The Cryogenian record in the southern Kingston Range, California: The thickest Death Valley succession in the hunt for a GSSP

• Published in: Precambrian research 2018-12, Vol.319, p.158-172
• Main Authors: Le Heron, Daniel Paul, Busfield, Marie Elen, Ali, Dilshad Omer, Al Tofaif, Saeed, Vandyk, Thomas Matthew
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0301-9268; 1872-7433
• DOI: 10.1016/j.precamres.2017.07.017

[Display omitted] •The sedimentology of the thickest succession of Cryogenian glacially-related strata in the Death Valley area – the Kingston Peak Formation (KPF) – is described in detail for the first time from the southern Kingston Range. The KPF is important as one of Laurentia’s finest archives of Cryogenian glaciation, with the outcrop quality meriting consideration as a potential GSSP.•In the southern Kingston Range, strata represent a major subaqueous fan complex that was deposited under the competing influence of rifting and glaciation.•A sequence stratigraphic interpretation suggests that discrete phases of glacial advance, retreat, glacial maxima and glacial minima is proposed, which is useful to understand ice dynamics at a local scale.•Uncertainty surrounds the stratigraphic value of many KPF subdivisions that have been previously proposed. This re-opens questions about representativeness and completeness of the Death Valley record. The Kingston Peak Formation of the Death Valley area, California, allows valuable insight into both regional Cordilleran stratigraphy and the number of glacial cycles preserved in the Cryogenian record. In the Kingston Range, the eponymous strata have been previously interpreted to record both Sturtian and Marinoan pan-glacial events. In the context of a search for a Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the Cryogenian, we provide the first detailed description of the thickest diamictite-bearing interval in the western USA. Two clast-poor, muddy diamictite intervals within the succession- one at the base, and one near the top- have been used to support Sturtian and Marinoan events previously. However, new data from the southern part of the Kingston Range suggest that the upper diamictite interval is genetically related to underlying strata. The deposits are interpreted as glaciogenic debris flow deposits which probably represent the proximal tract of a subaqueous fan. Medial to distal portions of this fan are dominated by turbidites, which were transported down a consistent SE-oriented palaeoslope. Lowermost beds of the upper diamictite interval are intercalated with graded sandstones and sandy, matrix supported conglomerates. The graded beds (turbidites) and matrix-supported conglomerates (debrites) testify to a subaqueous setting, with the compositionally and texturally distinct diamictites indicating a glacial origin.