Synthesis of late Paleozoic and Mesozoic eolian deposits of the Western Interior of the United States

Blakey, Ronald C.; Peterson, Fred; Kocurek, Gary

doi:10.1016/0037-0738(88)90050-4

Cited by 187 publications

(152 citation statements)

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“…4). The reddish to brownish Dewey Bridge Member is a well-stratified package of sabkha and, locally, eolian deposits considered to be equivalent to the marine Carmel Formation farther west (Blakey et al, 1988). In general, the Dewey Bridge Member consists of interbedded poorly sorted fine-grained sandstone and siltstone, with a more sandy lower part.…”

Section: Stratigraphic Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deformation bands formed during soft-sediment deformation: Observations from SE Utah

Fossen

2010

Marine and Petroleum Geology

100

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Section: Stratigraphic Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deformation bands formed during soft-sediment deformation: Observations from SE Utah

Fossen

2010

Marine and Petroleum Geology

100

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“…The nearest Pennsylvanian uplift north of the Grand Canyon is the Piute positive element of southwestern Utah (fig. 7;Mallory 1975;McKee 1982), though the source areas for Pennsylvanian detritus may have been even farther north (Blakey et al 1988;Peterson 1988).…”

Section: A Pennsylvanian Flux Of Detrital Muscovite and Uplift Of Thementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, the erosion of muscovite-rich, basement-cored highlands fluxes detrital muscovite into synorogenic sedimentary basins, an effect that is manifested as an anomalously high muscovite content for verylow-grade sediments. Pennsylvanian strata of the Colorado Plateau provide an opportunity to examine this process because they are coeval with formation of the Ancestral Rocky Mountains and may, in fact, have been sourced from them (Blakey et al 1988;Peterson 1988;Baars 2000).…”

Section: A Pennsylvanian Flux Of Detrital Muscovite and Uplift Of Thementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Evidence for this orogeny comes primarily from Late Mississippian-Early Pennsylvanian arkosic redbeds deposited in basins adjacent to the uplifts (e.g., Mallory 1958Mallory , 1975Kluth and Coney 1981;van de Kamp and Leake 1994;Sweet and Soreghan 2010). Uplift of the Ancestral Rocky Mountains coincides with coastal plain, shallow marine, and eolian siliciclastic and carbonate sedimentation in the Late Mississippian-Permian Supai Group in the Grand Canyon region (e.g., McKee 1982;Blakey 1990;Rice and Loope 1991;Billingsley 2000), which grades laterally into the Callville Limestone to the west (Blakey 1990) and seems to have been fed by fluvial and eolian systems sourced from the Ancestral Rocky Mountains (Blakey et al 1988;Peterson 1988;Baars 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Variations in the Illite to Muscovite Transition Related to Metamorphic Conditions and Detrital Muscovite Content: Insight from the Paleozoic Passive Margin of the Southwestern United States

Verdel

Niemi

Pluijm

2011

The Journal of Geology

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. The University of Chicago Press A B S T R A C TX-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of the illite to muscovite transition in pelitic rocks has been widely used in regional studies of low-grade metamorphism. Variations in detrital muscovite content of sediments are also measurable with XRD and may, in fact, be difficult to distinguish from metamorphic gradients. We utilize field transects to isolate detrital muscovite versus metamorphic reaction components of illite-muscovite variations in Paleozoic rocks of the western United States. One transect focuses on a single stratigraphic interval (Middle Cambrian pelites) and extends from Death Valley in the west to the Grand Canyon in the east. Detrital muscovite content is roughly constant along this 500-km-long transect, so illite-muscovite variations are ascribed to differences in low-grade metamorphism. In terms of both illite crystallinity and polytype composition, there is an overall increase in metamorphic grade to the west along the transect, from the diagenetic metapelitic zone at the Grand Canyon to epizone-low anchizone conditions near Death Valley. Most of the regional variation in illite parameters occurs between Frenchman Mountain and the southern Nopah Range, corresponding to the transition from cratonic to miogeoclinal facies and also to the leading edge of the Sevier thrust belt. In contrast to this "horizontal" transect that highlights metamorphic reactions, a vertical transect through the Paleozoic stratigraphy of the Grand Canyon targets temporal variations in the flux of detrital muscovite. In the Grand Canyon, illite crystallinity reaches a maximum at the base of the Pennsylvanian Supai Group before decreasing upsection. Deposition of the Supai Group was coeval with formation of basementcored uplifts during the Ancestral Rocky Mountains orogeny, and we suggest that the upsection change in illite composition at the Grand Canyon reflects input of detrital muscovite eroded from these uplifts.Online enhancement: appendix. IntroductionThe transformation of illite to muscovite is the basis for defining low-grade metamorphism of pelites (e.g., Frey 1987;Merriman and Frey 1999) tal structure of illite occur during subgreenschist facies metamorphism and, given sufficient time and temperature, result in crystallites that are indistinguishable from muscovite. These crystallographic variations, which are observable with both x-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), track metamorphism from the diagenetic zone to the epizone, or from roughly 100Њ to 300ЊC (Merriman and Frey 1999).However, direct inference of metamorphic grade from illite-muscovite parameters is complicated by variations in detrital musc...

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“…The preserved deposits of this erg extend from central Wyoming to southeastern California. The formation is ~400 m thick in south-central Utah, but it thickens westward, reaching 600 m in southwestern Utah (Blakey et al, 1988). Although large-scale cross-strata dominate nearly all Navajo outcrops, scattered lacustrine carbonate lenses in southern Utah and northern Arizona (Parrish et al, 2017) indicate that, during Navajo deposition, the regional water table lay at shallow depth below the dunes.…”

Section: Previous Studies Stratified and Structureless Navajo Sandstonementioning

confidence: 99%

Sheeting joints and polygonal patterns in the Navajo Sandstone, southern Utah: Controlled by rock fabric, tectonic joints, buckling, and gullying

Loope

Burberry

2018

Geosphere

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Sheeting joints are ubiquitous in outcrops of the Navajo Sandstone on the west-central Colorado Plateau, USA. As in granitic terrains, these are opening-mode fractures and form parallel to land surfaces. In our study areas in south-central Utah, liquefaction during Jurassic seismic events destroyed stratification in large volumes of eolian sediment, and first-order sheeting joints are now preferentially forming in these structureless (isotropic) sandstones. Vertical cross-joints abut the land-surface-parallel sheeting joints, segmenting broad (tens of meters) rock sheets into equant, polygonal slabs ~5 m wide and 0.25 m thick. On steeper slopes, exposed polygonal slabs have domed surfaces; eroded slabs reveal an onion-like internal structure formed by 5-m-wide, second-order sheeting joints that terminate against the crossjoints, and may themselves be broken into polygons. In many structureless sandstone bodies, however, the lateral extent of first-order sheeting joints is severely limited by pre-existing, vertical tectonic joints. In this scenario, non-conjoined sheeting joints form extensive agglomerations of laterally contiguous, polygonal domes 3-6 m wide, exposing exhumed sheeting joints. These laterally confined sheeting joints are, in turn, segmented by short vertical cross-joints into numerous small (~0.5 m) polygonal rock masses. We hypothesize that the sheeting joints in the Navajo Sandstone form via contemporaneous, land-surface-parallel compressive stresses, and that vertical cross-joints that delineate polygonal masses (both large and small) form during compression-driven buckling of thin, convex-up rock slabs. Abrasion of friable sandstone during runoff events widens vertical tectonic joints into gullies, enhancing land-surface convexity. Polygonal rock slabs described here provide a potential model for interpretation of similar-appearing patterns developed on the surface of Mars.

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Synthesis of late Paleozoic and Mesozoic eolian deposits of the Western Interior of the United States

Abstract: Blakey, R

Cited by 187 publications

References 20 publications

Deformation bands formed during soft-sediment deformation: Observations from SE Utah

Deformation bands formed during soft-sediment deformation: Observations from SE Utah

Variations in the Illite to Muscovite Transition Related to Metamorphic Conditions and Detrital Muscovite Content: Insight from the Paleozoic Passive Margin of the Southwestern United States

Sheeting joints and polygonal patterns in the Navajo Sandstone, southern Utah: Controlled by rock fabric, tectonic joints, buckling, and gullying

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