Schedule 2021
Friday 1/15: Introduction, overview of the main themes in Cordilleran history
Monday 1/18: no class, MLK holiday
Wednesday 1/20-Friday 1/22: Precambrian terranes, U-Pb dating, Sm-Nd model ages
Reading:
- Slides from these lectures
- sec. 10-3 and 10-4 of Turcotte and Schubert (10-1 and 10-2 are helpful).
- Radiometric dating handout
- Ch.
1 of Baldridge is relevant
- Reed, J. C., Jr., T. T. Ball, G. L. Farmer, and W. B. Hamilton, A broader
view, in Precambrian: Conterminous U. S., The Geology of North America, vol.
C-2, edited by J. C. Reed, Jr. and others, pp. 614-622 (Farmer's section),
Geol. Soc. Amer., Boulder, Colo., 1993
Monday, 25 January: No specified reading. Will discuss the dating and analysis of late Precambrian basins that predate and lead into the Cordilleran passive margin/miogeocline.
Wednesday 27 January: Thermal subsidence and rift duration and ending
- Notes on thermal subsidence and backstripping
- Images used in lecture 1/27 (and some for 1/29).
- Turcotte and Schubert, sec. 4-15, 4-16, 4-23, 4-25, last is most relevant, earlier readings provide background. [An alternative that is more compact and comes from a more geologic point of view is in Stüwe's text, sections 6.1.3 & 6.1.4; this also includes a description of how backstripping works missing from Turcotte and Schubert]
- Bond, G. C., and M. A. Kominz, Construction of tectonic subsidence curves for the early Paleozoic miogeocline, southern Canadian Rocky Mountains; implications for subsidence mechanisms, age of breakup, and crustal thinning, Geological Society of America Bulletin, 95, (2), 155-173, 1984.
- Chs. 2 and 3 of Baldridge are relevant
Friday 29 January: End of rifting, Ancestral Rockies
Monday 1 February: Plate flexure and Ancestral Rockies
Wednesday 3 February: Finish of ARM, Antler Orogeny
- Figures from lecture (9.6 Mb)
- Moving load movie full scale [might have to download to play] and detail of forebulge in the presence of a weakness (Te = 10 km near x=100 vs 24 km elsewhere).
- Giles, K. A., and W. R. Dickinson, The interplay of eustasy
and lithospheric flexure in forming stratigraphic sequences in
foreland settings: An example from the Antler foreland, Nevada
and Utah, in Stratigraphic Evolution of Foreland Basins, SEPM
Special Publication, vol. 52, edited by S. L. Dorobek and
G. M. Ross, pp. 187-211, SEPM, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1995
Friday, 5 February: Origin of the upper plate of Roberts Mtn Thrust, Antler models.
Monday, 8 February: Paleozoic truncation of miogeocline
- Images from lecture
- Lawton, T.F., Cashman, P.H., Trexler, J.H., Jr., and Taylor, W.J., 2017, The late Paleozoic Southwestern Laurentian Borderland: Geology, 45 (8), p. 675-678, doi: 10.1130/G39071.1.
Wednesday, 10 February: Sonoma orogeny
- Images from lecture (43Mb)
- if you are curious (there is a lot of other things here): Caravaca, G., Brayard, A., Vennin, E., Guiraud, M., Le Pourhiet, L., Grosjean, A.-S., Thomazo, C., Olivier, N., Fara, E., Escarguel, G., Bylundi, K.G., Jenks, J.F., and Stephen, D.A., 2018, Controlling factors for differential subsidence in the Sonoma Foreland Basin (Early Triassic, western USA): Geological Magazine, v. 155, p. 1305–1329, doi: 10.1017/S0016756817000164.
Friday, 12 February: Exotic Terranes. Battle over the Sierra:
- Colpron, M., and Nelson, J.L., 2009, A Palaeozoic Northwest Passage: incursion of Caledonian, Baltican and Siberian terranes into eastern Panthalassa, and the early evolution of the North American Cordillera, in Cawood, P.A. and Kröner, A. eds., Earth Accretionary Systems in Space and Time, Geological Society, London, Special Publications, v. 318, p. 273-307, doi: 10.1144/SP318.10. (Tyler, Keely, Stephen)
- Attia, S., Paterson, S.R., Cao, W., Chapman, A.D., Saleeby, J., Dunne, G.C., Stevens, C.H., and Memeti, V., 2018, Late Paleozoic tectonic assembly of the Sierra Nevada prebatholithic framework and western Laurentian provenance links based on synthesized detrital zircon geochronology, in Tectonics, Sedimentary Basins, and Provenance: A Celebration of the Career of William R. Dickinson, Geological Society of America Special Paper, v. 540, p. 267–295, doi: 10.1130/2018.2540(12).. (Vanessa, Shunjie, Elize).
Monday, 15 February & Friday Feb 19: Paleomagnetism
Monday, February 22: Plate reconstructions
Wednesday, Feb. 24: How crazy was the plate margin?
- Read Clennett, E.J., Sigloch, K., Mihalynuk, M.G., Seton, M., Henderson, M.A., Hosseini, K., Mohammadzaheri, A., Johnston, S.T., and Müller, R.D., 2020, A Quantitative Tomotectonic Plate Reconstruction of Western North America and the Eastern Pacific Basin: Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, v. 20, e2020GC009117, 25 p., doi: 10.1029/2020GC009117.
Friday, Feb. 26: Fold-and-thrust belts
- Images from lecture, 18.5 Mb
- Coulomb wedge handout
- Turcotte and Schubert, section 8-6 (also Stüwe, pp. 294-298 1st ed, 308-315 (section 6.2.3) 2nd ed)
- Baldridge sections 6.6, 7.2
- application: DeCelles,
P. G., and G. Mitra, History of the Sevier orogenic wedge in terms
of critical taper models, Northeast Utah and Southwest Wyoming, Geological
Society of America Bulletin, 107, 454-462, 1995
Monday, March 1: thrust structures, Sevier and Laramide
Wednesday, March 3: Laramide faulting
Friday, March 5 [well, probably Monday, March 8]:
Monday March 8: Intro to pre-Laramide sedimentation
- Liu, S., Nummedal, D., & Gurnis, M. (2014). Dynamic versus flexural controls of Late Cretaceous Western Interior Basin, USA. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 389(C), 221-229. doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2014.01.006. Keely Elize Tyler
- Painter, C. S., & Carrapa, B. (2013). Flexural versus dynamic processes of subsidence in the North American Cordillera foreland basin. Geophysical Research Letters, 40(16), 4249-4253. doi: 10.1002/grl.50831 Shunjie Stephen Vanessa
Wednesday March 10: Class project discussion
Friday, March 12: Class project & Seaway + Dynamic Topo
Monday, March 15: Snow day.
Wednesday, March 17: Laramide hypotheses
Friday, March 19: Hinterland extension and paleobarometers
- Stuwe, section 7.2.1-7.4.1 (pp. 346-363)
- Hodges, K.V., Snoke, A.W., and Hurlow, H.A., 1992, Thermal evolution of a portion of the Sevier hinterland: The Northern Ruby Mountains-East Humboldt Range and Wood Hills, Northeastern Nevada: Tectonics, v. 11, p. 154–164, doi: 10.1029/91TC01879.
- Zuza, A.V., Thorman, C.H., Henry, C.D., Levy, D.A., Dee, S., Long, S.P., Sandberg, C.A., and Soignard, E., 2020, Pulsed Mesozoic Deformation in the Cordilleran Hinterland and Evolution of the Nevadaplano: Insights from the Pequop Mountains, NE Nevada: Lithosphere, v. 2020, p. 1–24, doi: 10.2113/2020/8850336.
Monday, March 22: Doing literature research, complete hinterland discussion.
Wednesday, March 24: Sierran arc and possible correlations
- Images from class, 3/24
- DeCelles, P.G., Ducea, M.N., Kapp, P., and Zandt, G., 2009, Cyclicity in Cordilleran orogenic systems: Nature Geoscience, v. 2, p. 251-257, doi: 10.1038/ngeo469.
Friday, March 26: Franciscan Complex
- Images from class, 3/26, 52 Mb
- If you want to look at an overview: Wakabayashi, J., 2015, Anatomy of a subduction complex: architecture of the Franciscan Complex, California, at multiple length and time scales: International Geology Review, v. 57, p. 669-746, doi: 10.1080/00206814.2014.998728.
Monday, March 29: Rand/Pelona/Orocopia schists
Wednesday, March 31: Ignimbrite flare-up: Discussion of papers
- Best, M.G., Christiansen, E.H., de Silva, S., and Lipman, P.W., 2016, Slab-rollback ignimbrite flareups in the southern Great Basin and other Cenozoic American arcs: A distinct style of arc volcanism: Geosphere, v. 12, p. 1097-1135, doi: 10.1130/GES01285.1. (Tyler, Shunjie, Keely)
- Farmer, G.L., Bailley, T., and Elkins-Tanton, L.T., 2008, Mantle source volumes and the origin of the mid-Tertiary ignimbrite flare-up in the southern Rocky Mountains, western U.S.: Lithos, v. 102, p. 279-294, doi: 10.1016/j.lithos.2007.08.014. (Vanessa, Elize, Stephen)
Friday, April 2: Core complexes
- Images from class (16 Mb)
- Turcotte and Schubert, pp. 226-229 (section 6-1, 6-2)
- Rheology of the lithosphere handout
- (Baldridge sec. 8.4)
- Buck, W.
R., Modes of continental lithospheric extension, J. Geophys. Res., 96,
20,161-20,178, doi: 10.1029/91JB01485,1991.
Monday, April 5: Forces and Basin and Range extension
Wednesday, April 7: Paleoelevation
Monday, April 12: Paleoelevation (continued),
Sierra structure?
- Lechler, A. R., Niemi, N. A., Hren, M. T., & Lohmann, K. C. (2013). Paleoelevation estimates for the northern and central proto-Basin and Range from carbonate clumped isotope thermometry. Tectonics, 32(3), 295–316. (Keely, Shunjie, Vanessa)
- Snell, K. E., Koch, P. L., Druschke, P., Foreman, B. Z., & Eiler, J. M. (2014). High elevation of the “Nevadaplano” during the Late Cretaceous. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 386(C), 52–63. (Elize, Stephen, Tyler)
- Handout on crustal geophysical methods
- Images from class (19 Mb)
Wednesday, April 14: Neogene erosion
Monday, April 19: Neogene erosion (conclusion), Neogene volcanism and plate boundary evolution
- Cather, S.M., Chapin, C.E., and Kelley, S.A., 2012, Diachronous episodes of Cenozoic erosion in southwestern North America and their relationship to surface uplift, paleoclimate, paleodrainage, and paleoaltimetry: Geosphere, v. 8, p. 1177–1206, doi: 10.1130/GES00801.1. (Title kind of says it all).
- Images for Neogene erosion from class (28 Mb).
- Images for Neogene volcanism from class (29 Mb)
- Images from plate boundary evolution (6 Mb)
Wednesday, April 21: Geodesy and neotectonics
Last meetings: Student presentations
Please send mail to cjones@colorado.edu
if you encounter any problems or have suggestions.
GEOL5690 home | C.
H. Jones | CIRES
| Dept. of Geological
Sciences | Univ. of Colorado
at Boulder
Last modified at
October 13, 2023 10:01 AM