Latest Cretaceous-Paleogene basin development and resultant sedimentation patterns in the thrust belt and broken foreland of central Utah

Conference · Tue May 01 00:00:00 EDT 1990 · AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (USA)

OSTI ID:6699850

Lawton, T F ^[1]; Franczyk, K J; Pitman, J K ^[2]

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1. New Mexico State Univ., Las Cruces (USA)
2. Geological Survey, Denver, CO (USA)

Latest Cretaceous tectonism in central and east-central Utah formed several intermontane basins both atop thrust sheets and between the thrust front and basement-involved uplifts in the former foreland basin. The upper Campanian Castlegate Sandstone and its inferred western equivalents were the last strata deposited prior to segmentation of the foreland basin. Thereafter, eastward transport of the thrust allochthon uplifted the most proximal part of the Castlegate depositional wedge. West of the thrust front, small intermontane basins formed on the allochthon. Sediment was transported into these basins from both eastern and western sources. In each basin, facies grade from basin-margin conglomeratic alluvial fan deposits to basin-interior flood-plain and lacustrine deposits within a few kilometers. These intermontane basins existed from latest Campanian through the late Paleocene, and may have been transported a short distance eastward as they formed. East of the thrust front in the latest Campanian and contemporaneous with basin formation on the allochthon, a northward-northeastward-flowing big river system transported sediment into the foreland basin from feldspar-rich source areas southwest of the study area. Subsequently, major movement of the San Rafael uplift in the very late Campanian or early Maastrichtian gave rise to an intermontane basin between the thrust front and the San Rafael uplift. Northwestward-flowing, pebble-bearing braided rivers deposited the oldest sediments in this basin prior to an influx from the south and southwest of sediment that formed a thick Maastrichtian clastic sequence. In contrast to deposition in basins on the allochthon, deposition east of the thrust front in the Paleocene was intermittent and restricted to rapidly shifting centers of basin subsidence.

• OSTI ID: 6699850
• Report Number(s): CONF-900605-; CODEN: AABUD
• Journal Information: AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (USA), Vol. 74:5; Conference: Annual convention and exposition of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, San Francisco, CA (USA), 3-6 Jun 1990; ISSN 0149-1423
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
UTAH
TECTONICS
ALLUVIAL DEPOSITS
CRETACEOUS PERIOD
FELDSPARS
GEOLOGIC FAULTS
GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS
SANDSTONES
SEDIMENTARY BASINS
SEDIMENTATION
TERTIARY PERIOD
CENOZOIC ERA
FEDERAL REGION VIII
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GEOLOGIC FRACTURES
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
MESOZOIC ERA
MINERALS
NORTH AMERICA
ROCKS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
USA
580000* - Geosciences