delta plain, shallow-nearshore lacustrine, and relatively rare delta front deposits. The upper half of the study section consists of the transitional interval (200 m), which records a major, but gradual, expansion and deepening of the lake, and the overlying upper member (300 m), which consists of dark mudstone and dolostone and relatively rare hummocky cross-stratified storm deposits produced by combined flows and nearshore-lacustrine sandbodies that accumulated in a generally quiet, but not necessarily very deep, relatively siliciclastic-poor, open-lacustrine setting. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Basement deformation during the Laramide orogeny (Late Cretaceous- Eocene) broke the Late Cretaceous marine foreland basin into a number of separate non-marine intermontane basins (Dickinson and others, 1988). Blockage of fluvial drainages within basins in the core of the Laramide province produced large fresh to saline lakes (ponded basins of Dickinson and others, 1988). The Green River Formation (Paleocene-Eocene) accumulated in two such large lakes: Lake Uinta in the Uinta and Piceance Basins of northeastern Utah and northwestern Colorado, respectively, and Lake Gosiute in southwestern Wyoming (Fig. 1-1). Following an initial fresh water stage, the salinity of Lake Uinta increased steady throughout most of its history, resulting in the early elimination of saline sensitive molluscs and ultimately in the precipitation of nahcolite and halite (Johnson, 1985). According to the model proposed by Ryder and others (1976), the lower Green River Formation in the Uinta Basin can be divided into a central core of organic-rich open-lacustrine ciaystone and mud-supported carbonate surrounded by marginal-lacustrine facies consisting of ciaystone,