Discriminating Sediment Supply Versus Accommodation Controls on Late Cretaceous Foreland Basin Stratigraphic Architecture in the Book Cliffs, Central Utah Using Double Dating

Abstract:

Middle to late Campanian strata of the Book Cliffs, Utah record the Late Cretaceous deposition of three clastic wedges in the North American Cordilleran foreland basin east of the Sevier thrust belt. Variations in wedge geometries provide an opportunity to evaluate the effects of sediment supply versus accommodation on foreland basin stratal architecture. There is an increase in eastward progradation rate between the Lower and Upper Castlegate Sandstone. However, the progradation rate decreases in the overlying Bluecastle and Price River formations, as well as the laterally equivalent Farrer and Tuscher formations. Rapid progradation during Upper Castlegate deposition may be caused by increased sediment supply from either rapid exhumation of the Sevier thrust belt or changes in the sediment source. Alternatively, reduced accommodation within the proximal foreland basin from uplifts associated with Laramide deformation, or a transition from flexural to dynamic subsidence, could produce the same observed rapid wedge progradation. We identify changes in sediment provenance and source-area exhumation rate using detrital zircon geochronology. Initial detrital zircon U-Pb data reveals a significant up-section and spatial shift in provenance between all wedge boundaries. Quantitative comparisons between new and previously published detrital zircon U-Pb provenance data indicates an overall up-section decrease in thrust-belt-sourced Mesozoic eolianite and North American passive-margin source areas coupled with an increase in southern magmatic arc and Mogollon Highland source. We observe an east-west diachroneity in the arrival of the southern-sourced sediment, but little to no variation from samples along a north-south transect. Initial results suggest the shift in sediment source is not consistent with an increased exhumation rate of the source area, although further work using thermochronology is required to better understand the exhumation rate.