Lower Permian Dry Mountain trough, eastern Nevada: preliminary basin analysis
The Lower Permian Dry Mountain trough (DMT) is one of several basins that developed during the Late Pennsylvanian to Permian along the western edge of the North American continent. A tectonic mechanism has been suggested for the subsidence of the DMT, possibly due to reactivation of the Antler orogenic belt during the waning stages of Ancestral Rocky Mountain deformation. The DMT records marked subsidence with the appearance during the Artinskian (latest Wolfcampian) of a deeper water facies that consists of thin-bedded silty micrites and micritic mudstones rich in radiolarians and sponge spicules, characterized by a relative abundance of ammonoids, and rarer conodonts and Nereites ichnofacies trace fossils. Taxa recovered from a distinctive concretionary horizon at various locations provide an Artinskian datum on which to palinspastically reconstruct the DMT paleogeography. These taxa include ammonoids: Uraloceras, Medlicottia, Marathonites, Crimites, Metalegoceras, properrinitids; and conodonts: Neogondolella bisselli, Sweetognathus whitei, S. behnkeni, and Diplognathodus stevensi. The western margin facies of the DMT consists of Permian Carbon Ridge/Garden Valley Formations. Here, lowermost black Artinskianage euxinic micrites, considered a potential source rock for petroleum generation, are overlain by base-of-slope carbonate apron deposits, which, in turn, are overlain by base-of-slope carbonate apron deposits, which, in turn, are overlain by a thick, eastwardly prograding conglomerate wedge. Seismic profiles across Diamond Valley indicate a 3.0-4.6-km thick Tertiary sequence above the Paleozoic strata.
- Research Organization:
- Boise State Univ., ID
- OSTI ID:
- 5863868
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-870915-
- Journal Information:
- AAPG (Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol.) Bull.; (United States), Journal Name: AAPG (Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol.) Bull.; (United States) Vol. 71:8; ISSN AABUD
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
020200* -- Petroleum-- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration
CARBONATE ROCKS
CENOZOIC ERA
FEDERAL REGION IX
FOSSILS
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GEOPHYSICAL SURVEYS
MINERAL RESOURCES
NEVADA
NORTH AMERICA
PALEOZOIC ERA
PENNSYLVANIAN PERIOD
PERMIAN PERIOD
PETROLEUM DEPOSITS
RESOURCES
ROCKS
SEDIMENTARY BASINS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
SEISMIC SURVEYS
SILTSTONES
SOURCE ROCKS
SURVEYS
TECTONICS
TERTIARY PERIOD
USA