ABSTRACT: Understanding of very thick Late Devonian shelf strata in Idaho is hindered by formation terminologies. Interpreted genetically, and in combination with lower accommodation settings in Montana, strata reveal craton-to-basin geometries and analogues similar to other western Laurentian basins. The Jefferson Formation Birdbear Member and Three Forks Formation in Montana are correlated to the Jefferson Grandview Dolomite in Idaho using regional sequence stratigraphic surfaces. A new stratigraphic framework defines three widely deposited latest Frasnian sequences and Early Famennian intrashelf basin paleogeography. Peritidal to marine mixed siliciclastic and carbonate rocks of the Middle Devonian lower Jefferson Formation in Idaho are overlain by the Frasnian Dark Dolomite. These rocks are overlain by similar lithologies, including thick evaporite solution breccias of the latest Frasnian and Early Famennian upper Jefferson Formation. Latest Frasnian sequences are similar to Nisku–Winterburn sequences in western Canada. Overlying Famennian successions are correlatives to the Three Forks Formation Logan Gulch Member in Montana and the Palliser–Wabamun units of Alberta. Biohermal Dark Dolomite in the central Lemhi Range and Borah Peak area of the Lost River Range was deposited west of the Lemhi Arch, with buildups also established on ramps near the shelf break in the Grandview Canyon area (Grandview Reef). During onset of the Antler Orogeny, prior to deposition of the Middle Famennian Three Forks Trident Member and widespread disconformities, a latest Frasnian outer shelf barrier formed above the Grandview Reef. Cyclic, heterolithic, peloidal western Grandview Dolomite facies were deposited and are ~330 m thick, although correlative facies of the Jefferson D4 through D6 members are twice as thick behind the shelf edge in the central Lemhi and Borah Peak area. Lower Grandview Dolomite black subtidal carbonate and Nisku buildups (Gooseberry Reef) formed in three late Frasnian sequences and under a basal Famennian sequence boundary. At this time, the Lemhi Arch foundered, but remained unstable—it was termed the “Beaverhead Mountains uplift.” An intrashelf basin dominated midshelf paleogeography during the Early Famennian, accommodating thick shallow water barrier sandstone, solution-collapse breccia, and restricted marine dolostone and limestone of the upper Grandview Dolomite. Crinoid packstone beds near the top of the Jefferson Formation occur below the Three Forks Trident Member in the Lost River Range. Similar nodular, crinoidal limestone with cephalopods occurs under an unconformity with the Sappington Formation in the Beaverhead Mountains. These rocks were previously called the False Birdbear and were grouped with the Jefferson Formation; however, they comprise their own ~15-m-thick sequence and are unrelated to the rarely fossiliferous and dolomitized upper Grandview Dolomite. Open marine shale–limestone sequences of the 80-m-thick Trident Member were deposited on the Idaho shelf above and below regional surfaces and hiatuses. These rocks were variably accommodated on reactivated paleohighs and in local seaways on the craton margin. An unconformity developed on the outer Idaho shelf in the latest Devonian during deposition of the Sappington Formation on the Lemhi Arch and in the Central Montana Trough. Sappington strata were either not deposited on the western shelf or accumulated under deep water conditions and were eroded during regional Mississippian basin inversion and turbidite deposition.

We used laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry to determine the U-Pb ages for 1206 detrital zircons from 15 samples of the Lemhi subbasin, upper Belt Supergroup, in southwest Montana and east-central Idaho. We recognize two main detrital-zircon provenance groups. The first is found in the Swauger and overlying formations. It contains a unimodal 1740–1710 Ma zircon population that we infer was derived from the “Big White” arc, an accretionary magmatic arc to the south of the Belt Basin, with an estimated volume of 1.26 million km 3 —a huge feature on a global scale. The ɛ Hf(i) values for magmatic 1740–1710 Ma zircons from the Lawson Creek Formation are +8–0, suggesting that they were derived from more juvenile melts than most other Lemhi subbasin strata, which have values as evolved as −7 and may have been derived from an arc built on Proterozoic or Archean crust in the Mojave Province. Since paleocurrents in cross-bedded sandstones indicate northward flow, the proximate source terrane for this sand was to the south. The second provenance group is that of the Missoula Group (and Cambrian strata recycled from the Missoula Group), with significant numbers of 1780–1750 Ma grains and more than 15% Archean grains. This provenance group is thought to represent mixing of Yavapai Province, Mojave Province, and Archean Wyoming Province sources. Both of these provenance groups differ from the basal Belt Prichard Formation, and strata of the Trampas and Yankee Joe Basins of Arizona and New Mexico, which contain a major population of 1.61–1.50 Ga non–North American grains. The 12 youngest grains from the several Swauger Formation samples suggest the formation is younger than 1429 Ma. The three youngest grains from Apple Creek Formation diamictite suggest the rock is younger than 1390 Ma. This makes the Apple Creek diamictite the youngest part of Belt Supergroup strata south of the Canadian border. Though the Big White magmatic arc was produced before 1.7 Ga, the sediment may have been recycled several times before being deposited as locally feldspathic sandstone in the Lemhi subbasin depositional site 300 m.y. later. Because the detrital-zircon provenance does not change from Idaho east to Montana, our data do not support the existence of a major Great Divide megashear separating the Lemhi subbasin from the Belt Basin. In southwest Montana, unfossiliferous sandstones of Cambrian age contain the same detrital-zircon assemblages as the Swauger Formation and Missoula Group, suggesting reworking of a local Belt Supergroup source.

The Blackbird cobalt-copper (Co-Cu) district in the Salmon River Mountains of east-central Idaho occupies the central part of the Idaho cobalt belt—a northwest-elongate, 55-km-long belt of Co-Cu occurrences, hosted in grayish siliciclastic metasedimentary strata of the Lemhi subbasin (of the Mesoproterozoic Belt-Purcell Basin). The Blackbird district contains at least eight stratabound ore zones and many discordant lodes, mostly in the upper part of the banded siltite unit of the Apple Creek Formation of Yellow Lake, which generally consists of interbedded siltite and argillite. In the Blackbird mine area, argillite beds in six stratigraphic intervals are altered to biotitite containing over 75 vol% of greenish hydrothermal biotite, which is preferentially mineralized. Past production and currently estimated resources of the Blackbird district total ~17 Mt of ore, averaging 0.74% Co, 1.4% Cu, and 1.0 ppm Au (not including downdip projections of ore zones that are open downward). A compilation of relative-age relationships and isotopic age determinations indicates that most cobalt mineralization occurred in Mesoproterozoic time, whereas most copper mineralization occurred in Cretaceous time. Mesoproterozoic cobaltite mineralization accompanied and followed dynamothermal metamorphism and bimodal plutonism during the Middle Mesoproterozoic East Kootenay orogeny (ca. 1379–1325 Ma), and also accompanied Grenvilleage (Late Mesoproterozoic) thermal metamorphism (ca. 1200–1000 Ma). Stratabound cobaltite-biotite ore zones typically contain cobaltite 1 in a matrix of biotitite ± tourmaline ± minor xenotime (ca. 1370–1320 Ma) ± minor chalcopyrite ± sparse allanite ± sparse microscopic native gold in cobaltite. Such cobaltite-biotite lodes are locally folded into tight F 2 folds with axial-planar S 2 cleavage and schistosity. Discordant replacement-style lodes of cobaltite 2 -biotite ore ± xenotime 2 (ca. 1320–1270 Ma) commonly follow S 2 fractures and fabrics. Discordant quartz-biotite and quartz-tourmaline breccias, and veins contain cobaltite 3 ± xenotime 3 (ca. 1058–990 Ma). Mesoproterozoic cobaltite deposition was followed by: (1) within-plate plutonism (530–485 Ma) and emplacement of mafic dikes (which cut cobaltite lodes but are cut by quartz-Fe-Cu-sulfide veins); (2) garnet-grade metamorphism (ca. 151–93 Ma); (3) Fe-Cu-sulfide mineralization (ca. 110–92 Ma); and (4) minor quartz ± Au-Ag ± Bi mineralization (ca. 92–83 Ma). Cretaceous Fe-Cu-sulfide vein, breccia, and replacement-style deposits contain various combinations of chalcopyrite ± pyrrhotite ± pyrite ± cobaltian arsenopyrite (not cobaltite) ± arsenopyrite ± quartz ± siderite ± monazite (ca. 144–88 Ma but mostly 110–92 Ma) ± xenotime (104–93 Ma). Highly radiogenic Pb (in these sulfides) and Sr (in siderite) indicate that these elements resided in Mesoproterozoic source rocks until they were mobilized after ca. 100 Ma. Fe-Cu-sulfide veins, breccias, and replacement deposits appear relatively undeformed and generally lack metamorphic fabrics. Composite Co-Cu-Au ore contains early cobaltite-biotite lodes, cut by Fe-Cu-sulfide veins and breccias, or overprinted by Fe-Cu-sulfide replacement-style deposits, and locally cut by quartz veinlets ± Au-Ag ± Bi minerals.

Abstract The catastrophic Hebgen Lake earthquake of 18 August 1959 (M W 7.3) led many geoscientists to develop new methods to better understand active tectonics in extensional tectonic regimes that address seismic hazards. The Madison Range fault system and adjacent Hebgen Lake–Red Canyon fault system provide an intermountain-active tectonic analog for regional analyses of extensional crustal deformation. The Madison Range fault system comprises fault zones (~100 km in length) that have multiple salients and embayments marked by preexisting structures exposed in the footwall. Quaternary tectonic activity rates differ along the length of the fault system, with less displacement to the north. Within the Hebgen Lake basin, the 1959 earthquake is the latest slip event in the Hebgen Lake–Red Canyon fault system and southern Madison Range fault system. Geomorphic and paleoseismic investigations indicate previous faulting events on both fault systems. Surficial geologic mapping and historic seismicity support a coseismic structural linkage between the Madison Range and Hebgen Lake–Red Canyon fault systems. On this trip, we will look at Quaternary surface ruptures that characterize prehistoric earthquake magnitudes. The one-day field trip begins and ends in Bozeman, and includes an overview of the active tectonics within the Madison Valley and Hebgen Lake basin, southwestern Montana. We will also review geologic evidence, which includes new geologic maps and geomorphic analyses that demonstrate preexisting structural controls on surface rupture patterns along the Madison Range and Hebgen Lake–Red Canyon fault systems.

Abstract Exotic Miocene and Pliocene river gravel lies on top of the Continental Divide along the Idaho-Montana border near Monida Pass. The gravel is interlayered with tuffs and basalt flows of the Heise volcanic field, which erupted from the site of the Yellowstone hotspot between 6.62 and 4.45 Ma. The gravel includes pebbles that may have been derived from bedrock outcrops in Nevada and Utah, implying a paleo-river with headwaters to the south of the modern Continental Divide and Snake River Plain. The river may have been a tributary of the pre–ice age Bell River of Canada. The field trip examines evidence for the tectonic evolution of the Monida Pass area. The course of the Miocene river appears to have been diverted around growing mountain ranges, and then pinched off at Monida Pass on the northern shoulder of the Yellowstone hotspot track.