Abstract The Mesaverde Group, Uinta Basin, Utah is the source of current significant natural gas production and contains several trillion cubic feet of undiscovered natural gas resources. To evaluate and model the potential connectivity of hydraulically induced fractures to natural fractures in the subsurface, the natural fracture network was examined using scanline sampling, image and well logs, core and microstructural analyses. Regional fracture sets include subvertical fractures with dominant orientations of: north–south (006–015°), NE (045–059°), NNW (326–342°) and a WNW (271–286°). Sedimentologic and diagenetic characteristics of seven sandstone lithofacies control the fracture development and distribution in the group. Key sedimentologic and diagenetic influences on fracture distribution include bed thickness, stratigraphic architecture, the degree of cementation and the type of cement. From these sedimentologic controls on the character of natural fractures, lithofacies can potentially predict fracture distribution within the Mesaverde Group based on environments of deposition. The presence of NW-trending discontinuous sandstone reservoirs deposited in meandering fluvial environments that are highly fractured by a pervasive WNW-striking fracture set helps to explain fairways of prolific natural gas production within the basin.

Abstract The Great Basin of the western United States offers tremendous potential for exploring the response of mountain glaciers and lowland lakes to climate changes during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, MIS-2, ca. 22–18 ka B.P.) and subsequent glacial-interglacial transition. The combination of well-distributed alpine moraine records and pluvial lake deposits offers an unparalleled opportunity to develop a more precise understanding of temperature and precipitation changes during the latest Pleistocene and into the Holocene. This field trip provides an overview of recent and ongoing work illuminating aspects of the glacial and pluvial history of northeastern Nevada from the LGM to the present. The route of this trip involves three full days of stops separated by two nights in Elko, Nevada. The first day focuses on glacial deposits at the type locality for the LGM Angel Lake Glaciation on the eastern side of the East Humboldt Range. The second day explores the geomorphic record of pluvial Lakes Franklin and Clover on the east side of the Ruby–East Humboldt Mountains and describes recent efforts to develop a chronology for the late Pleistocene regression of these lakes. The final day again focuses on glacial geology, starting with the type locality of the pre-LGM Lamoille Glaciation on the west side of the Ruby Mountains, and ending with several stops along the scenic drive up Lamoille Canyon.

ABSTRACT This field trip examines contrasting lines of evidence bearing on the timing and structural style of Cenozoic (and perhaps late Mesozoic) extensional deformation in northeastern Nevada. Studies of metamorphic core complexes in this region report extension beginning in the early Cenozoic or even Late Cretaceous, peaking in the Eocene and Oligocene, and being largely over before the onset of “modern” Basin and Range extension in the middle Miocene. In contrast, studies based on low-temperature thermochronology and geologic mapping of Eocene and Miocene volcanic and sedimentary deposits report only minor, localized extension in the Eocene, no extension at all in the Oligocene and early Miocene, and major, regional extension in the middle Miocene. A wealth of thermochronologic and thermobarometric data indicate that the Ruby Mountains–East Humboldt Range metamorphic core complex (RMEH) underwent ~170 °C of cooling and 4 kbar of decompression between ca. 85 and ca. 50 Ma, and another 450 °C cooling and 4–5 kbar decompression between ca. 50 and ca. 21 Ma. These data require ~30 km of exhumation in at least two episodes, accommodated at least in part by Eocene to early Miocene displacement on the major west-dipping mylonitic zone and detachment fault bounding the RMEH on the west (the mylonitic zone may also have been active during an earlier phase of crustal extension). Meanwhile, Eocene paleovalleys containing 45–40 Ma ash-flow tuffs drained eastward from northern Nevada to the Uinta Basin in Utah, and continuity of these paleovalleys and infilling tuffs across the region indicate little, if any deformation by faults during their deposition. Pre–45 Ma deformation is less constrained, but the absence of Cenozoic sedimentary deposits and mappable normal faults older than 45 Ma is also consistent with only minor (if any) brittle deformation. The presence of ≤1 km of late Eocene sedimentary—especially lacustrine—deposits and a low-angle angular unconformity between ca. 40 and 38 Ma rocks attest to an episode of normal faulting at ca. 40 Ma. Arguably the greatest conundrum is how much extension occurred between ca. 35 and 17 Ma. Major exhumation of the RMEH is interpreted to have taken place in the late Oligocene and early Miocene, but rocks of any kind deposited during this interval are scarce in northeastern Nevada and absent in the vicinity of the RMEH itself. In most places, no angular unconformity is present between late Eocene and middle Miocene rocks, indicating little or no tilting between the late Eocene and middle Miocene. Opinions among authors of this report differ, however, as to whether this indicates no extension during the same time interval. The one locality where Oligocene deposits have been documented is Copper Basin, where Oligocene (32.5–29.5 Ma) conglomerates are ~500 m thick. The contact between Oligocene and Eocene rocks in Copper Basin is conformable, and the rocks are uniformly tilted ~25° NW, opposite to a normal fault system dipping ~35° SE. Middle Miocene rhyolite (ca. 16 Ma) rests nonconformably on the metamorphosed lower plate of this fault system and appears to rest on the tilted upper-plate rocks with angular unconformity, but the contact is not physically exposed. Different authors of this report interpret geologic relations in Copper Basin to indicate either (1) significant episodes of extension in the Eocene, Oligocene, and middle Miocene or (2) minor extension in the Eocene, uncertainty about the Oligocene, and major extension in the middle Miocene. An episode of major middle Miocene extension beginning at ca. 16–17 Ma is indicated by thick (up to 5 km) accumulations of sedimentary deposits in half-graben basins over most of northern Nevada, tilting and fanning of dips in the synextensional sedimentary deposits, and apatite fission-track and (U-Th)/He data from the southern Ruby Mountains and other ranges that indicate rapid middle Miocene cooling through near-surface temperatures (~120–40 °C). Opinions among authors of this report differ as to whether this period of extension was merely the last step in a long history of extensional faulting dating back at least to the Eocene, or whether it accounts for most of the Cenozoic deformation in northeastern Nevada. Since 10– 12 Ma, extension appears to have slowed greatly and been accommodated by highangle, relatively wide-spaced normal faults that give topographic form to the modern ranges. Despite the low present-day rate of extension, normal faults are active and have generated damaging earthquakes as recently as 2008.

Abstract Recent mapping, U-Pb zircon geochronology, trace-element geochemistry, and tracer isotope geochemistry of plutonic and volcanic rocks in the Wallowa and Olds Ferry terranes of the Blue Mountains Province yield new insights into their tectonic evolution and pre-accretion history. Igneous rocks of the Wallowa arc terrane formed in two magmatic episodes of contrasting duration and geochemical characteristics. Magmatism in the first episode lasted for at least 20 Ma (ca. 268–248 Ma), spanning the Middle Permian to the Early Triassic and was of generally calc-alkaline affinity. Rock units associated with this episode include the Hunsaker Creek and Windy Ridge formations of the Wallowa terrane, as well as potentially equivalent tonalite and diorite plutonic rocks in the Cougar Creek Complex and related basement exposures, which show midcrustal levels of the terrane. The second episode of magmatism in the Wallowa arc was remarkably brief (U-Pb zircon dates range from 229.43 ± 0.08 Ma to 229.13 ± 0.45 Ma) and dominated by mafic to intermediate compositions of tholeiitic affinity. Rock units associated with the second episode may include the Wild Sheep Creek and Doyle Creek formations, as well as ubiquitous dikes and plutons in the Cougar Creek Complex and similar basement exposures. After 229 Ma, the Wallowa arc apparently became dormant. The record of igneous activity in the Olds Ferry arc contrasts with that of the Wallowa in its age range and the continuity of calc-alkaline magmatism. Radiometric ages and stratigraphic field relationships allow the magmatic history of the Olds Ferry terrane to be divided into at least three cycles separated by brief hiatuses and collectively spanning the late Middle Triassic through the Early Jurassic (ca. 237– 187 Ma). Rock units related to these episodes are divided by unconformities, and they include the Brownlee pluton, lower Huntington Formation, and upper Huntington Formation. Magmatic activity in the Olds Ferry arc may have persisted until at least 174 Ma, based on the presence of volcanic ash horizons in the lower portion of the overlying Weatherby Formation of the Izee basin. All cycles of Olds Ferry magmatism display generally calc-alkaline affinity. The contrasting magmatic histories of the Wallowa and Olds Ferry arc terranes provide the basis for at least two conclusions. First, these arcs formed as separate tectonic entities, rather than as a single composite arc. Second, progressive closure of the ocean basin between the arcs in the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic was related to continued subduction beneath the Olds Ferry arc, but the Wallowa arc was apparently dormant during much of that interval.

Abstract Neogene drainage development in southeastern Idaho has been influenced by drainage capture, Basin and Range faulting, volcanism, and the Late Pleistocene Lake Bonneville overflow and Bonneville Flood. In Marsh Valley, the Middle to Late Pleistocene sedimentary sequence is dominated by alternating lacustrine/paludal and alluvial sediments, which have yielded new 40Ar/39Ar, amino acid racemization, and luminescence age estimates. The pattern of sedimentation through time indicates poor drainage integration of southern Marsh Valley through most of the last ca. 640 ka and suggests slow basin subsidence along Quaternary faults mapped on the basin edges. Marsh Valley initially incised into that valley fill sequence ca. 19 ka, shortly before the Bonneville Flood. Marsh Creek is a markedly underfit stream occupying a meandering, broad valley carved into the valley fill sequence. These geomorphic and sedimentologic patterns suggest non-catastrophic Lake Bonneville overflow before and after the Bonneville Flood. In Portneuf Valley, ca. 8.5–7.4 Ma basin fill and a bedrock pediment are perched 800 m above the modern valley floor. Major incision of basin fill and bedrock by the ancestral Portneuf drainage system occurred prior to the Middle to Late Pleistocene, when two cut-fill events resulted in accumulation of alluvial fan deposits extending ~10–60 m above the modern valley floor and basalt extending ~10 m below to 20 m above the modern valley floor. Final incision by Lake Bonneville overflow is evident but relatively minor in comparison to the cumulative downcutting. Overall, incision is attributed to isostatic subsidence of the eastern Snake River Plain, which served as base level for the Portneuf drainage system after passage of the Yellowstone hot spot in late Miocene time.

Abstract Study of the distribution of the age-populations of detrital zircons in the Snake River system suggest that specific stream systems can be identified based on the detrital-zircon age-population signature (“barcode”) of ancient and Holocene sand deposits. Detrital zircon studies can be used on regional and local scales to determine changes in drainage patterns using both surface and subsurface data. Regional study of drainage patterns using detrital zircons found in Neogene strata of Idaho and southwest Montana suggest northeastward late Miocene to Holocene migration of the Continental Divide from the western side of the Pioneer Mountains to the current position in southwest Montana. Specifically, mixed populations of recycled Proterozoic detrital zircons that define the Wood River drainage are not found in the western Snake River Plain until after 7 Ma. Late Miocene eastward drainage from the central Snake River Plain to southwest Montana is suggested by 9–12 Ma detrital zircons found in fluvial strata less than 6 million years old, of the Sixmile Creek Formation Basalt eruptions of the Eastern Snake River Plain during the Pliocene and Pleistocene also caused drainage diversion. Detrital zircons in Pliocene sands from coreholes at Wendell and Mountain Home Air Force Base contain Big Lost River zircon provenance, suggesting that during the Pliocene, the Big Lost River flowed west along the central Snake River Plain. Late Pliocene and early Pleistocene basaltic volcanoes and rhyolite dome eruptions resulted in volcanic highlands, the Axial Volcanic Zone of the eastern Snake River Plain and the northwest-trending Arco Volcanic Rift Zone (which includes Craters of the Moon volcanic center). The development of these volcanic highlands disrupted the ancestral drainage of the Pliocene Big Lost River system, confining it to the Big Lost Trough, a volcanically dammed basin of internal drainage on the Idaho National Laboratory. After the Big Lost Trough was cut off from the main Snake River, basalt eruptions, local subsidence, and climate controlled the courses of the rivers that flowed into it. Detrital-zircon populations in core samples reveal the provenance of specific sand beds from the Big or Little Lost River systems.

Abstract The Bridger Formation is located in the Green River basin in southwest Wyoming, and the Uinta and Duchesne River formations are located in the Uinta basin in Utah. These three rock units and their diverse fossil assemblages have great scientific importance and are also of historic interest to vertebrate paleontologists. Notably, they are also the stratotypes for the three middle Eocene North American Land Mammal “Ages,” the Bridgerian, Uintan, and Duchesnean, from oldest to youngest. The fossils and sediments of these formations provide a critically important record of biotic, environmental, and climatic history spanning ~10 million years (49–39 Ma). This article features a detailed field excursion through portions of the Green River and Uinta basins that focuses on locations of geologic, paleontologic, and historical interest. In support of the field excursion, we also provide a review of current knowledge of these formations with emphasis on lithostratigraphy, biochronology, depositional and paleoenvironmental history, and the history of scientific exploration.

Abstract Detailed mapping along the east face of Oxford Ridge in the southern Bannock Range, southeast Idaho determines the stratigraphic placement and lateral extent of strata in the Scout Mountain Member of the Neoproterozoic Pocatello Formation. The lower “transitional unit” overlies the Bannock Volcanic Member and consists of 70 m of massive diamictite with argillitic and vesicular basaltic clasts up to cobble size intercalated with thin metabasalt and hyaloclastite units. Overlying the transitional unit is a 150–190-m-thick, massive, brown-green to purple sandy diamictite with dominantly quartzose cobble clasts. Interbedded with this middle unit is a 60-m-thick epiclastic volcanic interval informally named the Oxford Mountain tuffite. An upper sandstone unit up to 100 m thick lies above the diamictite at the head of Fivemile Creek in the southern portion of the map area. The volcanic interval contains plagioclase-phyric volcanic lithic sandstone, porphyritic volcanic lithic fragments and rounded cobbles in tuffaceous diamictite and a reworked stratified lapilli-tuff. It is interstratified with quartzose and volcanogenic diamictite and can be traced along 5.5 km of strike. On Oxford Mountain, laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry U-Pb zircon ages presented here and additional sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe ages constrain the underlying Bannock Volcanic Member to be 717–686 Ma and require that the overlying Scout Mountain Member is younger than 685 Ma.

Abstract An ~90-m-thick interval of mixed siliciclastic-carbonate strata, including a cap dolostone unit, overlies diamictite of the upper Scout Mountain Member of the Pocatello Formation in the Fort Hall Mine area south of Portneuf Narrows, southeastern Idaho, and is ≤ ca. 665 Ma. Six facies comprise this interval: silty sandstone (reworked diamictite matrix), laminated dolomite, dolomite and sandstone, sandstone, dolomite-chip breccia, and argillite and limestone. Sedimentary structures and bedding geometries of facies indicate paleoenvironments ranging from below storm wave base to upper shoreface. The edgewise, mounded, and parallel-bedded dolomite-chip breccia indicates slope failure and reworking of the lower shoreface during large storms. Facies relationships allow generalized division of these strata into three units. The lowermost unit, Unit A, comprises intimately interbedded laminated dolomite (“cap dolostone”), dolomite-chip breccia, and sandstone facies and is 17 m thick. Unit A apparently grades upward into Unit B, a 45-m-thick interval of the sandstone facies. Unit C, 28 m thick, rests sharply on Unit B, and comprises a basal laminated dolomite facies and the limestone and argillite facies. Units A and B may indicate a regressive wave-dominated coast that was influenced by large storms (highstand systems tract). Unit C indicates near storm wave base deposition and an overall deepening, as shown by dark argillite beds of the overlying upper member of the Pocatello Formation (transgressive systems tract). δ13C and δ18O values from dolomite and limestone samples of Units A and C are similar to values from local, regional, and transglobal cap carbonate intervals. δ13C values range from −1.9 to −5.6‰ and δ18O values range from −10.2 to −17.4‰, with no systematic correlation between C- and O-isotope values. δ13C values are consistent with previously reported values from the Pocatello Formation and are similar to values from the alleged Marinoan Noonday Formation in Death Valley, California, and the Marinoan Maieberg Formation in Namibia. Collective data from the cap dolostone and associated strata of the Pocatello Formation suggest protracted mixed siliciclastic-carbonate deposition on a stormdominated shelf at ca. 665 Ma.

Abstract Geologic, geomorphic, and geophysical analyses of landforms, sediments, and geologic structures document the complex history of pluvial Lake Bonneville in northern Cache Valley, NE Great Basin, and shows that the outlet of Lake Bonneville shifted ~20 km south after the Bonneville flood. The Riverdale normal fault offsets Bonneville deposits, but not younger Provo deposits ~25 km southeast of Zenda, Idaho. Rapid changes in water level may have induced slip on the Riverdale fault shortly before, during, or after the Bonneville flood. Although other processes may have played a role, seismicity might have been the main cause of the Bonneville flood. The outlet of Lake Bonneville shifted south from Zenda first 11, then another 12 km, during the Provo occupation. The subsequent Holocene establishment of the drainage divide at Red Rock Pass, south of Zenda, resulted from an alluvial fan damming the north-sloping valley. Weak Neogene sediments formed sills for the three overflowing stages of the lake, including the pre-flood highstand. Field trip stops on flood-modified landslide deposits overlook two outflow channels, examine and discuss the conglomerate-bearing sedimentary deposits that formed the dam of Lake Bonne ville, sapping-related landforms, and the Holocene alluvial fan that produced the modern drainage divide at Red Rock Pass. The flood scoured ~25 km of Cache and Marsh Valleys, initiated modest-sized landslides, and cut a channel north of a new sill near Swan Lake. Lake Bonneville dropped ~100 m and stablilized south of this sill at the main, higher ~4775 ± 10 ft (1456 ± 3 m) Provo shoreline. Later Lake Bonneville briefly stabilized at a lower ~4745 ± 10 ft (1447 ± 3 m) Provo sill, near Clifton, Idaho, 12 km farther south. An abandoned meandering riverbed in Round Valley, Idaho, shows major flow of the large Bonneville River northward from the Clifton sill. Field trip stops at both sills and overlooking the meander belt examine some of the field evidence for these shorelines and sills. The Bear River, which enters Cache Valley at the mouth of Oneida Narrows, 17 km ENE of the Clifton sill, was the main source of water in Lake Bonneville. It produced 3 sets of deltas in Cache Valley—a major delta during the Bonneville highstand, a larger composite delta during occupation of two Provo shorelines, and at least one smaller delta during recession from the Provo shoreline. The Bonneville delta and most of the Provo delta of the Bear River were subaqueous in Cache Valley, based on their topsets being lower than the coeval shorelines. The Bonneville delta is deeply dissected by closely spaced gullies that formed immediately after the Bonneville flood. The delta morphologies change sequentially from river-dominated to wave-dominated, then back to river-dominated. These unique shapes and the brief, intense erosion of the Bonneville delta record temporal changes in wave energy, erosion, vegetation, and/or storminess, at the end of the Pleistocene. Stops on a delta near Weston, Idaho, reveal many of the distinguishing features of the much larger deltas of the Bear River in a smaller, more concentrated form. We will see and discuss the ubiquitous gully erosion in Bonneville landforms, the nearly undissected Provo delta, the subaqueous topset of the Provo delta, and the wave-cut and wave-built benches and notches at the upper and lower Provo shorelines.

Abstract The combination of a long geologic record and stunning scenery has attracted geologists to the Rocky Mountain and Cordilleran regions for two centuries. Past and ongoing geologic research in this region has resulted in a wealth of significant observations and paradigm shifts in interpretations. This field guide, compiled for the 2011 joint meeting of the GSA Rocky Mountain and Cordilleran Sections, provides a small and succulent appetizer to the full menu of remarkable geology of the Rocky Mountain and Cordillera regions. Field trips presented in this volume span geologic topics from Neoproterozoic deposits, late Paleozoic—early Mesozoic terrane accretion, Eocene mammals and climate, Eocene to middle Miocene extension, late Miocene and younger basin and river system evolution, and Pleistocene glaciers and pluvial lakes.