The South Fork Fault System (SFFS) extends more than 35 km along the valley of the South Fork of the Shoshone River, southwest of Cody, Wyoming. Tear faults, a triangle zone, and flat-ramp geometries mark the leading edge of the system. Transport was southeast, down a shallow slope during the early to middle Eocene, approximately coeval with the Heart Mountain Fault System (HMFS). Detachment of the SFFS is in Lower Jurassic strata, rich in gypsum-anhydrite, overlain by about 1250 m of Jurassic through Tertiary sedimentary and volcanic rocks. Movement between 5 km and 10 km to the southeast spread the allochthonous mass over an area exceeding 1400 km 2 . A newly discovered break-away fault and an area of Eocene tectonic denudation mark the upper (northwestern) part of the system. The SFFS is interpreted to have developed in a style similar to the HMFS. The exposed, denuded surface was buried by additional Eocene-age volcanic rocks soon after slip. Seismic data and well control indicate that the Castle Tear Fault is a high-angle tear in the SFFS that merges at depth with the detachment in Jurassic strata. Structural relationships suggest that the Castle Tear Fault folded the emplaced HMFS during transport of the SFFS, indicating the SFFS is younger than the HMFS. Catastrophic rear-loading during emplacement of HMFS may have initiated subsequent movement on the SFFS, with dehydration processes trapping water in a nearly frictionless, anhydrite-water slurry within the Jurassic Gypsum Spring Formation. Rapid movement along this boundary caused "piggyback"-style spreading of several large carbonate blocks of the HMFS as the SFFS slid to the southeast. Tear faults in the developing SFFS created variable structural geometries within the slide mass and caused transport distance to vary between 5 km and 10 km.
Knowledge of pre-Flood geography and the location of the Garden of Eden have eluded Bible-believing scientists and theologians. This study attempts to reconstruct the gross geography of the pre-Flood world by examining the detailed stratigraphy that was deposited during the Flood. Over 1500 stratigraphic columns were constructed across North and South America and Africa, recording the lithology and stratigraphy at each location. Sedimentary layers were examined using Sloss-type megasequences which allowed detailed analysis of the progression of the Flood in six discrete depositional segments. The three earliest megasequences, Sauk, Tippecanoe and Kaskaskia, were the most limited in areal coverage and volume and contain almost exclusively marine fossils, indicating a likely marine realm. The 4 th megasequence (Absaroka) shows a dramatic increase in global coverage and volume and includes the first major plant and terrestrial animal fossils. The 5 th megasequence (Zuni) appears to be the highest water point of the Flood (Day 150) as it exhibits the maximum global volume of sediment and the maximum areal coverage, compared to all earlier megasequences. The final megasequence (Tejas) exhibits fossils indicative of the highest upland areas of the pre-Flood world. Its rocks document a major shift in direction reflective of the receding water phase of the Flood. Results include the first, data-based, pre-Flood geography map for half of the world. By comparing the individual megasequences to the fossil record, patterns emerge that fit the concept of ecological zonation. The paper concludes with a new ecological zonation-megasequence model for Flood strata and the fossil record.
Exposed along the southeast fl ank of the Colorado Front Range are rocks that beautifully illustrate the interplay of sedimentation and tectonics. Two major rangebounding faults, the Ute Pass fault and the Rampart Range fault, converge on the Garden of the Gods region west of Colorado Springs. Cambrian through Cretaceous strata upturned by these faults reveal in their grain compositions, textures, and bedforms radically different styles of sedimentation. The Cambrian/Ordovician marine transgressive deposits appear to have come to rest on a passive and tectonically inactive craton. In contrast, coarse-grained Pennsylvanian/Permian marine deposits of the Fountain Formation and Lyons Sandstone reveal deposition by suspension and tractive currents in a very dynamic tectonic setting. These styles are contrasted with the alternating eustatics of the Western Interior Seaway which led to the local Cretaceous section. Finally, the powerful imprint of the Laramide orogeny is evident in the sandstone dikes of Sawatch Sandstone which are found within the hanging wall of the Ute Pass fault.
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