The Paleogene California River; evidence of Mojave-Uinta paleodrainage from U-Pb ages of detrital zircons

U-Pb age spectra of detrital zircons in samples from the Paleogene Colton Formation in the Uinta Basin of northeastern Utah and the Late Cretaceous McCoy Mountains Formation of southwestern Arizona (United States) are statistically indistinguishable. This finding refutes previous inferences that ark...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geology (Boulder) 2010-10, Vol.38 (10), p.931-934, Article 931
Main Authors: Davis, Steven J, Dickinson, William R, Gehrels, George E, Spencer, Jon E, Lawton, Timothy F, Carroll, Alan R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
absolute age
Arizona
California
California River
Cenozoic
Colton Formation
Cretaceous
dates
detritus
drainage patterns
Eocene
Freshwater
Geochronology
Geological time
Geology
Lead
McCoy Mountains Formation
Mesozoic
Minerals
Mojave Desert
nesosilicates
orthosilicates
Paleogene
paleogeography
paleorivers
provenance
River basins
sedimentary rocks
silicates
southeastern Utah
Southern California
southwestern Arizona
Stratigraphy
Tertiary
U/Pb
Uinta Basin
United States
Upper Cretaceous
Uranium
Utah
zircon
zircon group
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Summary:U-Pb age spectra of detrital zircons in samples from the Paleogene Colton Formation in the Uinta Basin of northeastern Utah and the Late Cretaceous McCoy Mountains Formation of southwestern Arizona (United States) are statistically indistinguishable. This finding refutes previous inferences that arkosic detritus of the Colton was derived from cratonic basement exposed by Laramide tectonism, and instead establishes the Cordilleran magmatic arc (which also provided sediment to the McCoy Mountains Formation) as the primary source. Given the existence of a north-south-trending drainage divide in eastern Nevada and the north-northeast direction of Laramide paleoflow throughout Arizona and southern Utah, we infer that a large river system headed in the arc of the Mojave region flowed northeast ∼700 km to the Uinta Basin. Named after its source area, this Paleogene California River would have been equal in scale but opposite in direction to the modern Green River-Colorado River system, and the timing and causes of the subsequent drainage reversal are important constraints on the tectonic evolution of the Cordillera and the Colorado Plateau.
ISSN:0091-7613
1943-2682
1943-2682
DOI:10.1130/G31250.1