Two Oligocene conglomeratic units, one primarily nonvolcaniclastic and the other volcaniclastic, are preserved on the west side of the Jemez Mountains beneath the 14 Ma to 40 ka lavas and tuffs of the Jemez Mountains volcanic field. Thickness changes in these conglomeratic units across major normal fault zones, particularly in the southwestern Jemez Mountains, suggest that the western margin of the Rio Grande rift was active in this area during Oligocene time. Furthermore, soft-sediment deformation and stratal thickening in the overlying Abiquiu Formation adjacent to the western boundary faults are indicative of syndepositional normal-fault activity during late Oligocene–early Miocene time. The primarily nonvolcaniclastic Oligocene conglomerate, which was derived from erosion of Proterozoic basement-cored Laramide highlands, is exposed in the northwestern Jemez Mountains, southern Tusas Mountains, and northern Sierra Nacimiento. This conglomerate, formerly called, in part, the lower member of the Abiquiu Formation, is herein assigned to the Ritito Conglomerate in the Jemez Mountains and Sierra Nacimiento. The clast content of the Ritito Conglomerate varies systematically from northeast to southwest, ranging from Proterozoic basement clasts with a few Cenozoic volcanic pebbles, to purely Proterozoic clasts, to a mix of Proterozoic basement and Paleozoic limestone clasts. Paleocurrent directions indicate flow mainly to the south. A stratigraphically equivalent volcaniclastic conglomerate is present along the Jemez fault zone in the southwestern Jemez Mountains. Here, thickness variations, paleocurrent indicators, and grain-size trends suggest north-directed flow, opposite that of the Ritito Conglomerate, implying the existence of a previously unrecognized Oligocene volcanic center buried beneath the northern Albuquerque Basin. We propose the name Gilman Conglomerate for this deposit. The distinct clast composition and restricted geographic nature of each conglomerate suggests the presence of two separate fluvial systems, one flowing south and the other flowing north, separated by a west-striking topographic barrier in the vicinity of Fenton Hill and the East Fork Jemez River in the western Jemez Mountains during Oligocene time. In contrast, the Upper Oligocene–Lower Miocene Abiquiu Formation overtopped this barrier and was deposited as far south as the southern Jemez Mountains. The Abiquiu Formation, which is derived mainly from the Latir volcanic field, commonly contains clasts of dacite lava and Amalia Tuff in the northern and southeastern Jemez Mountains, but conglomerates are rare in the southwestern Jemez Mountains.

Abstract A synthesis of low-temperature thermochronologic results throughout the Laramide foreland illustrates that samples from wellbores in Laramide basins record either (1) detrital Laramide or older cooling ages in the upper ~1 km (0.62 mi) of the wellbore, with younger ages at greater depths as temperatures increase; or (2) Neogene cooling ages. Surface samples from Laramide ranges typically record either Laramide or older cooling ages. It is apparent that for any particular area the complexity of the cooling history, and hence the tectonic history interpreted from the cooling history, increases as the number of studies or the area covered by a study increases. Most Laramide ranges probably experienced a complex tectono-thermal evolution. Deriving a regional timing sequence for the evolution of the Laramide basins and ranges is still elusive, although a compilation of low-temperature thermochronology data from ranges in the Laramide foreland suggests a younging of the ranges to the south and southwest. Studies of subsurface samples from Laramide basins have, in some cases, been integrated with and used to constrain results from basin burial-history modeling. Current exploration for unconventional shale-oil or shale-gas plays in the Rocky Mountains has renewed interest in thermal and burial history modeling as an aid in evaluating thermal maturity and understanding petroleum systems.This paper suggests that low-temperature thermochronometers are underutilized tools that can provide additional constraints to burial-history modeling and source rock evaluation in the Rocky Mountain region.

Mountain ranges in the southern Rocky Mountains, first uplifted during the early Cenozoic Laramide orogeny, have followed separate landscape evolutionary pathways in the late Cenozoic. We present a model that reconstructs the post-Laramide tectonic and geomorphic history of Sierra Nacimiento and the Taos Range, two nearly adjacent rift-flank ranges in north-central New Mexico that serve to illustrate the various processes shaping landscapes across the southern Rocky Mountains. The Sierra Nacimiento landscape reflects the exhumation of hard Precambrian rocks from beneath a softer Phanerozoic sedimentary cover. The exhumation is continuous, but not steady, being driven by distal base-level fall. Downstream diverging river terraces in the Jemez River valley on the eastern flank of Sierra Nacimiento and late Pliocene to Holocene fluvial deposits on the western Sierra Nacimiento piedmont document the base-level fall. The timing and contemporary rates of incision from these river systems suggest that exhumation is being propagated from south to north as knickzones work their way headward from the Rio Grande. In contrast, the Taos Range landscape reflects alternating active stream incision and aggradation astride, and throttled by, an active range-front normal fault. The distinction between the exhumation-dominated and tectonic-dominated mountain front is best quantified by analyses of first-order stream gradients and a watershed metric we call the drainage basin volume to drainage basin area ratio (R va). Gradients of first-order streams in the exhumation-dominated Sierra Nacimiento have a mode of 6.8 degrees, significantly less than the 17.7 degrees obtained from a comparable data set of Taos Range first-order streams. The distinct stream gradient and R va populations hint at an important change in the processes shaping hillslopes and low-order channels, which is supported by the lack of slope-clearing landslides in the Sierra Nacimiento landscape and the presence of such landslides in the Taos Range. Analogue and numeric models find that steep, rugged, faceted topography associated with tectonically active mountain fronts like the Taos Range can only be produced and maintained by creep and landslides where the sediment flux scales as a power law with respect to average hillslope or low-order channel gradient. Here, the fingerprint of active tectonics is recorded by both high R va values and steep modal channel gradients. By comparison, the Sierra Nacimiento landscape is shaped primarily by creep where the sediment flux has a linear relationship to average hillslope and low-order channel gradient. In this situation, the signatures of distal base-level fall are low R va values and relatively gentle modal channel gradients.

Sandstone composition is a function of four complex and interrelated variables: provenance (itself a function of source rock, relief, and climate), transportation effects, depositional environment, and diagenesis. Documentation of source rock composition and comparison to derivative sandstone composition not only allow evaluation of sandstone provenance changes through time, they also provide evaluation of the relative importance of the variables controlling sandstone composition. Source rock composition is best determined by Gazzi-Dickinson point counts of the source rocks themselves, thus allowing direct comparisons between source rock and sandstone composition and taking into account source rock texture. This study uses this technique combined with study of sandstone composition to pursue two main objectives: to investigate the relationship between tectonic history and sandstone composition, and to document sandstone compositions of the Pennsylvanian-Permian of north-central New Mexico. Upper Paleozoic strata of north-central New Mexico were derived from Precambrian crystalline rocks and were associated with the Ancestral Rocky Mountain orogeny. They display subtle changes in detrital modes with age that can be correlated with the area’s Ancestral Rocky Mountain tectonic history. Periods of high tectonic activity resulted in deposition of sandstones with compositions closest to those of the Precambrian source rocks, so high tectonic activity allows source rock control to overwhelm other factors such as climate. During periods of low tectonic activity, other factors such as climate or transport/depositional environment were more important.