Search USGS⌕ Search

Geology topics

D. C. Noble

Publications and source records attributed to D. C. Noble.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS1986

Tectonic and magmatic development of the Great Basin of western United States during the late Cenozoic time.

In the later Cainozoic, approx 18 m.y. ago, the first basin and range faulting developed in the central part of the Great Basin, this extensional tectonic system resulting from drag on the North American plate as the Pacific plate moved obliquely to the NW along the San Andreas fault. The northern boundary of the Great Basin at the Snake River plain and W across SE Oregon is the tectonic zone along which the E-W extending Basin and Range province has been moving for the past 18 m.y. In the Great Basin axis a narrow N-trending zone of basalt intruded the crust at the same time that basin and range faulting developed; this belt widens northwards as it approaches the N edge of the Great Basin and becomes diffuse and widespread in SE Oregon and SW Idaho, reaching enormous dimensions in the Columbia Plateau farther N. The basalt, which replaced andesitic igneous activity in the mid-Cainozoic, was produced by widespread partial melting in the upper mantle when the tectonic regime changed from a convergent- and subduction-related system to the extensional basin and range system. The locus of magma generated migration to the E and W margins of the Great Basin simultaneously and, as it migrated, it produced a series of eruptive centres along the N boundary of the Great Basin.-R.A.H.

Modern Geology↗
USGS1985

Demonstration of two pulses of Paleogene deformation in the Andes of Peru

New radiometric ages of about 25 m.y. on volcanic materials in a marine intercalation within clastic continental strata of the Upper Moquegua Formation near Caraveli, southern Peru, together with an age of 25.3 ± 0.4 m.y obtained by Tosdal et al. from a locality about 300 km to the ESE, show that the formation contains strata of late Oligocene as well as Miocene age, and demonstrate that the coastal region was at a low elevation during latest Oligocene time. Because the unconformities between the Upper Moquegua Formation and the underlying Lower Moquegua Formation, and between the Lower Moquegua Formation and underlying Paleocene rocks cannot both represent the same tectonic event, two discrete Paleogene events must be present in the Andes of Peru. Although the exact timing of these events is uncertain, the unconformities are likely to be of Paleocene and middle Eocene age or possibly of middle Eocene and Oligocene age.

Earth and Planetary Science Letters↗
USGS1980

Uranium contents of glassy and devitrified andesites and dacites, Mount Mazama, Oregon

By direct comparison of devitrified and granophyrically crystallized specimens with nonhydrated glassy materials from the same units, Rosholt and coworkers (Rosholt and Noble, 1969; Rosholt et al., 1971) showed that specimens of primarily crystallized but otherwise unaltered peralkaline and subalkaline rhyolite from the western United States had lost from 30 to 80 percent of the uranium that they originally possessed. They suggested that uranium was lost both during crystallization, perhaps as the volatile hexafluoride, and/or later through the action of ground water. Similar results have been obtained by Shatkov et al. (1970) and Kovalev and Maylasova (1973). Zielinski (1978) compared the uranium contents of paired nonhydrated glassy and primarily devitrified phases of a number of subalkaline rhyolitic lavas and tuffs from various localities in the western United States. He found a generally smaller degree of uranium loss than had been observed by Rosholt et al. (1971) for peralkaline materials. In addition, Zielinski noted that older specimens had, as a group, lost a greater percentage of their original uranium than had younger rocks and suggested that uranium is generally lost progressively over periods of many millions of years.

Oregon↗
USGS1970

Distribution of rubidium between sodic sanidine and natural silicic liquid

Phenocrysts of sodic sanidine from twelve upper Cenozoic units of silicic ash-flow tuff and lava from the Western United States contain from 0.25 to 0.45 the Rb present in the associated groundmass materials. The ratios of potassium to rubidium in the sanidines are, on the average, about four times greater than those of the groundmass. Separation of phenocrystic sanidine from salic melts provides an efficient method for raising the Rb content and lowering the K/Rb ratio of the melts, although the amount of differentiation probably is limited by continuous reequilibration of the alkalis between crystal and liquid phases through ion exchange. Syenites of cumulate origin will have appreciably lower Rb contents and higher K/Rb ratios than the melts from which they precipitated. Available data on the distribution of Rb between synthetic biotite and K-sanidine demonstrate that the separation of biotite probably will not deplete salic melts in Rb relative to K.

Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology↗
USGS1970

Middle Miocene hiatus in volcanic activity in the Great Basin area of the Western United States

A summary of potassium-argon dates shows that a high level of igneous activity in the Great Basin and adjacent regions during middle Tertiary time (40 to 20 my ago) was followed by a period of relative quiescence in middle Miocene time that lasted for several million years (from 20 to 17 my ago). Volcanism resumed 16 my ago mainly at the margins of the region and has continued to the present.

Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, Utah↗
USGS1970

Use of Ar36 to Evaluate the Incorporation of Air by Ash Flows

The Ar 36 content of densely welded glasses from ash-flow units provides a means by which the amount of air entrapped and subsequently resorbed by the glasses during compaction and welding may be calculated. The amount of air measured in glasses from nine upper Tertiary ash-flow sheets in the western United States ranges from 0.033 to 13 ppm; median is about 1 ppm. These values are very small compared with the total amounts of volatiles which probably were incorporated during welding. The data strongly suggest that large volumes of air are not incorporated by ash flows during their eruption and lateral movement.

California, Idaho, Nevada↗
USGS1969

Loss of uranium from crystallized silicic volcanic rocks

Dense primarily crystallized silicic groundmass material from two welded ash-flow units and one lava flow of Tertiary age from the Western United States contain only 20 to 60 percent of the uranium present in nonhydrated glass from the rock units. These differences reflect loss of uranium from the crystallized specimens, probably as a result of groundwater leaching. It appears likely that most crystallized silicic volcanic rocks have lost comparable amounts of uranium.

Earth and Planetary Science Letters↗