Depositional and thermal history of Lower Triassic rocks in southwestern Montana and adjacent parts of Wyoming and Idaho
- Univ. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (USA)
Forty-two stratigraphic sections in Montana and adjacent parts of Wyoming and Idaho provide the framework for a conodont biostratigraphic and carbonate sedimentologic analysis of Lower Triassic marine rocks. From oldest to youngest, these units are the Dinwoody, Woodside (Red Peak to the east), and Thaynes Formations. The Dinwoody disconformably overlies Upper Permian rocks with little or no physical evidence of a 1 to 6-m.y. hiatus. The initial Triassic transgression was extensive and geologically instantaneous across the study area, and it resulted in deposition of interbedded calcareous mudstone, siltstone, and limestone. The Dinwoody varies in thickness from zero on the northeast to greater than 270 m in the southwest. Maximum thicknesses of Woodside red beds and Thaynes carbonates and siltstones are 244 and 400 m, respectively. Post-Triassic erosion progressively truncated the Thaynes, Woodside, and Dinwoody from north to south across the region. The western margin of the Triassic seaway in the study area is obscured by erosion, structural complexities, igneous activity, and younger sedimentary deposits. The sparse and scattered exposures that remain provide an intriguing mosaic of depositional environments that range from shallow marine to basinal and represent most of Early Triassic time. Lower Triassic rocks produce gas in the Wyoming-Idaho thrust belt, and similar potential may exist in Montana. Conodonts recovered from surface exposures are thermally unaltered except in close proximity to intrusive bodies and within the Medicine Lodge thrust system. This establishes that subsurface units in much of the study area are within the temperature regime for dry gas generation.
- OSTI ID:
- 5570344
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8910195-; CODEN: AABUD
- Journal Information:
- AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (USA), Vol. 73:9; Conference: AAPG Rocky Mountain Section meeting, Albuquerque, NM (USA), 1-4 Oct 1989; ISSN 0149-1423
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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