Tectonics, Climate, and Landscape Evolution

Stable isotopic evidence for a pre–late Miocene elevation gradient in the Great Plains–Rocky Mountain region, USA
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Published:January 01, 2006
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CiteCitation
Derek J. Sjostrom, Michael T. Hren, Travis W. Horton, Jacob R. Waldbauer, C. Page Chamberlain, 2006. "Stable isotopic evidence for a pre–late Miocene elevation gradient in the Great Plains–Rocky Mountain region, USA", Tectonics, Climate, and Landscape Evolution, Sean D. Willett, Niels Hovius, Mark T. Brandon, Donald M. Fisher
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In order to investigate if high elevations existed in the Rocky Mountains before the late Miocene, we examined oxygen isotope ratios of 63 Tertiary smectite samples as a proxy for the isotopic composition of precipitation. Of these samples, 51 were also analyzed for hydrogen isotope ratios. These smectites were formed as a result of the weathering of volcanic air-fall deposits that blanketed much of western North America during the Tertiary. Smectite-bearing ashfall samples were collected from Eocene, Oligocene, and Miocene deposits along a transect that extends from the western Great Plains to Yellowstone National Park at modern elevations from ∼900...
- Arikaree Group
- ash falls
- Aycross Formation
- Cenozoic
- Chadron Formation
- clay mineralogy
- clay minerals
- D/H
- deuterium
- elevation
- Eocene
- experimental studies
- geochemistry
- Great Plains
- hydrogen
- isotope ratios
- isotopes
- lower Tertiary
- middle Eocene
- Miocene
- mountains
- Nebraska
- Neogene
- North America
- O-18/O-16
- Oligocene
- oxygen
- paleoclimatology
- Paleogene
- paleogeography
- Rocky Mountains
- sediments
- sheet silicates
- silicates
- smectite
- South Dakota
- stable isotopes
- Tertiary
- U. S. Rocky Mountains
- United States
- White River Group
- Wyoming
- X-ray diffraction data
- Wagon Bed Formation
- Split Rock Formation