Late Cenozoic Drainage History of the Southwestern Great Basin and Lower Colorado River Region: Geologic and Biotic Perspectives

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marith C. Reheis ◽  
Robert Hershler ◽  
David M. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Great Basin ◽  
Colorado River ◽  
Late Cenozoic ◽  
River Region ◽  
History Of ◽  
Lower Colorado River

A History of Date Palms in the Lower Colorado River Valley

2019 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 863-879
Author(s):  
Dennis V. Johnson ◽  
Jane C. MacKnight
Keyword(s):  
Colorado River ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Date Palms ◽  
History Of ◽  
Lower Colorado River

scholarly journals Post–12 Ma deformation in the lower Colorado River corridor, southwestern USA: Implications for diffuse transtension and the Bouse Formation

Geosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-135
Author(s):  
Jacob O. Thacker ◽  
Karl E. Karlstrom ◽  
Laura J. Crossey ◽  
Ryan S. Crow ◽  
Colleen E. Cassidy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Vertical Distribution ◽  
Colorado River ◽  
San Andreas ◽  
History Of ◽  
Southwestern Usa ◽  
First Arrival ◽  
Metamorphic Core ◽  
East West ◽  
River Corridor ◽  
Lower Colorado River

Abstract Structural evidence presented here documents that deformation was ongoing within the lower Colorado River corridor (southwestern USA) during and after the latest Miocene Epoch, postdating large-magnitude extension and metamorphic core complex formation. Geometric and kinematic data collected on faults in key geologic units constrain the timing of deformation in relation to the age of the Bouse Formation, a unit that records the first arrival and integration of the Colorado River. North-south–striking extensional, NW-SE–striking oblique dextral, NE-SW–striking oblique sinistral, and east-west–striking contractional faults and related structures are observed to deform pre– (>6 Ma), syn– (6–4.8 Ma), and post–Bouse Formation (<4.8 Ma) strata. Fault displacements are typically at the centimeter to meter scale, and locally exhibit 10-m-scale displacements. Bouse Formation basalt carbonate locally exhibits outcrop-scale (tens of meters) syndepositional dips of 30°–90°, draped over and encrusted upon paleotopography, and has a basin-wide vertical distribution of as much as 500 m. We argue that part of this vertical distribution of Bouse Formation deposits represents syn- and post-Bouse deformation that enhanced north-south–trending depocenters due to combined tectonic and isostatic subsidence in a regional fault kinematic framework of east-west diffuse extension within an overall strain field of dextral transtension. Here we (1) characterize post-detachment tectonism within the corridor, (2) show that diffuse tectonism is cumulatively significant and likely modified original elevations of Bouse Formation outcrops, and (3) demonstrate that this tectonism may have played a role in the integration history of the lower Colorado River. We suggest a model whereby intracontinental transtension took place in a several hundred kilometers-wide area inboard of the San Andreas fault within a diffuse Pacific–North America plate margin since the latest Miocene.

scholarly journals A guide to Miocene extension and magmatism in the lower Colorado River region, Nevada, Arizona, and California

1994 ◽  
Author(s):  
K.A. Howard ◽  
Barbara E. John ◽  
G.A. Davis ◽  
J.L. Anderson ◽  
P.B. Gans
Keyword(s):  
Colorado River ◽  
River Region ◽  
Lower Colorado River
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