Petrofacies and provenance of the Puente Formation (middle to upper Miocene), Los Angeles basin, southern California: Implications for rapid uplift and accumulation rates
- Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Roges di Rende (Italy). Istituto di Ricerca per la Protezione Idrogeologica nell`Italia Meridionale ed Insulare
- Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Earth and Space Sciences
The Peunte Formation is a Middle-Upper Miocene clastic unit lying unconformably on the Lower-Middle Miocene El Modeno Volcanics and Topanga Group, in the Los Angeles basin. The Puente Formation, about 3900 m thick, is composed of conglomerate, sandstone, and mudrock deposit;ed as a submarine fan at bathyal depths. Several intrabasinal discordances suggest tectonic activity during deposition. The succession consists of two main upward-thickening and -coarsening megacycles, reflecting submarine-fan progradation. The Puente Formation is characterized up-section by: (1) thin-bedded sandstone and shale (La Vida member) grading to thick-bedded sandstone and conglomerate (Soquel Member); and (2) thin-bedded mudrock and sandstone (Yorba Member) grading to thick- to very thick-bedded sandstone and conglomerate (Sycamore Canyon Member). There is consistent provenance signal in spite of complex transportation tectonics, responsible for opening of the Los Angeles Basin, and later transpressional processes, which are still active. Detailed provenance study of the Puente Formation and related units provides important constraints on paleogeographic and paleotectonic reconstructions of southern California basins and uplifts.
- OSTI ID:
- 118798
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Sedimentary Research, Section A: Sedimentary Petrology and Processes, Vol. 65, Issue 4; Other Information: PBD: 2 Oct 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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