A Miocene river in northern Arizona and its implications for the Colorado River and Grand Canyon

Lucchitta, Ivo; Holm, Richard F.; Lucchitta, B. K.

doi:10.1130/g119a.1

Cited by 25 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…The Colorado River was in a stage preceding the modern Grand Canyon at this time, although older canyons were present [68],[70],[71]. Pantosteus (and Catostomus ) must have expanded their range through the Basin and Range area where the Colorado Plateau and the northern and southern portions of the Great Basin meet (Figs.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Introgression and Geological Processes on Phylogenetic Relationships of Western North American Mountain Suckers (Pantosteus, Catostomidae)

et al. 2014

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Intense geological activity caused major topographic changes in Western North America over the past 15 million years. Major rivers here are composites of different ancient rivers, resulting in isolation and mixing episodes between river basins over time. This history influenced the diversification of most of the aquatic fauna. The genus Pantosteus is one of several clades centered in this tectonically active region. The eight recognized Pantosteus species are widespread and common across southwestern Canada, western USA and into northern Mexico. They are typically found in medium gradient, middle-elevation reaches of rivers over rocky substrates. This study (1) compares molecular data with morphological and paleontological data for proposed species of Pantosteus, (2) tests hypotheses of their monophyly, (3) uses these data for phylogenetic inferences of sister-group relationships, and (4) estimates timing of divergence events of identified lineages. Using 8055 base pairs from mitochondrial DNA protein coding genes, Pantosteus and Catostomus are reciprocally monophyletic, in contrast with morphological data. The only exception to a monophyletic Pantosteus is P. columbianus whose mtDNA is closely aligned with C. tahoensis because of introgression. Within Pantosteus, several species have deep genetic divergences among allopatric sister lineages, several of which are diagnosed and elevated to species, bringing the total diversity in the group to 11 species. Conflicting molecular and morphological data may be resolved when patterns of divergence are shown to be correlated with sympatry and evidence of introgression.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Introgression and Geological Processes on Phylogenetic Relationships of Western North American Mountain Suckers (Pantosteus, Catostomidae)

et al. 2014

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“…Collapse in the Basin and Range led to headward erosion and deep dissection of Plateau strata. Lucchitta et al (2011) made a strong case that a river flowing southwestward from Colorado was coursing through the Kaibab upwarp in what is now eastern Grand Canyon by the Middle Miocene. Karlstrom et al (2014) calculated that, by 6 Ma, the river crossing the Kaibab upwarp had already incised all Mesozoic strata and had reached the Mississippian Redwall Limestone.…”

Section: Sequence Of Events and Their Relationships To Landform Evolumentioning

confidence: 97%

The footprints of ancient CO2-driven flow systems: Ferrous carbonate concretions below bleached sandstone

Loope

Kettler

2015

Geosphere

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Iron-rich carbonates and the oxidized remains of former carbonates (iron-oxide concretions) underlie bleached Navajo Sandstone over large portions of southern Utah. Iron in the carbonates came from hematite rims on sand grains in the upper Navajo that were dissolved when small quantities of methane accumulated beneath the sealing Carmel Formation. As a second buoyant gas (CO 2 derived from Oligocene-Miocene magmas ) reached the seal and migrated up dip, it dissolved in the underlying water, enhancing the solution's density. This water carried the released ferrous iron and the methane downward. Carbonates precipitated when the descending, reducing water degassed along fractures. The distribution of a broad array of iron-rich features made recognition of the extent of the ancient flow systems possible. Although siderite is not preserved, dense, rhombic, mm-scale, iron-oxide pseudomorphs after ferrous carbonates are common. Distinctive patterns of iron oxide were also produced when large (cm-scale), poikilotopic carbonate crystals with multiple iron-rich zones dissolved in oxidizing waters. Rhombic pseudomorphs are found in the central cores of small spheroids and large (meter-scale), irregular concretions that are defined by thick, tightly cemented rinds of iron-oxide-cemented sandstone. The internal structure and distribution of these features reveal their origins as ironcarbonate concretions that formed within a large-scale flow system that was altered dramatically during Neogene uplift of the Colorado Plateau. With rise of the Plateau, the iron-carbonate concretions passed upward from reducing formation water to shallow, oxidizing groundwater flowing parallel to modern drainages. Finally they passed into the vadose zone. Absolute dating of different portions of these widespread concretions could thus reveal uplift rates for a large portion of the Plateau. Iron-rich masses in other sedimentary rocks may reveal flow systems with similar histories.

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“…5). First, as suggested by Lucchitta et al (2011), a major drainage (x) may have exited the Colorado Plateau in southwestern Utah and then fl owed northward along the relict front of the Sevier thrust belt in western Utah. This drainage geometry would explain thermochronometric evidence for the cutting of an early Miocene paleocanyon across the Kaibab uplift .…”

Section: Oligocene-miocene Drainage Networkmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…The possibility of a paleodrainage that fl owed northward from the eastern Grand Canyon area (y in Fig. 5) was discounted by Lucchitta et al (2011) on the basis of topographic incompatibilities that result from presumed steep fl uvial paleogradients and a rationale that regional tilting was insuffi cient to allow northward drainage. However, fl uvial systems did drain northward from the northern plateau during the late Oligocene-early Miocene (as recorded by the lower Browns Park Formation of northwestern Colorado; Buffl er, 2003), and a major north-fl owing river exited the northern Colorado Plateau in southern Wyoming (Ferguson, 2011), although probably during the late Miocene.…”

Section: Oligocene-miocene Drainage Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diachronous episodes of Cenozoic erosion in southwestern North America and their relationship to surface uplift, paleoclimate, paleodrainage, and paleoaltimetry

2012

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The history of erosion of southwestern North America and its relationship to surface uplift is a long-standing topic of debate. We use geologic and thermochronometric data to reconstruct the erosion history of southwestern North America. We infer that erosion events occurred mostly in response to surface uplift by contemporaneous tectonism, and were not long-delayed responses to surface uplift caused by later climate change or drainage reorganization. Rock uplift in response to isostatic compensation of exhumation occurred during each erosion event, but has been quantifi ed only for parts of the late Miocene-Holocene erosion episode. We recognize four episodes of erosion and associated tectonic uplift: (1) the Laramide orogeny (ca. 75-45 Ma), during which individual uplifts were deeply eroded as a result of uplift by thrust faults, but Laramide basins and the Great Plains region remained near sea level, as shown by the lack of signifi cant Laramide exhumation in these areas; (2) late middle Eocene erosion (ca. 42-37 Ma) in Wyoming, Montana, and Colorado, which probably occurred in response to epeirogenic uplift from lithospheric rebound that followed the cessation of Laramide dynamic subsidence; (3) late Oligocene-early Miocene deep erosion (ca. 27-15 Ma) in a broad region of the southern Cordillera (including the southern Colorado Plateau, southern Great Plains, trans-Pecos Texas, and northeastern Mexico), which was uplifted in response to increased mantle buoyancy associated with major concurrent volcanism in the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico and in the Southern Rocky Mountains; (4) Late Miocene-Holocene erosion (ca. 6-0 Ma) in a broad area of southwestern North America, with loci of deep erosion in the western Colorado-eastern Utah region and in the western Sierra Madre Occidental. Erosion in western Colorado-eastern Utah refl ects mantle-related rock uplift as well as an important isostatic component caused by compensation of deep fl uvial erosion in the upper Colorado River drainage following its integration to the Gulf of California.Erosion in the western Sierra Madre Occidental occurred in response to rift-shoulder uplift and the proximity of oceanic base level following the late Miocene opening of the Gulf of California. We cannot estimate the amount of rock or surface uplift associated with each erosion episode, but the maximum depths of exhumation for each were broadly similar (typically ~1-3 km). Only the most recent erosion episode is temporally correlated with climate change.Paleoaltimetric studies, except for those based on leaf physiognomy, are generally compatible with the uplift chronology we propose here. Physiognomy-based paleo eleva tion data suggest that near-modern elevations were attained during the Paleogene, but are the only data that uniquely support such interpretations. High Paleogene elevations require a complex late Paleogene-Neogene uplift and subsidence history for the Front Range and western Great Plains of Colorado that is not compatible with the regional sedimentation and er...

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A Miocene river in northern Arizona and its implications for the Colorado River and Grand Canyon

Cited by 25 publications

References 2 publications

Influence of Introgression and Geological Processes on Phylogenetic Relationships of Western North American Mountain Suckers (Pantosteus, Catostomidae)

Influence of Introgression and Geological Processes on Phylogenetic Relationships of Western North American Mountain Suckers (Pantosteus, Catostomidae)

The footprints of ancient CO2-driven flow systems: Ferrous carbonate concretions below bleached sandstone

Diachronous episodes of Cenozoic erosion in southwestern North America and their relationship to surface uplift, paleoclimate, paleodrainage, and paleoaltimetry

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