Anastomosing grabens, low-angle faults, and Tertiary thrust( ) faults, western Markagunt Plateau, southwestern Utah
- Geological Survey, Denver, CO (United States)
A structurally complex terrane composed of grabens and horsts, low-angle faults, Tertiary thrust( ) faults, gravity-slide blocks, and debris deposits has been mapped along the western Markagunt Plateau, east of Parowan and Summit, southwestern Utah. This terrane, structurally situated within the transition between the Basin and Range and Colorado Plateau provinces, contains Tertiary volcanic and sedimentary and Cretaceous sedimentary rocks. The structures are mostly Miocene to Oligocene but some are Pleistocene. The oldest structure is the Red Hills low-angle shear zone, interpreted as a shallow structure that decoupled an upper plate composed of a Miocene-Oligocene volcanic ash-flow tuff and volcaniclastic succession from a lower plate of Tertiary sedimentary rocks. The period of deformation on the shear zone is bracketed from field relationships between 22.5 and 20 Ma. The graben-horst system trends northeast and formed after about 20 Ma (and probably much later) based on displacement of dated dikes and a laccolith. The central part of the system contains many grabens that merge toward its southerly end to become a single graben. Within these grabens, (1) older structures are preserved, (2) debris eroded from horst walls forms lobe-shaped deposits, (3) Pleistocene basaltic cinder cones have localized along graben-bounding faults, and (4) rock units are locally folded suggesting some component of lateral translation along graben-bounding faults. Megabreccia deposits and landslide debris are common. Megabreccia deposits are interpreted as gravity-slide blocks of Miocene-Oligocene( ) age resulting from formation of the Red Hills shear zone, although some may be related to volcanism, and still others to later deformation. The debris deposits are landslides of Pleistocene-Pliocene( ) age possibly caused by continued uplift of the Markagunt Plateau.
- OSTI ID:
- 5128869
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9305259-; CODEN: GAAPBC
- Journal Information:
- Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Vol. 25:5; Conference: 89. annual meeting of the Cordilleran Section and the 46th annual meeting of the Rocky Mountain Section of the Geological Society of America (GSA), Reno, NV (United States), 19-21 May 1993; ISSN 0016-7592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Mid-Tertiary block faulting along west and northwest trends, southern high plateaus, Utah
Structural complexities that control localization of Mississippian shale-generated oil prospects in eastern Great Basin, Utah and Nevada