V52C-07
(U-Th)/He and U-Pb double dating constraints on the interplay between thrust deformation and basin development, Sevier foreland basin, Utah
Friday, 18 December 2015: 11:50
306 (Moscone South)
Edgardo Pujols1, Daniel F Stockli2, Brian K Horton1, Ronald J Steel1,3 and Kurt N Constenius4, (1)University of Texas at Austin, Department of Geological Sciences and Institute for Geophysics, Austin, TX, United States, (2)University of Texas, Austin, TX, United States, (3)University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, United States, (4)University of Arizona, Department of Geosciences, Tucson, AZ, United States
Abstract:
The degree of connectivity between thrust-belt deformation and foreland basin evolution has been a matter of debate for decades. This is in part due to the lack of temporal constraints on the relationship between thrust-belt deformation and associated deposition. New high-resolution zircon (U-Th)-(Pb-He) double dating of pre- and syn-tectonic sedimentary strata along the Sevier thrust front and basin provide an unprecedented geochronological framework to temporally and spatially link the Sevier foreland basin stratigraphy to deforming hinterland sources. Results improve constraints on timing and magnitude of deformation, depositional ages, sediment dispersal and sources. In Late Cretaceous proximal deposits of the Indianola Group (IG) and Canyon Range Conglomerates (CRC), detrital zircon U-Pb (zUPb) and (U-Th)/He ages (ZHe) chronicle the sequential unroofing of the Charlestone-Nebo Salient (CNS) and Canyon Range (CR) duplexes. Furthermore, short ZHe depositional lag-times indicate rapid hinterland exhumation (>1km/my) associated with active thrusting during Cenomanian and Coniacian-Santonian times as supported by bedrock ZHe ages in the CNS and CR thrust sheets. Detrital zircon analyses on the Late Cretaceous marine Book Cliffs strata suggest a more complex source-to-sink evolution compared to the time-equivalent IG and CRC proximal strata due to mixing of multi-source detrital zircons, sediment recycling and more prominent volcanic input. Nonetheless, the overall cooling history recorded in the Book Cliffs clearly reflects three hinterland exhumational phases, an early phase derived from the frontal thrusts and two additional phases with more integrated hinterland ZHe signatures. These three short lag-time phases correlate with fast clastic progradational wedges in the Sevier foreland. These results strengthen the role played by hinterland deformation on clastic progradation and elucidate the temporal relationship between thrusting and foreland basin architecture.
