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1.
J.W. Haggart 《Cretaceous Research》1984,5(3):225-241
Outcrops of the Upper Cretaceous (Coniacian-Campanian) Chico Formation, exposed along the east flank of California's northern Great Valley, have yielded a highly diverse, well-preserved molluscan fauna. Previously uncollected deposits, as well as classic localities, have been stratigraphically collected to determine the Santonian-Campanian succession of important ammonites and inoceramid bivalves.Five megafossil zones are readily identifed in outcrops of the Chico Formation. These are, in ascending stratigraphic order, the zones of Hyphantoceras venustum, Baculites capensis, Bostrychoceras elongatum, Inoceramus schmidti and Baculites chicoensis.Two of the zones, Bostrychoceras elongatum and I. schmidti, are missing at the type locality of the Chico Formation because of a stratigraphic disconformity. As a result, previous conceptions about the ranges of some important ammonites and inoceramids in California are in error.Lowest exposures of the H. venustum Zone in the Chico Formation are probably latestConiacian in age. Recent palaeomagnetic sampling of Cretaceous strata of the Great Valley (Ward et al., 1983) has confirmed that the Baculites chicoensis Zone is indicative of the lowest Campanian. The age of the I. schmidti Zone in California is therefore latest Santonian.This molluscan sequence enables precise correlation of Chico strata with other Upper Cretaceous outcrop in the Great Valley; in addition, lowermost deposits of the Upper Cretaceous Nanaimo Group of British Columbia can now be firmly correlated with California strata. 相似文献
2.
A newly identified tephra in stratified deposits in southwestern Utah, dated 14,000 14C yr B.P., may aid in correlating late Pleistocene deposits across parts of the southern Great Basin and west-central Colorado Plateau. Geochemical analyses of the ash suggest the tephra originated from Mono Craters, California, and most probably correlates with Wilson Creek ash #3. Because the ash is 2 mm thick 550 km from its source, the event may have been larger than others correlated to Mono Craters eruptions. 相似文献
3.
Discontinuous tephra layers were discovered at Burney Spring Mountain, northern California. Stratigraphic relationships suggest that they are two distinct tephras. Binary plots and standard similarity coefficients of electron probe microanalysis data have been supplemented with principal component analysis to correlate the two tephra layers to known regional tephras. Using principal component analysis, we are furthermore able to bound our uncertainty in the correlation of the two tephra layers. After removal of outliers, within the 95% prediction interval, we can say that one tephra layer is likely the Rockland tephra, aged 565–610 ka, and the second layer is likely from Mt. Mazama, the Trego Hot Springs tephra, aged ~ 29 ka. In the case of the Rockland tephra, the new findings suggest that dispersal to the north was highly restricted. For Trego Hot Springs ash, the new findings extend the distribution to the southwest, with a rapid thinning in that direction. Coupled with considerations of regular tephra dispersal patterns, the results suggest that the primary dispersal direction for both tephras was to the south, and that occurrences in other directions are unlikely or otherwise anomalous. 相似文献
4.
5.
Pleistocene fluvial landforms and riparian ecosystems in central California responded to climate changes in the Sierra Nevada, yet the glacial history of the western Sierra remains largely unknown. Three glacial stages in the northwestern Sierra Nevada are documented by field mapping and cosmogenic radionuclide surface-exposure (CRSE) ages. Two CRSE ages of erratic boulders on an isolated till above Bear Valley provide a limiting minimum age of 76,400±3800 10Be yr. Another boulder age provides a limiting minimum age of 48,800±3200 10Be yr for a broad-crested moraine ridge within Bear Valley. Three CRSE ages producing an average age of 18,600±1180 yr were drawn from two boulders near a sharp-crested bouldery lateral moraine that represents an extensive Tioga glaciation in Bear Valley. Nine CRSE ages from striated bedrock along a steep valley transect average 14,100±1500 yr and suggest rapid late-glacial ice retreat from lower Fordyce Canyon with no subsequent extensive glaciations. These ages are generally consistent with glacial and pluvial records in east-central California and Nevada. 相似文献
6.
J. ALAN BARTOW 《Sedimentology》1994,41(2):215-232
The Oligocene and Miocene Valley Springs Formation is one element in the middle to late Cenozoic alluvial fill of the Central Valley of California and represents a large fluvial depositional system that extended westward from sediment-filled palaeovalleys in the high Sierra Nevada to a piedmont alluvial plain under the present Central Valley. The Valley Springs Formation consists largely of tuffaceous mudrock, tuffaceous sandstone, polymict conglomerate and rhyodacitic tuff. The most prominent lithofacies in the formation is yellowish grey or greyish yellow, tuffaceous mudstone and claystone characterized by crude, commonly wavy layering or bedding, an irregular fracture, and common clay-lined partings, fissures, and small branching tubules. Petrographic and X-ray diffraction analyses of the composition, texture, fabric, mineralogy and organic content of an 8 m thick section of the tuffaceous mudrock lithofacies have provided evidence for an origin quite different from the earlier interpretations of this lithofacies as altered tuffs. Numerous rounded mudstone or claystone clasts in a detrital mud matrix, together with abundant freshwater microfossils (megaspores, chrysophyte cysts, diatoms and sponge spicules), indicates that the lithofacies is a mostly epiclastic sedimentary deposit. Root traces, fissuring, orientated clay skins lining pores and secondary surfaces, and mineralogical data are evidence of periodic exposure and desiccation. The tuffaceous mudrock lithofacies of the Valley Springs Formation, interpreted in the context of the middle to lower regions of a piedmont alluvial system, most probably represents a complex of ephemeral lake and marsh environments on a low gradient alluvial plain. The inferred abundance of shallow lakes, ponds and marshes implies a climate that was wetter than the semi-arid climate of the region today. 相似文献
7.
《International Geology Review》2012,54(13):1575-1615
Salinia, as originally defined, is a fault-bounded terrane in westcentral California. As defined, Salinia lies between the Nacimiento fault on the west, and the Northern San Andreas fault (NSAF) and the main trace of the dextral SAF system on the east. This allochthonous terrane was translated from the southern part of the Sierra Nevada batholith and adjacent western Mojave Desert region by Neogene-Quaternary displacement along the SAF system. The Salina crystalline basement formed a westward promontory in the SW Cordilleran Cretaceous batholithic belt, relative to the Sierra Nevada batholith to the north and the Peninsular Ranges batholith to the south, making Salinia batholithic rocks susceptible to capture by the Pacific plate when the San Andreas transform system developed. Proper restoration of offsets on all branches of the San Andreas system is a critical factor in understanding the Salinia problem. When cumulative dextral slip of 171 km (106 mi) along the Hosgri–San Simeon–San Gregorio–Pilarcitos fault zone (S–N), or dextral slip of 200 km (124 mi) along the Hosgri–San Simeon–San Gregorio–Pilarcitos–northern San Andreas fault system, is added to the cumulative dextral slip of 315–322 km (196–200 mi) along the main trace of the SAF north of the San Emigdio–Tehachapi mountains, central California, there is a minimum amount of cumulative dextral slip of 486 km (302 mi) or a maximum amount of cumulative dextral slip of 522 km (324 mi) along the entire SAF system north of the Tehachapi Mountains. When these sums are compared with the offset distance (610–675 km or 379–420 mi) between the batholithic rocks associated with the Navarro structural discontinuity (NSD) in northern California, and those in the ‘tail’ of the southern Sierra Nevada granitic rocks in the San Emigdio–Tehachapi mountains, central California, a minimum deficit of from ～100 km (～62 mi) to a maximum deficit of ～189 km (～118 mi) is needed to restore the crystalline rocks associated with the NSD with the crystalline terranes within the San Emigdio and Tehachapi mountains – the enigma of Salinia. Two principal geologic models compete to explain the enigma (i.e. the discrepancy between measured dextral slip along traces of the SAF system and the amount of separation between the Sierra Nevada batholithic rocks near Point Arena in northern California and the Mesozoic and older crystalline rocks in the San Emigdio and Tehachapi mountains in southern California). (i) One model proposes pre-Neogene (>23 Ma), Late Cretaceous or Maastrichtian (<ca. 71 Ma) to early Palaeocene or Danian (ca. 66 Ma) sinistral slip of 500–600 km (311–373 mi) along the Nacimiento fault and of the western flank of Salinia from the eastern flank of the Peninsular Ranges (sinistral slip but in the opposite sense to later Neogene (<23 Ma) dextral slip along and within the SAF system. (ii) A second model proposes that the crystalline rocks of Salinia comprise a series of 100 km- (60 mi-) scale allochthonous (extensional) nappes that rode southwestward above the Rand schist–Sierra de Salinas (SdS) shear zone subduction extrusion channels. The allochthonous nappes are from NW–SE: (i) Farallon Islands–Santa Cruz Mountains–Montara Mountain, and adjacent batholithic fragments that appear to have been derived from the top of the deep-level Sierra Nevada batholith of the western San Emigdio–Tehachapi mountains; (ii) the Logan Quarry–Loma Prieta Peak fragments that appear to have been derived from the top of a buried detachment fault that forms the basement surface beneath the Maricopa sub-basin of the southernmost Great Valley; (iii) The Pastoria plate–Gabilan Range massif that appears to have been derived from the top of the deep-level SE Sierra Nevada batholith; and (iv) the Santa Lucia–SdS massif, which appears to be lower batholithic crust and underlying extruded schist that were breached westwards from the central to western Mojave Desert region. In this model, lower crustal batholithic blocks underwent ductile stretching above the extrusion channel schists, while mid- to upper-crustal level rocks rode southwestwards and westwards along trenchward dipping detachment faults. Salinian basement rocks of the Santa Lucia Range and the Big Sur area record the most complete geologic history of the displaced terrane. The oldest rocks consist of screens of Palaeozoic marine metasedimentary rocks (the Sur Series), including biotite gneiss and schist, quartzite, granulite gneiss, granofels, and marble. The Sur Series was intruded during Cretaceous high-flux batholithic magmatism by granodiorite, diorite, quartz diorite, and at deepest levels, charnockitic tonalite. Local nonconformable remnants of Campanian–Maastrichtian marine strata lie on the deep-level Salinia basement, and record deposition in an extensional setting. These Cretaceous strata are correlated with the middle to upper Campanian Pigeon Point (PiP) Formation south of San Francisco. The Upper Cretaceous strata, belonging to the Great Valley Sequence, include clasts of the basement rocks and felsic volcanic clasts that in Late Cretaceous time were brought to a coastal region by streams and rivers from Mesozoic felsic volcanic rocks in the Mojave Desert. The Rand and SdS schists of southern California were underplated beneath the southern Sierra Nevada batholith and the adjacent Salinia-Mojave region along a shallow segment of the subducting Farallon plate during Late Cretaceous time. The subduction trajectory of these schists concluded with an abrupt extrusion phase. During extrusion, the schists were transported to the SW from deep- to shallow-crustal levels as the low-angle subduction megathrust surface was transformed into a mylonitic low-angle normal fault system (i.e. Rand fault and Salinas shear zone). The upper batholithic plate(s) was(ere) partially coupled to the extrusion flow pattern, which resulted in 100 km-scale westward displacements of the upper plate(s). Structural stacking, temporal and metamorphic facies relations suggest that the Nacimiento (subduction megathrust) fault formed beneath the Rand-SdS extrusion channel. Metamorphic and structural relations in lower plate Franciscan rocks beneath the Nacimiento fault suggest a terminal phase of extrusion as well, during which the overlying Salinia underwent extension and subsidence to marine conditions. Westward extrusion of the subduction-underplated rocks and their upper batholithic plates rendered these Salinia rocks susceptible to subsequent capture by the SAF system. Evidence supporting the conclusion that the Nacimiento fault is principally a megathrust includes: (i) shear planes of the Nacimiento fault zone in the westcentral Coast Ranges locally dip NE at low angles. (ii) Klippen and/or faulted klippen are locally present along the trace of the Nacimiento fault zone from the Big Creek–Vicente Creek region south of Point Sur near Monterey, to east of San Simeon near San Luis Obispo in central California. Allochthonous detachment sheets and windows into their underplated schists comprise a composite Salinia terrane. The nappe complex forming the allochthon of Salinia was translated westward and northwestward ～100 km (～62 mi) above the Nacimiento megathrust or Franciscan subduction megathrust from SE California between ca. 66 and ca. 61 Ma (i.e. latest Cretaceous–earliest Palaeocene time). Much, or all, of the westward breaching of the Salinia batholithic rocks likely occurred above the extrusion channels of the Rand-SdS schists; following this event, the Franciscan Sur-Obispo terrane was thrust beneath the schists, perhaps during the final stages of extrusion in the upper channel. Later, the Sur-Obispo terrane was partially extruded from beneath the Salinia nappe terrane, during which time the upper plate(s) underwent extension and subsidence to marine conditions. Attenuation of the Salinia nappe sequence during the extrusion of the Franciscan Complex thinned the upper crust, making the upper plates susceptible to erosion from the top of the Franciscan Complex near San Simeon, where it is now exposed. In the San Emigdio Mountains, the relatively thin structural thickness of the upper batholithic plates made them susceptible to late Cenozoic flexural folding and disruption by high-angle dip–slip faults. The ～100 km (～62 mi) of westward and northwestward breaching of the Salinia batholithic rocks above the Rand-SdS channels, and the underlying Nacimiento fault followed by ～510 km (～320 mi) of dextral slip from ～23 Ma to Holocene time along the SAF system, allow for the palinspastic restoration of Salinia with the crystalline rocks of the San Emigdio–Tehachapi mountains and the Mojave terrane, resolving the enigma of Salinia. 相似文献
8.
《Earth》2006,74(1-4):47-62
Strata interpreted to be eolian are recognized in the Neoproterozoic Big Bear Group in the San Bernardino Mountains of southern California, USA. The strata consist of medium- to large-scale (30 cm to > 6 m) cross-stratified quartzite considered to be eolian dune deposits and interstratified thinly laminated quartzite that are problematically interpreted as either eolian translatent climbing ripple laminae, or as tidal-flat deposits. High index ripples and adhesion structures considered to be eolian are associated with the thinly laminated and cross-stratified strata. The eolian strata are in a succession that is characterized by flaser bedding, aqueous ripple marks, mudcracks, and interstratified small-scale cross-strata that are suggestive of a tidal environment containing local fluvial deposits. The eolian strata may have formed in a near-shore environment inland of a tidal flat.The Neoproterozoic Big Bear Group is unusual in the western United States and may represent a remnant of strata that were originally more widespread and part of the hypothetical Neoproterozoic supercontinent of Rodinia. The Big Bear Group perhaps is preserved only in blocks that were downdropped along Neoproterozoic extensional faults. The eolian deposits of the Big Bear Group may have been deposited during arid conditions that preceded worldwide glacial events in the late Neoproterozoic. Possibly similar pre-glacial arid events are recognized in northern Mexico, northeast Washington, Australia, and northwest Canada. 相似文献
9.
At the San Joaquin plant site near Bakersfield, California, the Brunhes/Matuyama reversal was identified 4 m below an ash probably correlative with the Bishop Tuff. Deposition of coarse detritus in a high-energy environment preceded the reversal, whereas a low-energy lake and back-swamp type sedimentation persisted through most of the interval, separating the reversal and the ash. Sediments below the reversal are strongly remagnetized in a normal field. Identification of the original polarity is possible only with some of the specimens, so that accurate positioning of the reversal plane required dense and multiple sampling. Similar precaution at all sites where reversals are used for time-stratigraphic correlations is recommended. Paleomagnetic investigation was particularly useful in proving the presence of unfaulted strata at least 0.5 my old, as required by safety regulations of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). This is due to the fact that any thick layer of reversely magnetized sediment is with high probability older than 0.7 my. 相似文献
10.
M. L. PORTER 《Sedimentology》1987,34(4):661-680
The Lower Jurassic Aztec Sandstone is an aeolian-deposited quartzose sandstone that represents the western margin of the southerly-migrating Navajo-Nugget sand sea (or erg). Vertical and lateral facies relations suggest that the erg margin encroached upon volcanic highlands, alluvial fan, wadi and sabkha environments. In southern Nevada, 700 m thick facies successions record the arrival of the Aztec sand sea. Initial erg sedimentation in the Valley of Fire consists of lenticular or tongue-shaped aeolian sand bodies interstratified with fluvially-deposited coarse sandstone and mudstone. Above, evaporite-rich fine sandstone and mudstone are overlain by thick, cross-stratified aeolian sandstone that shows an upsection increase in set thickness. The lithofacies succession represents aeolian sand sheets and small dunes that migrated over a siliciclastic sabkha traversed by ephemeral wadis. These deposits were ultimately buried by large dunes and draas of the erg. In the Spring Mountains, a similar facies succession also contains thin, lenticular volcaniclastic conglomerate and sandstone. These sediments represent the distal margin of an alluvial fan complex sourced from the west. Thin aeolian sequences are interbedded with volcanic flow rocks, ash-flow tuffs, debris flows, and fluvial deposits in the Mojave Desert of southern California. These aeolian strata represent erg migration up the eastern flanks of a magmatic arc. The westward diminution of aeolian-deposited units may reflect incomplete erg migration, thin accumulation of aeolian sediment succeptible to erosion, and stratigraphic dilution by arc-derived sediment. A two-part division of the Aztec erg is suggested by lithofacies associations, the size and geometry of aeolian cross-strata, and sediment dispersal data. The leading or downwind margin of the erg, here termed the fore-erg, is represented by a 10–100 m thick succession of isolated pods, lenses, and tongues of aeolian-deposited sediment encased in fluvial and sabkha deposits. Continued sand-sea migration brought large dunes and draas of the erg interior into the study area; these 150–500 m thick central-erg sediments buried the fore-erg deposits. The trailing, upwind margin of the erg is represented by back-erg deposits in northern Utah and Wyoming. 相似文献
11.
Jonathan O. Davis 《Quaternary Research》1983,19(3):312-324
The Trego Hot Springs tephra bed is a silicic tephra about 23,400 yr old, found at several localities in pluvial lake sediments in northern Nevada, southern Oregon, and northeastern California. It has been characterized petrographically, by the major and minor element chemistry of its glass, and by its stratigraphic position with respect to other tephra layers. At a newly described locality on Squaw Creek, northwest of Gerlach, Nevada, at the north end of the Smoke Creek Desert, Trego Hot Springs tephra has been found in sediments of the Sehoo and Indian Lakes formations. The depositional environments of these sediments show that when the tephra fell, pluvial Lake Lahontan stood between 1256 and 1260 m, and that immediately thereafter the lake rose to at least 1275 m. These data corroborate earlier findings by Benson (Quaternary Research9, 300–318) from radiometric dating of calcareous tufa. However, the Lake Lahontan area has been affected by isostatic subsidence and rebound in response to changing water loads, so that caution is required in the use of lakeshore elevations in correlation. 相似文献
12.
Middle Paleozoic to Middle Jurassic terrane assemblies in the Klamaths and Sierran Foothills consist of mafic–ultramafic complexes + fine‐grained terrigenous strata derived from previously accreted continental‐margin belts. Sutured oceanic terranes reflect c. 230 Myr of margin‐parallel slip involving chiefly transtension and transpression. Quartzofeldspathic clastic rocks and blueschists ± eclogites are very rare. Little devolatilization occurred at magmagenic depths; hence, coeval hydrothermal ore deposits and granitoids are uncommon. In contrast, nearly head‐on Cretaceous subduction of the Farallon plate generated the massive Klamath–Sierra Nevada volcanic–plutonic arc, reflecting dewatering of the eastward descending oceanic lithosphere in the magmagenic zone. Immature Great Valley forearc and Franciscan trench deposits shed from the arc record c. 70 Myr. of rapid crustal growth. Au‐bearing solutions rising from magmagenic depths, exsolved from plutons, and expelled from heated wall rocks were mobilized attending arc construction. Precipitation of gold‐bearing quartz veins occurred where H2O + CO2‐bearing fluids encountered major geochemical discontinuities in the wall rocks. 相似文献
13.
GPS-derived velocities (1993–2002) in northwestern California show that processes other than subduction are in part accountable for observed upper-plate contraction north of the Mendocino triple junction (MTJ) region. After removing the component of elastic strain accumulation due to the Cascadia subduction zone from the station velocities, two additional processes account for accumulated strain in northern California. The first is the westward convergence of the Sierra Nevada–Great Valley (SNGV) block toward the coast and the second is the north–northwest impingement of the San Andreas fault system from the south on the northern California coastal region in the vicinity of Humboldt Bay. Sierra Nevada–Great Valley block motion is northwest toward the coast, convergent with the more northerly, north–northwest San Andreas transform fault-parallel motion. In addition to the westward-converging Sierra Nevada–Great Valley block, San Andreas transform-parallel shortening also occurs in the Humboldt Bay region. Approximately 22 mm/yr of distributed Pacific–SNGV motion is observed inland of Cape Mendocino across the northern projections of the Maacama and Bartlett Springs fault zones but station velocities decrease rapidly north of Cape Mendocino. The resultant 6–10 mm/yr of San Andreas fault-parallel shortening occurs above the southern edge of the subducted Gorda plate and at the latitude of Humboldt Bay. Part of the San Andreas fault-parallel shortening may be due to the viscous coupling of the southern edge of the Gorda plate to overlying North American plate. We conclude that significant portions of the upper-plate contraction observed north of the MTJ region are not solely a result of subduction of the Gorda plate but also a consequence of impingement of the western edge of the Sierra Nevada–Great Valley block and growth of the northernmost segments of the San Andreas fault system. 相似文献
14.
A. Freundt A. Hartmann S. Kutterolf W. Strauch 《International Journal of Earth Sciences》2010,99(6):1453-1470
The Tiscapa maar in the center of Managua city formed by a phreatomagmatic eruption <3 ka ago. The eruption excavated a crater
deep into the basement exposing a coherent Pleistocene to Holocene volcaniclastic succession that we have divided into four
formations. The lowermost, >60 ka old basaltic–andesitic formation F1 comprises mafic ignimbrites and phreatomagmatic tephras
derived from the Las Sierras volcanic complex south of Managua. Formation F2 contains the ~60 ka basaltic–andesitic Fontana
tephra erupted from the Las Nubes Caldera of the Las Sierras complex 15 km to the S, the 25 ka Upper Apoyo tephra from the
Apoyo Caldera 35 km to the SE, and the Lower (~17 ka) and Upper (12.4 ka) Apoyeque tephras from the Chiltepe volcanic complex
15 km to the NW. These tephras are separated by weathering horizons and paleosols indicating dry climatic conditions. Fluvial
deposits of a SSW-NNE running paleo-river system build formation F3. The fluvial sediments contain, from bottom to top, scoriae
from the ~6 ka basaltic San Antonio tephra, pumice lapilli from the Apoyo and Apoyeque tephras and the 6.1 ka Xiloà tephra,
and scoriae derived from the Fontana tephra. The fluvial sediment succession thus reflects progressively deeper carving erosion
in the southern highlands (where a large-amplitude regional erosional unconformity exists at the appropriate stratigraphic
level) that began after ~6 ka. This suggests that the mid-Holocene tropical high-precipitation climatic phase affected western
Nicaragua about a thousand years later than other circum-Caribbean regions. The end of the wet climate phase ~3 ka ago is
recorded by a deep weathering zone and paleosol atop formation F3 prior to the Tiscapa eruption. Formation F4 is the Tiscapa
tuffring composed of pyroclastic surge and fallout deposits that cover a minimum area of 1.2 km2. The 4 × 109 kg of erupted basaltic magma is compositionally and genetically related to the low-Ti basalts of the N–S striking Nejapa-Miraflores
volcanic–tectonic alignment 5 km to the West of Tiscapa. Ascent and eruption mode of the Tiscapa magma were controlled by
the Tiscapa fault that has a very active seismic history as it achieved 12 m displacement in about 3000 years. Managua city
is thus exposed to continued seismic and volcanic risks. 相似文献
15.
VICTOR B. CHERVEN 《Sedimentology》1984,31(6):823-836
ABSTRACT The early Pleistocene Laguna and Turlock Lake Formations and China Hat and Arroyo Seco Gravels along the east side of the San Joaquin Valley, California, were deposited in alluvial fans and marginal lakes. Upward-coarsening sequences of silt-sand-gravel record westward progradation of glacial outwash fans from the Sierra Nevada into proglacial lakes in the San Joaquin Valley. Distinctive sedimentary features delineate lacustrine, prodelta, and delta-front facies within fan-margin deposits and lower, middle, and upper-fan facies within alluvial-fan deposits. The lacustrine facies consists of a few metres of thinly and evenly bedded, rhythmically laminated claystone and clayey siltstone in varved couplets. Draped lamination, sinusoidal lamination, and load and pillar structures occur in some beds. Siltstone and claystone grade upward to slightly thicker wavy beds of siltstone and very fine-grained unconsolidated sand deposited in a prodelta setting. Convolute laminae within deformed steeply dipping foreset beds suggest slumping on the prodelta slope. The prodelta facies grades up to the delta-front facies, which consists of burrowed and bioturbated cross-bedded fine sand. Deltaic deposits are 5–6 m thick. The lower-fan facies forms the base of the fan sequence and consists of several metres of irregularly bedded, laminated, oxidized siltstone and fine sand. The middle-fan facies consists of cross-bedded, medium-grained to gravelly sand-filled channels cut into the lower-fan facies. Interbedded lens-shaped siltstone beds 2 m thick and several metres across were deposited in abandoned channels. The upper-fan facies consists of moderately to strongly weathered clayey gravel and sand containing pebble imbrication and crude stratification. Argillization during post-depositional soil formation has blurred the distinction between mud-supported debris-flow deposits and clast-supported channel deposits, but both are present in this facies. The deposits described here demonstrate the need for additional fan models in order to incorporate the variety of deposits developed in alluvial fan sequences deposited in humid climates. In previous models based on arctic fans, debris flows, abandoned channels, or widespread siltstone beds are not present in fan sequences, nor are marginal lacustrine and deltaic deposits well represented. 相似文献
16.
Provenance analysis of middle Cretaceous sedimentary rocks can help distinguish between disparate tectonic models of Cretaceous Cordilleran paleogeography by establishing links between sediment and source, as well as between currently separated basins. This study combines new detrital zircon age data and compositional data with existing provenance data for the Pythian Cave conglomerate, an informally-named unit deposited unconformably on the eastern Klamath Mountains, to test possible correlations between the Pythian Cave conglomerate and similar-age deposits in the Hornbrook Formation and the Great Valley Group. These provenance results indicate that restoring Late Cretaceous clockwise rotation of the Blue Mountains adds a significant sediment source for Cretaceous basins previously associated with only the Klamath Mountains (e.g., the Pythian Cave conglomerate and Hornbrook Formation) or a combined Klamath-Sierran source (e.g., Great Valley Group). Comparison of the Pythian Cave conglomerate with the Klamath River Conglomerate and the Lodoga petrofacies suggests that the Pythian Cave conglomerate system was separate from the nearby Hornbrook Formation and was probably related to the Lodoga petrofacies of the Great Valley Group. 相似文献
17.
Robert A. Zielinski 《Journal of Geochemical Exploration》1982,16(3):197-216
Uraniferous, fluorescent opal, which occurs in tuffaceous sedimentary rocks at Virgin Valley, Nevada, records the temperature and composition of uranium-rich solutions as well as the time of uranium-silica coprecipitation. Results are integrated with previous geologic and geochronologic data for the area to produce a model for uranium mobility that may be used to explore for uranium deposits in similar geologic settings.Uraniferous opal occurs as replacements of diatomite, or silicic air-fall ash layers in tuffaceous lakebeds of the Virgin Valley Formation (Miocene) of Merriam (1907). Fission-track radiography shows uranium to be homogeneously dispersed throughout the opal structure, suggesting coprecipitation of dissolved uranium and silica gel. Fluid inclusions preserved within opal replacements of diatomite have homogenization temperatures in the epithermal range and are of low salinity. Four samples of opal from one locality all have U-Pb apparent ages which suggest uraniferous opal precipitation in late Pliocene time. These ages correspond to a period of local, normal faulting, and highangle faults may have served as vertical conduits for transport of deep, thermalized ground water to shallower levels. Lateral migration of rising solutions occurred at intersections of faults with permeable strata. Silica and some uranium were dissolved from silica-rich host strata of 5–20 ppm original uranium content and reprecipitated as the solutions cooled. The model predicts that in similar geologic settings, ore-grade concentrations of uranium will occur in permeable strata that intersect high-angle faults and that contain uranium source rocks as well as efficient reductant traps for uranium. In the absence of sufficient quantities of reductant materials, uranium will be flushed from the system or will accumulate in low-grade disseminated hosts such as uraniferous opal. 相似文献
18.
M.A Lanphere D.E Champion M.A Clynne J.B Lowenstern A.M Sarna-Wojcicki J.L Wooden 《Quaternary Research》2004,62(1):94-104
The age of the Rockland tephra, which includes an ash-flow tuff south and west of Lassen Peak in northern California and a widespread ash-fall deposit that produced a distinct stratigraphic marker in western North America, is constrained to 565,000 to 610,000 yr by 40Ar/39Ar and U-Pb dating. 40Ar/39Ar ages on plagioclase from pumice in the Rockland have a weighted mean age of 609,000 ± 7000 yr. Isotopic ages of spots on individual zircon crystals, analyzed by the SHRIMP-RG ion microprobe, range from ∼500,000 to ∼800,000 yr; a subpopulation representing crystal rims yielded a weighted-mean age of 573,000 ± 19,000 yr. Overall stratigraphic constraints on the age are provided by two volcanic units, including the underlying tephra of the Lava Creek Tuff erupted within Yellowstone National Park that has an age of 639,000 ± 2000 yr. The basaltic andesite of Hootman Ranch stratigraphically overlies the Rockland in the Lassen Peak area and has 40Ar/39Ar ages of 565,000 ± 29,000 and 565,000 ± 12,000 yr for plagioclase and groundmass, respectively. Identification of Rockland tephra in ODP core 1018 offshore of central California is an important stratigraphic age that also constrains the eruption age to between 580,000 and 600,000 yr. 相似文献
19.
《International Geology Review》2012,54(4):355-367
The Lick Observatory 7.5-minute quadrangle exposes evidence of geologic events that range from subduction of Mesozoic Franciscan Complex, through accumulation of marine Miocene porcellanite and clastics, to the development of the San Andreas fault system and deformation within it. The active Calaveras fault zone, with its linear valleys and subparallel strike-slip strands, transects the quadrangle and, northwest of San Filipe Valley, joins and incorporates the older Madrone Springs fault. The topography has formed in the past 1 to 2 million years and rises northeastward from the East Evergreen range-front thrust, across the Calaveras and several inferred mountain-building faults, to the 1280 m crest of Mt. Hamilton. The stratigraphy includes coherent, variously schistose metagraywacke of the late Mesozoic Franciscan Complex; discordant zones of melange of sheared shale and blocks that include blueschist and eclogite; serpentine that may represent the Coast Range Ophiolite; relatively undeformed sandstone, shale, and conglomerate of the late Mesozoic Great Valley sequence; marine Miocene Claremont Porcellanite, mudstone, and Briones Sandstone; and deformed nonmarine gravels of the Pleistocene and Pliocene Santa Clara Formation. The Franciscan sandstones are complexly deformed and discordantly transected by tectonically emplaced melange zones; a local chert mass marks the remnant of a discordantly overlying thrust sheet. Southwest of the Calaveras zone, folded Miocene rocks are faulted over the more strongly deformed Great Valley sequence. Those rocks, in turn, are thrust over small windows of Franciscan rock, and the entire mountain mass is thrust over Santa Clara gravels at the foot of the range. These latter structures postdate the 3.5 Ma imposition of compression across the plate margin suggested by plate tectonic reconstructions. 相似文献
20.
At the western edge of the Basin and Range Province, the Owens Valley is the site of active seismicity and deformation. Morphometric analyses of three geomorphological features are used to determine the patterns and rates of neotectonic deformation: (l) a network of Pleistocene channels cut on top of the Bishop Tuff; (2) uplifted terraces of the Owens River; and (3) alluvial fans of the White Mountain front.In the Owens Valley, the three analyses are consistent with the same solution: net eastward tilt of the Owens Valley block at a rate of between 3.5 and 6.1°/Ma. Given the dip on the basement determined from geophysical data and extrapolating the rate of tilt in the Owens Valley back in time, it is inferred that the break-up of the Sierra Nevada and the northern Owens Valley occurred in the Pliocene, between around 2 and 4 Ma ago. The pattern of deformation in the northern Owens Valley matches anticlinal flexure on the Coyote warp, near the front of the Sierra Nevada, and faulting across the Volcanic Tableland is consistent with flexural extension. It is proposed that the Coyote warp is an expression of the tectonic hinge between westward rotation of the Sierra Nevada and eastward rotation of the Owens Valley since the Pliocene. 相似文献