Regional correlation of the middle coal group of the Upper Cretaceous Mesaverde Group, Yampa coal field, Moffat and Routt counties, Colorado

1988 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Upper Cretaceous ◽  
Coal Field ◽  
Regional Correlation ◽  
Mesaverde Group

scholarly journals Initial Laramide tectonism recorded by Upper Cretaceous paleoseismites in the northern Bighorn Basin, USA: Field indicators of an applied end load stress

Geology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (11) ◽  
pp. 1059-1063 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.T. Jackson ◽  
M.P. McKay ◽  
M.J. Bartholomew ◽  
D.T. Allison ◽  
D.L. Spurgeon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Upper Cretaceous ◽  
North American Plate ◽  
Plate Boundaries ◽  
Bighorn Basin ◽  
Group Position ◽  
Clastic Dike ◽  
Basement Deformation ◽  
Field Indicators ◽  
Sand Source ◽  
Mesaverde Group

Abstract Soft-sediment deformational structures associated with paleoseismicity (e.g., planar clastic dikes) exist within Upper Cretaceous Mesaverde Group strata in the Laramide Elk Basin anticline, northern Bighorn Basin (Wyoming, USA). Retrodeformation of the Elk Basin anticline to a horizontal Mesaverde Group position indicates that all basement offset is removed and that clastic dikes exhibit a dominant northeast trend. The trend of clastic dikes corresponds to the interpreted northeast-southwest direction of early Laramide layer-parallel shortening, suggesting that the development of clastic dikes recorded initiation of basement deformation and Laramide tectonism. To determine the timing of clastic dike development, we present zircon U-Pb geochronology from the stratigraphically lowest sand-source bed generating upwardly injected clastic dikes and a volcanic bentonite bed (Ardmore bentonite) above the stratigraphic interval containing clastic dikes. Weighted mean ages bracket clastic dike development between 82.4 and 78.0 Ma. Our results imply initiation of basement deformation ∼8–15 m.y. prior than other estimates in the Bighorn Basin. Therefore, we interpret the development of clastic dikes in the Elk Basin anticline to represent an initial phase of Laramide tectonism associated with an applied end load stress transmitted from the southwestern North American plate margin in response to the collision of the conjugate Shatsky Rise oceanic plateau ca. 90–85 Ma. Results demonstrate how sedimentary responses in the foreland can be used to understand tectonic processes at plate boundaries and provide spatial-temporal parameters for models of Laramide deformation.

Diagenesis of a tight gas sand reservoir: Upper Cretaceous Mesaverde Group, Piceance Basin, Colorado

2013 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 48-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor M. Stroker ◽  
Nicholas B. Harris ◽  
W. Crawford Elliott ◽  
J. Marion Wampler
Keyword(s):  
Upper Cretaceous ◽  
Piceance Basin ◽  
Tight Gas ◽  
Mesaverde Group
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