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James H. Trexler

Publications and source records attributed to James H. Trexler.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2013

Laramide basin CSI: Comprehensive stratigraphic investigations of Paleogene sediments in the Colorado Headwaters Basin, north-central Colorado

The Paleogene sedimentary deposits of the Colorado Headwaters Basin provide a detailed proxy record of regional deformation and basin subsidence during the Laramide orogeny in north-central Colorado and southern Wyoming. This field trip presents extensive evidence from sedimentology, stratigraphy, structure, palynology, and isotope geochronology that shows a complex history that is markedly different from other Laramide synorogenic basins in the vicinity. We show that the basin area was deformed by faulting and folding before, during, and after deposition of the Paleogene rocks. Internal unconformities have been identified that further reflect the interaction of deformation, subsidence, and sedimentation. Uplift of Proterozoic basement blocks that make up the surrounding mountain ranges today occurred late in basin history. Evidence is given to reinterpret the Independence Mountain uplift as the result of significant normal faulting (not thrusting), probably in middle Tertiary time. While the Denver and Cheyenne Basins to the east were subsiding and accumulating sediment during Late Cretaceous time, the Colorado Headwaters Basin region was experiencing vertical uplift and erosion. At least 1200 m of the upper part of the marine Upper Cretaceous Pierre Shale was regionally removed, along with Fox Hills Sandstone shoreline deposits of the receding Interior Seaway as well as any Laramie Formation–type continental deposits. Subsidence did not begin in the Colorado Headwaters Basin until after 60.5 Ma, when coarse, chaotic, debris-flow deposits of the Paleocene Windy Gap Volcanic Member of the Middle Park Formation began to accumulate along the southern basin margin. These volcaniclastic conglomerate deposits were derived from local, mafic-alkalic volcanic sources (and transitory deposits in the drainage basin), and were rapidly transported into a deep lake system by sediment gravity currents. The southern part of the basin subsided rapidly (roughly 750–1000 m/m.y.) and the drainage system delivered increasing proportions of arkosic debris from uplifted Proterozoic basement and more intermediate-composition volcanic-porphyry materials from central Colorado sources. Other margins of the Colorado Headwaters Basin subsided at slightly different times. Subsidence was preceded by variable amounts of gentle tilting and localized block-fault uplifts. The north-central part of the basin that was least-eroded in early Paleocene time was structurally inverted and became the locus of greatest subsidence during later Paleocene-Eocene time. Middle Paleocene coal-mires formed in the topographically lowest eastern part of the basin, but the basin center migrated to the western side by Eocene time when coal was deposited in the Coalmont district. In between, persistent lakes of variable depths characterized the central basin area, as evidenced by well-preserved deltaic facies. Fault-fold deformation within the Colorado Headwaters Basin strongly affected the Paleocene fluvial-lacustrine deposits, as reflected in the steep limbs of anticline-syncline pairs within the McCallum fold belt and the steep margins of the Breccia Spoon syncline. Slivers of Proterozoic basement rock were also elevated on steep reverse faults in late Paleocene time along the Delaney Butte–Sheep Mountain–Boettcher Ridge structure. Eocene deposits, by and large, are only gently folded within the Colorado Headwaters Basin and thus reflect a change in deformation history. The Paleogene deposits of the Colorado Headwaters Basin today represent only a fragment of the original extent of the depositional basin. Basal, coarse conglomerate deposits that suggest proximity to an active basin margin are relatively rare and are limited to the southern and northwestern margins of the relict basin. The northeastern margin of the preserved Paleogene section is conspicuously fine-grained, which indicates that any contemporaneous marginal uplift was far removed from the current extent of preserved fluvial-lacustrine sediments. The conspicuous basement uplifts of Proterozoic rock that flank the current relict Paleogene basin deposits are largely post-middle Eocene in age and are not associated with any Laramide synuplift fluvial deposits. The east-west–trending Independence Mountain fault system that truncates the Colorado Headwaters Basin on the north with an uplifted Proterozoic basement block is reinterpreted in this report. Numerous prior analyses had concluded that the fault was a low-angle, south-directed Laramide thrust that overlapped the northern margin of the basin. We conclude instead that the fault is more likely a Neogene normal fault that truncates all prior structure and belongs to a family of sub-parallel west-northwest–trending normal faults that offset upper Oligocene-Miocene fluvial deposits of the Browns Park–North Park Formations.

Colorado↗
USGS2011

Beyond Colorado's Front Range - A new look at Laramide basin subsidence, sedimentation, and deformation in north-central Colorado

This field trip highlights recent research into the Laramide uplift, erosion, and sedimentation on the western side of the northern Colorado Front Range. The Laramide history of the North Park-Middle Park basin (designated the Colorado Headwaters Basin in this paper) is distinctly different from that of the Denver basin on the eastern flank of the range. The Denver basin stratigraphy records the transition from Late Cretaceous marine shale to recessional shoreline sandstones to continental, fluvial, marsh, and coal mires environments, followed by orogenic sediments that span the K-T boundary. Upper Cretaceous and Paleogene strata in the Denver basin consist of two mega-fan complexes that are separated by a 9 million-year interval of erosion/non-deposition between about 63 and 54 Ma. In contrast, the marine shale unit on the western flank of the Front Range was deeply eroded over most of the area of the Colorado Headwaters Basin (approximately one km removed) prior to any orogenic sediment accumulation. New 40 Ar- 39 Ar ages indicate the oldest sediments on the western flank of the Front Range were as young as about 61 Ma. They comprise the Windy Gap Volcanic Member of the Middle Park Formation, which consists of coarse, immature volcanic conglomerates derived from nearby alkalic-mafic volcanic edifices that were forming at about 6561 Ma. Clasts of Proterozoic granite, pegmatite, and gneiss (eroded from the uplifted at Laramide basin subsidence, sedimentation, and deformation in north-central Colorado, in Morgan, L.A., and Quane, S.L., eds., Through the Generations: core of the Front Range) seem to arrive in the Colorado Headwaters Basin at different times in different places, but they become dominant in arkosic sandstones and conglomerates about one km above the base of the Colorado Headwaters Basin section. Paleocurrent trends suggest the southern end of the Colorado Headwaters Basin was structurally closed because all fluvial deposits show a northward component of transport. Lacustrine depositional environments are indicated by various sedimentological features in several sections within the >3 km of sediment preserved in the Colorado Headwaters Basin, suggesting this basin may have remained closed throughout the Paleocene and early Eocene. The field trip also addresses middle Eocene(?) folding of the late Laramide basin-fill strata, related to steep reverse faults that offset the Proterozoic crystalline basement. Late Oligocene magmatic activity is indicated by dikes, plugs, and eruptive volcanic rocks in the Rabbit Ears Range and the Never Summer Mountains that span and flank the Colorado Headwaters Basin. These intrusions and eruptions were accompanied by extensional faulting along predominantly northwesterly trends. Erosion accompanied the late Oligocene igneous activity and faulting, leading to deposition of boulder conglomerates and sandstones of the North Park Formation and high-level conglomerates across the landscape that preserve evidence of a paleo-drainage network that drained the volcanic landscape.

Colorado↗
USGS2000

Superposed fold-thrust events at the Nevada Test Site

The Nevada Test Site (NTS), in southern Nye County, Nevada, straddles significant pre-Tertiary structural and stratigraphic boundaries. Detailed stratigraphy and biostratigraphy of the Upper Paleozoic section delineates the regional trust sheets and constrains their burial histories. The Paleozoic rocks record three phases of contractional deformation, overprinted by strike-slip faulting. These occurred in the folloing order: (1) foreland-vergant folding and imbricate thrusting in the footwall of the Belted Range thrust; (2) hinterland-vergent folding and thrusting; and (3) north-vergant folding that we interpret as footwall deformation below a third major thrust system. Sinistral slip, typically accompanied by minor east-west shortening, has occurred along a series of north-northeast--north-northwest--striking faults around Yucca Flat. This strike-slip faulting postdates both foreland-vergent and hinterland-vergent deformation, and predates the Cretaceous Climax stock; its age relative to the north-vergent folding and thrusting is unknown. Our new understanding of the geometry of these structures provides new insights into the correlation and interpretation of regional structural features. Field trip stops will examine: (1) the stratigraphic differences that allow us to distinguish the regional thrust sheets and constrain their burial histories; and (2) the field relationships that document the kinematics and relative ages of the penetrative deformational events.

Nevada↗
USGS1996

Middle Devonian-Mississippian stratigraphy on and near the Nevada Test Site: Implications for hydrocarbon potential

Paleozoic strata on the Nevada Test Site and surrounding area are affected by the intersection of several important geologic trends, including the early Paleozoic rift margin and the Late Devonian-Early Mississippian Antler orogenic foredeep. Upper Paleozoic strata are lithologically diverse and include siliciclastic sediments (carbonaceous shale, clean quartzose sands, bedded chert, and chert-lithic conglomerate and sand) and various carbonates. These are interpreted to have been deposited in a range of environments and water depths. The resulting complex stratigraphy with its dramatic vertical and lateral changes is difficult to correlate, even between nearby surface and subsurface sections. Our detailed stratigraphic studies on and near the Nevada Test Site show that at least three distinct, and largely coeval, Mississippian facies assemblages can be recognized. When dated, correlated, and restored to their original relative geographic positions, these sections allow a new reconstruction of the Devonian and Mississippian geologic history that includes (1) delineation of the Antler foredeep basin and its clastic fill, (2) description of the muddy marginal shelf that lay inboard of the foredeep, and (3) correlation from that shelf to the outer fringes of the carbonate platform that characterizes the edge of the Mississippian epicontinental sea. The position and delineation of the mud-dominated marginal shelf environment is particularly important because shales deposited under such conditions elsewhere in the Great Basin are the hydrocarbon source rocks for the Pine Valley and Railroad Valley oil fields. On the Nevada Test Site, Mississippian shale probably generated hydrocarbons in the past, and still has an organic content and a thermal history appropriate for generating hydrocarbons.

Nevada↗
USGS1979

Analyses of surficial deposits, central Brooks Range, Alaska

Seventy-nine sediment samples from the central Brooks Range were analyzed for grain-size distribution, shape and composition of grains, and other physical properties. Four statistical measures (sorting, mean diameter, skewness, and kurtosis) were then computed for the sand-to-clay size fraction of all samples. Fan sediments resemble the other alluvial-gravel deposits in consisting of sand and gravel from which very fine sand and the smaller size fractions have been removed by running water. Sorting and rounding of particles is best at the distal ends of large fans. Modern alluvium is better sorted than most fan deposits, with more rounded clasts and generally higher ratios of sand to gravel. Other alluvial deposits from terraces and heavily dissected erosion remnants generally are comparable to modern alluvium. All classes of alluvial gravel are characterized by removal of fines and by decreasing values of mean 0, kurtosis, and skewness as sorting increases. Most samples also have high clay/silt ratios that probably were caused by deflation on windswept bars and floodplains. Lacustrine deposits have clay percentages ranging from about 85 to 35, with silt predominant in more than one-half of the samples. Several samples contain sand and gravel that presumably were ice rafted. Clay-sized particles are unweathered mineral grains, implying that glacial abrasion was their primary source. Flow-slide deposits are very poorly sorted mixtures of gravel, sand, and silt, with clay content averaging only about one percent. Clasts consist of angular fragments of local bedrock, usually schist and phyllite, and matrix materials usually are highly micaceous. Although related flow types, a mud-flow and a debris-flow in till, are generally similar to flow-slide deposits, the mudflow has been modified by running water and the debris flow reflects the composition of its parent till. Other colluvial deposits commonly have high silt and low clay contents, but one solifluction deposit has abundant clay derived from till. Several of the flow-slides and other colluvial deposits are polygenetic, having undergone several episodes of flow that incorporated different types of sediment. Sand deposits include silty floodplain and basin-fill deposits as well as five relatively pure and well sorted dunal and river-bar sands. The silt-rich deposits probably contain large amounts of loess that fell into late-Pleistocene basin fillings and muskegs and later was redeposited on Holocene floodplains. The five dunal and bar sands are dominantly medium to fine sand; relatively well sorted, symmetric to coarse skewed, and leptokurtic. The dunal sands can be distinguished by the presence of very fine sand: wind apparently is less effective than flowing water in removing the finest sand fraction. The glacial deposits consist of till, ice-content stratified drift, and outwash. Till is a poorly sorted mixed sediment that resembles many flow de-posits but typically contains more clay. Two clay-deficient tills resemble fan deposits, implying effective washing by meltwater during glacial transport or deposition of these deposits. The ice-contact stratified drift varies in character from fan-like gravel deposits to sand accumulations nearly as well sorted as those of river bars. Almost all samples reflect some restriction in washing of fines by meltwater, probably owing to irregular topography and resulting poor drainage on and around stagnating glaciers. Most outwash deposits have less fine sand than modern alluvium, probably reflecting the generally high energy of glacial meltwater streams and the absence of vegetation from their floodplains. Samples from the southern Brooks Range are better sorted than those from northern Brooks Range valleys, and their statistical values lie close to those of modern alluvium. Comparisons between the different classes of sediments are facilitated by combining them into (1) gravel, (2) sand, silt, and clay, and (3) mixed deposits. Deposits of unknown or uncertain origin may then be compared directly against sediments from modern streams, dunes, flow-slides and other known sources, and alternative origins of aberrant samples in each of the sediment classes can also be examined. Several samples that initially were classed as fan, lacustrine, or glacial proved to be mixed deposits created by frost-churning, frost-lifting of stones, flowage down faces of river bluffs, and other postdepositional processes. Sorting and mean ϕ of matrix materials were useful in distinguishing the different sediment classes, separating them into contrasting subgroups, and identifying atypical samples. Skewness and kurtosis were generally less useful in this study.

Alaska↗