Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (12) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Allen, P. A. Articles by Audet, D. M. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Jurassic giant erg deposits, flexure of the United States continental interior, and timing of the onset of Cordilleran shortening

¹ Department of Geology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland
² Enterprise Oil plc, Grand Buildings, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5EJ, UK
³ Department of Earth Sciences, Cardiff University, Main Building, P.O. Box 914, Park Place, Cardiff CF1 3YE, UK
⁴ Department of Earth Sciences, Oxford University, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PR, UK

The requirement of long-term accommodation space for preservation in the geological record is particularly acute in the case of thick wind-blown deposits that accumulate to heights well above the regional elevation. The Mesozoic of the western United States contains a number of well-developed erg systems. The clue to their formation and preservation is the combination of a positive sand budget and the generation of shortening events in the early Mesozoic continental margin arc of the U.S. Cordillera, which flexed the continental interior downward. The combination of the creation of a wide topographic depression representing a retro-foreland basin, sheltered behind a mountain belt exerting a rain shadow effect, and a background dynamic subsidence, produced optimum conditions for the preservation of thick eolian deposits during the Jurassic. The onset of flexural subsidence in Utah is thought to have been as early as Early Jurassic on the basis of the characteristic signature of the subsidence profiles, which is in agreement with the recent documentation of Early Jurassic igneous and structural activity west of the Luning-Fencemaker thrust belt in Nevada.

Key Words: flexure • Utah • eolian • Cordilleran shortening • retro-foreland • subsidence

This article has been cited by other articles:

				F. Fuentes, P.G. DeCelles, and G.E. Gehrels Jurassic onset of foreland basin deposition in northwestern Montana, USA: Implications for along-strike synchroneity of Cordilleran orogenic activity Geology, April 1, 2009; 37(4): 379 - 382. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				W. R. Dickinson and G. E. Gehrels U-Pb ages of detrital zircons in Jurassic eolian and associated sandstones of the Colorado Plateau: Evidence for transcontinental dispersal and intraregional recycling of sediment Geological Society of America Bulletin, March 1, 2009; 121(3-4): 408 - 433. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				R. J. Dorsey and T. A. LaMaskin Stratigraphic record of Triassic-Jurassic collisional tectonics in the Blue Mountains province, northeastern Oregon Am J Sci, December 1, 2007; 307(10): 1167 - 1193. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				P. G. DeCelles and J. C. Coogan Regional structure and kinematic history of the Sevier fold-and-thrust belt, central Utah Geological Society of America Bulletin, July 1, 2006; 118(7-8): 841 - 864. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				B. Beitler, W.T. Parry, and M. A. Chan Fingerprints of Fluid Flow: Chemical Diagenetic History of the Jurassic Navajo Sandstone, Southern Utah, U.S.A. Journal of Sedimentary Research, July 1, 2005; 75(4): 547 - 561. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				P. G. DeCelles Late Jurassic to Eocene evolution of the Cordilleran thrust belt and foreland basin system, western U.S.A. Am J Sci, February 1, 2004; 304(2): 105 - 168. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]