Late Mesozoic and early Cenozoic history of central Utah

Spieker, Edmund M.

doi:10.3133/pp205d

Cited by 99 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…1). Though the maximum extent of each lake was not coeval, there is evidence for periods of connectivity between these lakes (Spieker, 1946;Stanley and Collinson, 1979;Roehler, 1992), as well as with Lake Gosiute in southwest Wyoming and the lake in the Piceance Creek Basin of northwest Colorado (Surdam and Stanley, 1979;Smith et al, 2006).…”

Section: Geologic Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Upsection, the Flagstaff Member is overlain by the late early Eocene Green River Formation of the Flagstaff Basin. Though it has not been possible to correlate the Green River Formation of the Flagstaff Basin with the formation of the same name in the Uinta Basin, some workers have suggested that the limestone and marl of the Flagstaff Basin represent sedimentation in a southerly arm of a continuous Lake Uinta (Spieker, 1946). However, others argue for a discrete Flagstaff depocenter on the basis of geochemistry (Stanley and Collinson, 1979).…”

Section: Lake Flagstaffmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Paleogene landscape evolution of the central North American Cordillera: Developing topography and hydrology in the Laramide foreland

Davis¹,

Mulch²,

Carroll³

et al. 2006

Geol Soc America Bull

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Isotopic and elemental records of authigenic calcite from lacustrine deposits in the intraforeland basins of Utah were analyzed in an effort to reconstruct the regional paleoclimate, paleohydrology, and paleotopography of the early Cenozoic central North American Cordillera. Isotopic profi les for Paleogene Lakes Uinta, Flagstaff, and Claron show relatively large oxygen isotopic shifts that are diachronous among basins with an ~7‰ decrease in δ 18O calcite values at ca. 45 Ma in Lake Flagstaff, an ~5‰ decrease in δ 18O calcite values between ca. 42 and 35 Ma in Lake Claron, and an ~6‰ decrease in δ 18O calcite values between ca. 44 and 43 Ma in Lake Uinta. We interpret these negative oxygen isotopic shifts to be the combined result of increased hypsometric mean elevation of basin catchments and related freshening associated with basin infi lling. The basins studied also have undergone periods of intense evaporation during periods of hydrologic closure, which, for example, produced an ~7‰ increase in δ 18O calcite values in Lake Uinta beginning at ca. 51 Ma. Hydrologic closure in the Uinta Basin probably resulted from growth of local topography that diverted previously substantial infl ows from low elevation regions within the foreland.This study adds to the growing body of evidence that suggests a pattern of alongstrike variations in the timing of topographic development and dissection of the Cordilleran landscape during the early Cenozoic. We favor an interpretation that calls for the middle Eocene rearrangement of regional drainage patterns such that intraforeland basins that once received waters from far-fl ung foreland river systems became dominated by infl ows of low δ 18O waters from catchments with higher hypsometric mean elevations that drained the adjacent hinterland and/or basin-bounding uplifts. This drainage reorganization is analogous but subsequent to the large-scale integration of catchments in the northern Cordillera that has been recognized on the basis of isotopic and sedimentological evidence in Montana and Idaho at ca. 50-47 Ma, with rivers fl owing southeast into Lake Gosiute at ca. 49 Ma and then for a time reaching Lake Uinta, causing a prominent highstand in that lake at 48.6 Ma. The negative oxygen isotopic shifts presented herein, which occurred between ca. 45 and ca. 35 Ma in the intraforeland basins of Utah, may refl ect the north-to-south progression of drainage integration in the Cordillera as magmatism and related topography swept southward through the hinterland and increased the hypsometric mean of catchments that fed subjacent intraforeland basins.

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Section: Geologic Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Lake Flagstaffmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paleogene landscape evolution of the central North American Cordillera: Developing topography and hydrology in the Laramide foreland

Davis¹,

Mulch²,

Carroll³

et al. 2006

Geol Soc America Bull

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show abstract

“…The positions of such geographic features may be found in the quadrangle maps of Utah and in the publications of Baker, Dane, and Reeside (1936); Gilluly (1929); Gregory (1950Gregory ( , 1951; Hardy (1952aHardy ( , 1962and Spieker (1946).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marine Jurassic pelecypods from central and southern Utah

Imlay¹

1964

Professional Paper

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“…A more complex set of Paleocene deposits occurs much farther west, in north-central Utah southwest of the Uinta basin whose original basinal form is now much disrupted by the block-faulting in the High Plateaus of Utah (Spieker, 1946). Below is the variegated shale, sandstone, and conglomerate of the North Horn Formation which bridges the Cretaceous-Paleocene boundary and contains Cretaceous dinosaurs in its lower part and Paleocene mammals in its upper part.…”

Section: Paleocene Deposits (Txc)mentioning

confidence: 99%