Mesozoic tectonic inversion in the Neuquen Basin of west-central Argentina produced two main fault systems: (1) deep faults that affected basement and syn-rift strata where preexisting faults were selectively reactivated during inversion based on their length and (2) shallow faults that affected post-rift and syn-inversion strata. Normal faults formed at high angle to the reactivated half-graben bounding fault as a result of hangingwall expansion and internal deformation as it accommodated to the shape of the curved footwall during oblique inversion. Contraction during inversion was initially accommodated by folding and internal deformation of syn-rift sedimentary wedges, followed by displacement along half-graben bounding faults. We suspect that late during inversion the weight of the overburden inhibited additional fault displacement and folding became the shortening-accommodating mechanism. A Middle Jurassic inversion event produced synchronous uplift of inversion structures across the central Neuquen Basin. Later inversion events (during Late Jurassic, Early Cretaceous, and Late Cretaceous time) produced an "inversion front" that advanced north of the Huincul Arch. Synchroneity of fault reactivation during the Callovian inversion event may be related to efficient stress transmission north of the Huincul Arch, probably due to easy reactivation of low-dip listric fault segments. This required little strain accumulation along "proximal" inversion structures before shortening was transferred to more distal structures. Later inversion events found harderto- reactivate fault segments, resulting in proximal structures undergoing significant inversion before transferring shortening. The time between the end of rifting and the different inversion events may have affected inversion. Lithosphere was probably thermally weakened at the onset of the initial Callovian inversion phase, allowing stress transmission over a large distance from the Huincul Arch and causing synchronous inversion across the basin. Later inversion affected a colder and more viscous lithosphere. Significant strain needed to accumulate along proximal inversion structures before shortening was transferred to more distal parts of the basin. Timing of inversion events along the central Neuquen Basin suggest a megaregional control by right-lateral displacement motion along the Gastre Fault Zone, an intracontinental megashear zone thought to have been active prior to and during the opening of the South Atlantic Ocean.

No description available.

Middle and Upper Ordovician strata in the southernmost Appalachians document initial collision along the southeastern margin of Laurentia during the Blountian orogeny, an early phase of the Taconic orogeny. Coeval drowning and exposure of different parts of the former platform and variations in stratal architecture have been attributed to tectonic and depositional loading along the collisional margin. Stratigraphic correlations, using a bentonite-graptoliteconodont time framework, a palinspastic map, and a map of subsurface basement structures, suggest that basement-fault reactivation, flexural subsidence, and eustasy variously controlled uplift, subsidence, and deposition at different sites within the peripheral foreland basin. This dissertation documents how pre-existing structures in the continental margin and interior affected subsidence, deposition, diagenesis, and composition of foreland strata, and deformation in tectonic loads. Stratigraphic correlations document an early episode of basementfault inversion in the distal foreland, and heterogeneous subsidence and provenance patterns in the middle and proximal foreland. Abrupt variations in depth of erosion of passive-margin strata and in thickness of distal foreland deposits coincide with the boundaries of the intraplate Birmingham graben. Inversion of the former graben increased the magnitude of erosion on inverted upthrown blocks; increased tectonic subsidence in adjacent blocks; supplied chert and quartz detritus to shallow-marine carbonate depocenters; and facilitated influx of meteoric water to aquifers in shallow-marine limestones. Tectonic subsidence of middle and proximal foreland deposits reflects local irregularities in the foreland subsidence and different rates of migration of the flexural wave along strike. Differential subsidence between embayments and promontories may have caused reactivation of transverse basement faults. Relief produced by reactivation of transverse basement faults and flexural normal reactivation of basement faults may provide sources for local conglomerates interbedded with deep-water shales. Differences in orogenicbelt deformation are reflected in provenance analyses that suggest exposure of dominantly feldspar-bearing basement rocks in the orogenic belt adjacent to the promontory and exposure of basement rocks and sedimentary cover in the orogenic belt adjacent to the embayment. Results of this study reveal the importance of considering the effects of pre-existing structures in the interpretation of along- and across-strike variations of foreland strata. Therefore, geodynamic modeling of the Blountian foreland basin needs to consider along-strike variations in the geometry of tectonic loads and reactivation of different basement structures.

This investigation focuses on the Jurassic-Eocene sedimentary record of northwestern Montana and the geometry and kinematics of the thrust belt, in order to develop a unifying geodynamic-stratigraphic model to explain the evolution of the Cordilleran retroarc of this region. Provenance and subsidence analyses suggest the onset of a foreland basin system by Middle Jurassic time. U-Pb ages of detrital zircons and detrital modes of sandstones indicate provenance from accreted terranes and deformed miogeoclinal rocks. Subsidence commenced at ∼170 Ma and followed a sigmoidal pattern characteristic of foreland basin systems. Jurassic deposits of the Ellis Group and Morrison Formation accumulated in a back-bulge depozone. A regional unconformity/paleosol zone separates the Morrison from Cretaceous deposits. This unconformity was possible result of forebulge migration, decreased dynamic subsidence, and eustatic sea level fall. The late Barremian(?)-early Albian Kootenai Formation is the first unit in the foreland that consistently thickens westward. The subsidence curve at this time begins to show a convex-upward pattern characteristic of foredeeps. The location of thrust belt structures during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous is uncertain, but provenance information indicates exhumation of the Intermontane and Omineca belts, and deformation of miogeocline strata, possibly on the western part of the Purcell anticlinorium. By Albian time, the thrust belt had propagated to the east and incorporated Proterozoic rocks of the Belt Supergroup as indicated by provenance data in the Blackleaf Formation, and by cross-cutting relationships in thrust sheets involving Belt rocks. From Late Cretaceous to early Eocene time the retroarc developed a series of thrust systems including the Moyie, Snowshoe, Libby, Pinkham, Lewis-Eldorado-Steinbach-Hoadley, the Sawtooth Range and the foothills structures. The final stage in the evolution of the compressive retroarc system is recorded by the Paleocene-early Eocene Fort Union and Wasatch Formations, which are preserved in the distal foreland. A new ∼145 Km balanced cross-section indicates ∼130 km of shortening. Cross-cutting relationships, thermochronology and geochronology suggest that most shortening along the frontal part of the thrust belt occurred between the mid-Campanian to Ypresian (∼75-52 Ma), indicating a shortening rate of ∼5.6 mm/y. Extensional orogenic collapse began during the middle Eocene.

Lower Pennsylvanian siliciclastic sedimentary rocks of the central Appalachian Basin consist predominantly of nonmarine, coal-bearing facies that developed within a fluvio-estuarine, trunk-tributary drainage system in a foreland-basin setting. Sheet-like, sandstone-mudstone bodies (up to 100 km wide and 70 m thick) developed in an axial trunk drainage system, whereas channel-like, sandstone-mudstone bodies (up to several km wide and 30 m thick) developed in tributaries oriented transverse to the thrust front. The origin of these strata has been debated largely because the paleogeomorphology and facies architecture of the New River Formation (NRF) are poorly understood. A sequence stratigraphic framework for the NRF, based on a combination of outcrop mapping and subsurface well-log analysis, reveals: 1) regionally significant erosional surfaces along the bases of sheet-like and channel-like sandstone bodies (sequence-boundaries), 2) fluvial- to estuarine-facies transitions (marine flooding surfaces), 3) erosionally based, framework-supported, quartz-pebble conglomerates (ravinement beds), and 4) regionally traceable, coarsening-upward intervals of strata (highstand deposits above maximum flooding surfaces). Using these criteria, both 3rd- and 4th-order sequences have been identified. An idealized 4th-order sequence consists of deeply incised, fluvial channel sandstone separated from overlying tidally modified estuarine sandstone and mudrock by a ravinement bed, and capped by coarsening-upward bayhead delta facies. The relative thickness of fluvial versus estuarine facies within a fourth-order sequence reflects a balance between accommodation and sediment supply within a 3rd-order relative sea level cycle. Lowermost 4th-order sequences are dominated by fluvial facies, whereas the uppermost sequences are dominated by estuarine facies. Therefore, 3rd-order sequence boundaries are interpreted to lie at the bases of the lowermost, fluvial-dominated fourth-order sequences. Coarsening-upward intervals that record the maximum landward extent of marine conditions are interpreted as highstand deposits of the composite third order sequence. Thus, the NRF consists of thick, superimposed fluvial sandstone of the lowstand systems tracts and anomalously thin transgressive and highstand systems tracts. Asymmetrical subsidence within the foreland basin resulted in westward amalgamation of multiple, 4th-order, fluvial valley-fill successions and sequence boundaries. The Early Pennsylvanian time period was characterized by global icehouse conditions and the tectonic assembly of Pangea. These events affected the geometry of the overall stratigraphic package, which can be attributed to high-magnitude, high-frequency, glacioeustatic sea-level fluctuations superimposed on asymmetric tectonic subsidence. / Master of Science

The Andes Mountains provide an ideal natural laboratory to analyze the relationship between the tectonic evolution of a subduction margin, retroarc shortening, basin morphology, and volcanic activity. Timing of initial shortening and foreland basin development in Argentina is diachronous along strike, with ages varying by 20-30 million years. The Neuquén Basin (32°S-40°S) of southern-central Argentina sits in a retroarc position and provides a geological record of sedimentation in variable tectonic settings from the Late Triassic to the early Cenozoic including: 1.) active extension and deposition in isolated rift basins in the Late Triassic-Early Jurassic; 2.) post-rift back-arc basin from Late Jurassic-Late Cretaceous; 3.) foreland basin from Late Cretaceous to Oligocene; and 4.) variable extension and contraction along-strike from Oligocene to present. The goal of this study is to determine the timing of the transition from post-rift thermal subsidence to foreland basin deposition in the northern Neuquén Basin and then assess volcanic activity and composition during various tectonic regimes. The Aconcagua and Malargüe areas (32°S and 35°S) are located in the northern segment of the Neuquén Basin and preserve Upper Jurassic to Miocene sedimentary rocks, which record the earliest phase of shortening at this latitude. This study presents new sedimentological and detrital zircon U-Pb data from the Jurassic to latest Cretaceous sedimentary strata to determine depositional environments, stratigraphic relations, provenance, and maximum depositional ages of these units and ultimately evaluate the role of tectonics on sedimentation in this segment of the Andes. The combination of provenance, basin, and subsidence analysis shows that the initiation of foreland basin deposition occurred at ~100 Ma with the deposition of the Huitrín Formation, which recorded an episode of erosion marking the passage of the flexural forebulge. This was followed by an increase in tectonic subsidence, along with the appearance of recycled sedimentary detritus, recorded in petrographic and detrital zircons analyses, as well development of an axial drainage pattern, consistent with deposition in the flexural forebulge between 95 and 80 Ma. By ca. 70 Ma the volcanic arc migrated eastward and was a primary local source for detritus. Growth structures recorded in latest Cretaceous units very near both the Aconcagua and Malargüe study areas imply 35-40 km and 80-125 km of foreland migration between 95 and 60 Ma in the Aconcagua and Malargüe areas, respectively. Strata ranging in age from Middle Jurassic to Neogene were analyzed to determine their detrital zircon U-Pb age spectra and Hf isotopic composition to determine the relationship between magmatic output rate, tectonic regime, and crustal evolution. When all detrital zircon data are combined, significant pulses in magmatic activity occur from 190-145 Ma, and at 128 Ma, 110 Ma, 69 Ma, 16 Ma, and 7 Ma. The duration of magmatic lulls increased markedly from 10-30 million years during back-arc deposition (190-100 Ma) to ~40-50 million years during foreland basin deposition (100-~30 Ma). The long duration of magmatic lulls during foreland basin deposition could be caused by flat-slab subduction events during the Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic or by long magmatic recharge events. There are three major shifts towards positive Hf isotopic values and all are associated with regional extension events whereas compression seems to lead to more evolved isotopic values.

Subsidence is one of the main factors controlling the stratigraphy and overall stratal architecture in tectonically active basins. This was particularly important in the Western US Cordilleran foreland and Laramide basins when some other controls were minor, e.g. reduced eustatic fluctuations in the late Cretaceous greenhouse period. The first part of the dissertation examines the upper Campanian Williams Fork Clastic Wedge (WFCW) in southern Wyoming and northern Colorado, through an outcrop and subsurface database. The WFCW built out from the Sevier orogenic belt like earlier clastic wedges, but its large-scale geometry changed as basement involved Laramide structures partitioned it. At the center of the WFCW there is an extensive fluvial sandstone sheet, the Canyon Creek Member of the Ericson Formation. From its proximal to distal reaches (~200 km) there is a first order trend of stratigraphic thickening and net-to-gross reduction, and a change from braided to meandering depositional style. These trends are caused by isostatic rebound of the foreland basin during periods of relative quiescence in the Sevier orogenic belt and by the eastward migration of dynamic subsidence. However, this long spatial trend was markedly modified by differential subsidence across Laramide-style structures. The Campanian age initiation of the Laramide structures appears to be earlier than the Maastrichtian to Paleogene age commonly attributed to the initiation of this orogeny. The second part of this research focuses on the transgressive limb of the WFCW, particularly on two sandstone bodies isolated in marine mudstones in the uppermost Almond Formation. The sandstone bodies previously interpreted as lowstand shoreline deposits are re-interpreted as transgressive shelf ridges generated by tidal currents and storm waves. There are limited examples of ancient tidal shelf ridges published and no facies model was described. Using Almond Fm. outcrops and examples from the literature, the diagnostic characteristics of storm and tidal shelf ridges are presented. The third part of the dissertation investigates the effects of differential subsidence on the large scale stratigraphic infill of a foreland basin through a geometric model and a series of flume experiments. The mathematical model and flume experiments show that despite constant allogenic forcing, three distinct autogenic responses in stratal architecture, associated with the imposed tectonic and sediment supply conditions are possible. The first response was “autoretreat”, where shoreline migration switched from initial progradation to retrogradation. The second response was progradation followed by constant aggradation. The third response was maintained progradation with a markedly accelerating rate, a new autogenic behavior termed “shoreline autoacceleration”. / text

Sedimentary deposits have been broadly used to constrain past climate change and tectonic histories within mountain belts. This dissertation summarizes three studies that evaluate the effects of climate change and tectonics on sedimentary basin development. (1) The paleoslope estimation method, a method for calculating the threshold slope of a fluvial deposit, does not account for the stochastic variations in water depth in alluvial channels caused by climatic and autogenic processes. Therefore, we test the robustness of applying the paleoslope estimation method in a tectonic context. Based on our numerical modeling results, we conclude that if given sufficient time gravel can prograde long distances at regional slopes less than the minimum transport slope calculated with the paleoslope estimation method if water depth varies stochastically in time, and thus, caution should be exercised when evaluating regional slopes measured from the rock record in a tectonic context. (2) The role of crustal thickening, lithospheric removal, and climate change in driving surface uplift in the central Andes in southern Bolivia and changes in the creation of accommodation space and depositional facies in the adjacent foreland basin has been a topic of debate over the last decade. Our numerical modeling results show that gradual rise of the Eastern Cordillera above 2-3 km prior to 22 Ma leads to sufficient sediment accommodation for the Oligocene-Miocene foreland basin stratigraphy, and thus, the Eastern Cordillera gained the majority of its modern elevation prior to 10 Ma. Also, we conclude that major changes in grain size and depositional rates are primarily controlled by mountain-belt migration (i.e., climate change and lithospheric removal are secondary mechanisms). (3) Existing equations for predicting the long-term bedload sediment flux in alluvial channels include mean discharge as a controlling variable but do not explicitly include variations in discharge through time. We develop an analytic equation for the long-term bedload sediment flux that incorporates both the mean and coefficient of variation of discharge. Our results show that although increasing aridity leads to an increase in large discharges with respect to small discharges, long-term bedload sediment transport rates decrease for both gravel and sand-bed rivers with increasing aridity.

Ce manuscrit présente la dynamique des dépôts évaporitiques du bassin de Sivas en Turquie et évalue l’impact diagénétique de ces évaporites sur les analogues de réservoirs gréseux. Cette étude s’effectue dans un bassin d’avant-pays ayant la spécificité d’avoir enregistré une intense tectonique salifère, marquée notamment par la présence de mini-bassins oligo-miocènes. Les résultats présentés s’appuient sur des relevés cartographiques de terrain, des descriptions sédimentaires ainsi que sur des analyses pétrographiques et géochimiques.Les premières évaporites du bassin se forment à l’Eocène supérieur lorsque l’avant-pays perd progressivement sa connexion avec le domaine marin, en conséquence de la propagation de la chaine de plis et de chevauchements. La fermeture océanique s’accompagne d’une diminution drastique des apports clastiques. Les faciès turbiditiques évoluent alors vers des dépôts argilo-carbonatés propres à un bassin affamé et anoxique. Les évaporites commencent par précipiter dans des bassins en piggy-back précocement isolés du reste de l’avant-pays. Par surrection tectonique, ces dépôts subissent un démantèlement gravitaire qui induit des accumulations de gypses détritiques au front de la chaîne. Avec l’augmentation des conditions de salinité de l’ensemble du bassin, des plateformes évaporitiques s’établissent ensuite sur les domaines peu profonds et nourrissent en fond de bassin des turbidites de gypse. Enfin, dans un plan d’eau devenu peu profond, l’essentiel de l’avant pays est comblé par de la halite aujourd’hui lessivée en surface. Tout au long de l’Oligo-Miocène, les évaporites éocènes induisent des déformations halocinétiques. Les sels diapiriques sont alors dissous et recyclés sous forme de dépôts gypsifères qui précipitent en domaine continental, au sein d’environnements sebkhaïques à lacustres peu profonds. Ces évaporites de seconde génération ont pu connecter différents émissaires diapiriques pour constituer ce que nous nommons « une canopée resédimentée ». Les sulfates recyclés se sont également accumulés sur des émissaires diapiriques en cours de déflation pour ainsi former de véritables mini-bassins évaporitiques secondaires encapsulés. Sur toute la bordure nord du bassin, et en continuité latérale d’une canopée salifère, les évaporites recyclées ont formé des accumulations majeures de gypse sélénitique lacustre.L’étude diagénétique des grès continentaux de mini-bassins montre une paragenèse ayant été contrôlée au premier ordre par la composition minéralogique des grains détritiques. Ainsi, dans les grès fortement polygéniques, des fluides salins et alcalins probablement dérivés du lessivage des émissaires diapiriques ont interagi avec les grains réactifs pour induire la précipitation précoce de ciments analcitiques. Ces derniers paraissent également avoir été favorisés dans les mini-bassins isolés hydrographiquement par des reliefs diapiriques. Plus localement, des phénomènes de gypsification se sont produits au niveau de dépôts faillés ou fracturés et positionnés à proximité immédiate de structures salifères. Les fluides salins impliqués circulaient par l’intermédiaire de la porosité créée par l’endommagement tectonique.L’ensemble des résultats présentés trouvent des analogies avec d’autres bassins salifères, actuels ou anciens, affectés par des déformations halocinétiques en contexte continental (e.g. le bassin Précaspien, le bassin du Zechstein ou le Great Kavir en Iran). / This manuscript focuses on the various evaporitic systems of the Sivas Basin (Turkey) and assesses the diagenetic impact of saline fluid flow on silicoclastic reservoir analogues. This study takes place in a foreland basin that has the peculiarity of having recorded halokinetic deformations, as evidenced by outcropping Oligo-Miocene mini-basins structures. The results are based on geological field mapping and sedimentary descriptions complemented by petrographic and geochemical analyses.The first evaporites of the basin precipitated during the Late Eocene when the foreland progressively lost its connection with the oceanic domain, as a result of the northward propagation of the fold-and-thrust-belt. Such event first resulted in sediment-starved conditions, with siliciclastic turbidites grading to muddy- and organic-rich facies. The evaporites then formed in early isolated piggy-back basins and were subsequently reworked in the foredeep by tectonically-induced gravitational collapses. With increasing saline conditions, evaporitic platforms developed in shallow-water domains of the foreland, and fed gypsum turbidites in the deep-water setting. Finally, after the general establishment of shallow-water hypersaline conditions, most of the available space was filled by halite deposits, nowadays entirely dissolved at the surface.During the Oligo-Miocene, Eocene evaporites induced halokinetic deformations. The diapiric salts were then recycled as gypsiferous deposits precipitated in sabkha to shallow-water lacustrine setting within salt-walled mini-basins. Such evaporitic deposits of second-generation were able to connect different diapiric structures, forming what we define as a “resedimented canopy”. The recycled evaporites also accumulated in depleting diapiric stems, resulting in the development of peculiar encased evaporitic mini-basins. Finally, along the northern border of the basin, the recycled evaporites formed massive accumulations of lacustrine selenitic gypsum southward connected to a spreading salt canopy.The diagenetic study of Oligocene continental sandstones emplaced within mini-basins highlights a paragenesis controlled at first order by the detrital composition. For instance, in the less sorted sandstones, saline-alkaline fluids, probably resulting from the leaching of diapiric salts, interacted with reactive grains to produce analcitic cements at shallow burial. These cements also seem to have been favored in mini-basins that were hydrographically isolated by diapiric reliefs. More locally, in fractured to faulted sandstones close from a diapiric structures, the porosity has been early to lately occluded by gypsum cements. The saline fluids inducing such cementation were fed by the diapiric evaporites, and reached the reservoirs through the fracture or fault-related porosity.All of these results may find relevant analogies with other ancient or present-day evaporitic basins affected by halokinetic deformation in continental setting (e.g. the Precaspian Basin, the Zechstein Basin or the Great Kavir in Iran).

Detrital monazite Th-Pb and detrital zircon U-Pb and U-Th/He double-dating coupled with sandstone petrography and exhumation rates can be used to test for sediment recycling in Pennsylvanian sandstones within the Alleghenian clastic wedge. The Alleghenian clastic wedge is a logical system in which to test for sediment recycling as four major collisional events (Grenville, Taconic, Acadian and Alleghenian orogenies) likely reworked the continental margin and recycled siliciclastic sediment. The combination of these geochronologic and thermochronologic methods provide a more accurate assessment of the proportion of recycled sediment in the Grundy Formation (sublitharenite) and the Corbin Sandstone (quartz arenite), which past studies and the use of standard zircon U-Pb alone could not distinguish. Recognition of sediment recycling is thus critical for sedimentary provenance studies, which assume a direct path from sediment source to depositional basin. Zircon U-Pb age modes for both formations include the dominant “Grenville doublet” along with a lesser component of Granite-Rhyolite and Taconic age modes. The Corbin Sandstone is temporally more expansive, with age modes associated with the Yavapai-Mazatzal and Kenoran orogenies not present in the Grundy Formation. Monazite Th-Pb age modes are younger than zircon U-Pb for both samples, with dominant modes in the Taconic, Acadian, and Alleghenian, and only minor age modes associated with the Grenville Orogeny. The extent of sediment recycling was quantified by the difference in crystallization ages and exhumation/cooling ages of detrital zircon. This difference in time (∆t) becomes higher in the case of recycling (> ~300 Ma). A median 288 Ma ∆t cutoff value between first-cycle and multi-cycle Grenville aged zircons was calculated using post-Grenville exhumation rates. Furthermore, “detrital diagenetic monazite” grains older than the 312 Ma age of deposition are present in both the Grundy Formation and Corbin Sandstone and proves the occurrence of sediment recycling. In conclusion, most detrital grains of Grenville origin and older are likely multi-cycle, while detrital grains associated with the Taconic, Acadian, Neo-Acadian, and Alleghenian orogenies are likely first-cycle in origin.