Shelf-bypass route for lower Whiterockian quartz sandstones of Vinini Formation in Roberts Mountains, central Nevada
Conference
·
· Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States)
OSTI ID:5290054
- California State Univ., Long Beach, CA (United States). Dept. of Geological Sciences
The Lower Member of the Vinini Formation in the Roberts Mountains is characterized by voluminous turbiditic quartz sandstones and associated hemipelagic strata. These rocks record the construction of a submarine fan on the western margin of North America in response to a major drop in relative sea level during the early Whiterockian. It has been demonstrated that the quartz sand was derived from the North American craton. In its dispersal, this sand must have crossed a contemporaneous carbonate peritidal platform in its delivery to the more outboard Vinini basin. All lower Whiterockian strata deposited on the platform are shallow-water carbonates. Quartz silt is common in them locally, but medium quartz sand that is so distinctive of the Vinini is lacking. For this reason and the fact that the submarine fan appears to have been constructed from a point source, it is concluded that the sand crossed the carbonate platform along a narrow, well-defined route, e.g. a shelf channel. This bypass route, however, has yet to be discovered. Quartz sand was spreading southward along the shelf in Idaho during the early Whiterockian. The Tooele Arch and its western extension into central Nevada may have served to divert the sand towards the shelf margin. Although stratigraphic data for lower Whiterockian strata are poor in this proposed location for the shelf channel, it is interesting that the greatest thickness of the Mohawkian Eureka Quartzite is found in this same area where Eureka sands were also diverted westward off the shelf.
- OSTI ID:
- 5290054
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9305259--
- Conference Information:
- Journal Name: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States) Journal Volume: 25:5
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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