Devono-Mississippian sedimentary environments at the type Antler orogen at Battle Mountain, Nevada

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1985 · Geol. Soc. Am., Abstr. Programs; (United States)

OSTI ID:6461694

McCollum, L B; Buchanan, J P; McCollum, M B

The Antler orogeny is a textbook example of a Paleozoic mountain building and crustal shortening event in western North America. A relatively complex geologic history of the type Antler at Battle Mountain, Nevada, is interpreted as distinct thrust plates of Lower Cambrian Scott Canyon Formation, Upper Cambrian Harmony Sandstone, and Ordovician Valmy Formation, overlain unconformably by the Middle Pennsylvanian Battle Formation. Mississippian crustal deformation and emplacement of the Roberts Mountain thrust have previously been thought to characterize the Antler orogen. Detailed sedimentology studies of the Scott Canyon and Harmony, and the relationship with the overlying Battle Formation at the type section of the Antler orogeny, cast doubt on the previously accepted geologic history. The Scott Canyon is an interbedded sequence of pillow basalts, Late Devonian radiolarian cherts, and mudstone debris flows with numerous limestone olistoliths, many containing undescribed archaeocyathid fauna. The contact of the Harmony with the Battle Formation appears channeled, but otherwise conformable, and the Battle has been interpreted as an alluvial fan facies. The paleoenvironmental interpretation of these sediments is that the Scott Canyon was deposited upon a Late Devonian active continental margin setting, with prograding fan deposits of the Harmony Sandstone, overlain by Middle Pennsylvanian fanglomerates of the Battle Formation. This conformable sequence appears to preclude any major uplift within the type Antler orogen.

• Research Organization: Eastern Washington Univ., Cheney (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6461694
• Report Number(s): CONF-8510489-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Geol. Soc. Am., Abstr. Programs; (United States) Journal Volume: 17
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
580201* -- Geophysics-- Seismology & Tectonics-- (1980-1989)
580300 -- Mineralogy
Petrology
& Rock Mechanics-- (-1989)
BASALT
DEPOSITION
DEVONIAN PERIOD
FEDERAL REGION IX
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
GEOLOGY
IGNEOUS ROCKS
LITHOLOGY
MISSISSIPPIAN PERIOD
MOUNTAINS
NEVADA
NORTH AMERICA
OROGENESIS
PALEOZOIC ERA
PETROLOGY
ROCKS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
TECTONICS
USA
VOLCANIC ROCKS