Dissertation
INVESTIGATING THE SPACE-TIME EVOLUTION OF CORDILLERAN DEFORMATION AND DEPOSITION IN CENTRAL NEVADA: INSIGHTS FROM EARLY CRETACEOUS SYN-TECTONIC BASINS
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2020
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/117017
Abstract
The structural development and deposition timing of syn-tectonic basins provides critical information for understanding the evolution of mountain belts. In the western U.S., the Cordilleran orogen was constructed between the Jurassic and Paleogene (~150-50 Ma) in response to Andean-style subduction of the Farallon oceanic plate beneath the North American continental plate. Most Cordilleran crustal shortening was accommodated by thin-skinned deformation in the Sevier fold-thrust belt in western Utah. To the west of the thrust belt, a broad hinterland region existed across much of what is now Nevada and western Utah. Decades of research in the Sevier thrust belt and associated foreland basin system have yielded a solid understanding of the timing of deformation and deposition. However, many questions remain regarding the timing and magnitude of deformation and the timing and environments of syn-orogenic deposition within the hinterland region.
We focus our attention to a major player in retroarc hinterland interior deformation, the central Nevada thrust belt (CNTB). It has been estimated that this thrust belt is responsible for up to ~15 km of shortening, but temporal bracketing is lacking for this important structural corridor. However, there are isolated exposures of the synorogenic of the Cretaceous Newark Canyon Formation coincident with the extent of the CNTB, which offers the opportunity to better constrain this hinterland deformation. Here, we present new detailed geologic mapping and U-Pb zircon geochronology of the four most extensive exposures of the Newark Canyon Formation which demonstrates the syntectonic deposition proximal to CNTB deformation.
The detailed geologic mapping and U-Pb zircon geochronology add much-needed temporal constraints along within the Sevier hinterland. Specifically, CNTB deformation was contemporaneous with shortening in the Sevier thrust belt, which defines middle Cretaceous strain partitioning between frontal and interior components of the Cordillera. Strain partitioning may have been promoted by renewed underthrusting during a period of high-flux magmatism.
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Details
- Title
- INVESTIGATING THE SPACE-TIME EVOLUTION OF CORDILLERAN DEFORMATION AND DEPOSITION IN CENTRAL NEVADA: INSIGHTS FROM EARLY CRETACEOUS SYN-TECTONIC BASINS
- Creators
- Russell Di Fiori
- Contributors
- Sean P. Long (Advisor)Jeffrey D Vervoort (Committee Member)David Gaylord (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Environment, School of the (CAHNRS)
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 250
- Identifiers
- 99900581612001842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation