Browsing by Subject "Foreland basin"
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Item Cenozoic deformation history of the Andean plateau in southern Peru : stratigraphic, structural, and geochronologic constraints(2015-08) Perez, Nicholas David; Horton, Brian K., 1970; Gulick, Sean; McQuarrie, Nadine; Steel, Ron; Stockli, Daniel FCenozoic shortening in the central Andes of southern Peru was accommodated by thin- and thick-skinned deformation that governed hinterland/foreland basin dynamics, the timing and location of exhumation, and development of modern high topography. A new line length balanced cross section estimates 130 km of shortening (38%) across the Eastern Cordillera and Subandean Zone. I propose the location of a pre-Andean graben in the Eastern Cordillera, and a kinematic model that links selectively inverted basement-involved normal faults to shallow detachments that accommodate thin-skinned deformation across the orogen. New U-Pb zircon geochronology from synrift deposits establishes Triassic age deposition, and suggests compartmentalized rift basins were filled with local Eastern Cordillera sediment sources. Eocene exhumation in the Eastern Cordillera represents reactivation of Triassic normal faults and the onset of Andean deformation. In-sequence deformation was transferred from the Eastern Cordillera to the Altiplano by the thin-skinned Central Andean Backthrust Belt and induced flexural subsidence in the Ayaviri hinterland basin beginning at ~30 Ma. Facies analyses, sediment provenance, geochronology, and structural mapping define multiple phases of basin reorganization that are temporally correlative with motion along basin margin thrust faults. Major middle Miocene reorganization of the Ayaviri basin is linked to ~17 Ma out-of-sequence thrust fault motion in the Western Cordillera. Oligocene-Miocene hinterland basin evolution in the northern Altiplano was driven by thrust tectonics. U-Pb detrital zircon geochronology from Cretaceous through Cenozoic stratigraphy in hinterland and foreland basins record distinct provenance differences since the Cretaceous. This is the detrital record of either an inherited structural high in the Eastern Cordillera that predated Eocene shortening and created two depocenters with distinct provenance, or lateral provenance variations across a large retroarc foreland basin. Existing K/Ar, ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar, and new zircon (U-Th)/He thermochronology suggest Eocene-Oligocene exhumation in the Eastern Cordillera was synchronous ~400 km along strike. New apatite (U-Th)/He data from the Eastern Cordillera demonstrate a change to localized, diachronous exhumation and uplift events in the Miocene-Pliocene. Apatite (U-Th)/He thermochronology demonstrates onset of deformation in the Subandean Zone by ~15 Ma, after shortening and exhumation in the Eastern and Western Cordillera ceased.Item Cenozoic evolution of a fragmented foreland basin, Altiplano plateau, southern Peru(2012-05) Fitch, Justin David; Horton, Brian K., 1970-Debate persists on the timing, magnitude and style of crustal shortening, uplift and basin evolution in the Andes. Many studies suggest that the central Andes, including the Altiplano plateau, were gradually uplifted as a result of protracted Cenozoic retroarc shortening. However, recent isotopic studies conclude that the Andes instead rose in pulses, with the most significant event occurring at 10-6 Ma. Many researchers attribute these rapid pulses of uplift to lower lithosphere delamination events. A better understanding of the history of Cenozoic crustal shortening is essential for determination of the mechanism(s) of Andean uplift. The well-exposed Cenozoic San Jerónimo Group was studied in the Ayaviri basin of the northern Altiplano in southern Peru. The 3-5 km-thick succession is situated at 3900-4800 m elevation, between the Western Cordillera magmatic arc and the Eastern Cordillera fold-thrust-belt. New detrital zircon U-Pb geochronological results from four sandstones and one reworked tuff in the San Jerónimo succession show large age populations indicative of syndepositional volcanism between approximately 38 and 27 Ma. A 1600-m-thick magnetostratigraphic section further constrains the depositional timing and accumulation rate of the upper portion of the succession. Sedimentological observations show a rapid transition from cross-stratified braided-fluvial sandstones to proximal channel-fill and alluvial-fan conglomerates at ~30 Ma. Paleocurrent measurements show important temporal and spatial variations in sediment dispersal patterns while conglomerate clast counts show an upsection transition from almost exclusively volcanic input to increasing contributions of clastic, quartzite, and limestone detritus. The corresponding shifts in depositional environment and sediment provenance are attributed to the activation of new thrust structures in close proximity to the basin, namely the Pucapuca-Sorapata fault system, indicating the presence of an eastward advancing fold-thrust belt dating to at least 38 Ma and reaching the Ayaviri basin within the northern Altiplano plateau at ~30 Ma.Item Fluvial, shoreline, and clastic wedge responses to foreland basin and Laramide style subsidence: Examples from experimental studies and the Greater Green River Basin, southern Wyoming(2014-08) Leva Lopez, Julio; Steel, R. J.; Kim, WonsuckSubsidence is one of the main factors controlling the stratigraphy and overall stratal architecture in tectonically active basins. This was particularly important in the Western US Cordilleran foreland and Laramide basins when some other controls were minor, e.g. reduced eustatic fluctuations in the late Cretaceous greenhouse period. The first part of the dissertation examines the upper Campanian Williams Fork Clastic Wedge (WFCW) in southern Wyoming and northern Colorado, through an outcrop and subsurface database. The WFCW built out from the Sevier orogenic belt like earlier clastic wedges, but its large-scale geometry changed as basement involved Laramide structures partitioned it. At the center of the WFCW there is an extensive fluvial sandstone sheet, the Canyon Creek Member of the Ericson Formation. From its proximal to distal reaches (~200 km) there is a first order trend of stratigraphic thickening and net-to-gross reduction, and a change from braided to meandering depositional style. These trends are caused by isostatic rebound of the foreland basin during periods of relative quiescence in the Sevier orogenic belt and by the eastward migration of dynamic subsidence. However, this long spatial trend was markedly modified by differential subsidence across Laramide-style structures. The Campanian age initiation of the Laramide structures appears to be earlier than the Maastrichtian to Paleogene age commonly attributed to the initiation of this orogeny. The second part of this research focuses on the transgressive limb of the WFCW, particularly on two sandstone bodies isolated in marine mudstones in the uppermost Almond Formation. The sandstone bodies previously interpreted as lowstand shoreline deposits are re-interpreted as transgressive shelf ridges generated by tidal currents and storm waves. There are limited examples of ancient tidal shelf ridges published and no facies model was described. Using Almond Fm. outcrops and examples from the literature, the diagnostic characteristics of storm and tidal shelf ridges are presented. The third part of the dissertation investigates the effects of differential subsidence on the large scale stratigraphic infill of a foreland basin through a geometric model and a series of flume experiments. The mathematical model and flume experiments show that despite constant allogenic forcing, three distinct autogenic responses in stratal architecture, associated with the imposed tectonic and sediment supply conditions are possible. The first response was “autoretreat”, where shoreline migration switched from initial progradation to retrogradation. The second response was progradation followed by constant aggradation. The third response was maintained progradation with a markedly accelerating rate, a new autogenic behavior termed “shoreline autoacceleration”.