Tectonic control on coarse-grained foreland-basin sequences: An example from the Cordilleran foreland basin, Utah
- 1Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095-1567, USA
- 2Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
Abstract
Newly released reflection seismic and borehole data, combined with sedimentological, provenance, and biostratigraphic data from Upper Cretaceous–Paleocene strata in the proximal part of the Cordilleran foreland-basin system in Utah, establish the nature of tectonic controls on stratigraphic sequences in the proximal to distal foreland basin. During Campanian time, coarse-grained sand and gravel were derived from the internally shortening Charleston-Nebo salient of the Sevier thrust belt. A rapid, regional Campanian progradational event in the distal foreland basin (>200 km from the thrust belt in <8 m.y.) can be tied directly to active thrust-generated growth structures and an influx of quartzose detritus derived from the Charleston-Nebo salient. Eustatic sea-level variation exerted a minimal role in sequence progradation.
Footnotes
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↵Loose insert: Figure 2. Measured sections from Upper Cretaceous–lower Tertiary proximal foreland basin, including lithologies, stratigraphic correlations, paleocurrent data, clast compositional data, and locations of palynological and sandstone petrographic samples.
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↵GSA Data Repository item 2004102, Appendix DR1, provenance methods, Appendix DR2, seismic parameters, and Tables DR1 and DR2, point-count data, is available online at http://www.geosociety.org/pubs/ft2004.htm, or on request from editinggeosociety.org or Documents Secretary, GSA, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, CO 80301-9140, USA.
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- Accepted March 19, 2004.
- Received December 8, 2003.
- Revision received March 15, 2004.
- Geological Society of America
