Roaming the Rocky Mountains and Environs: Geological Field Trips

Prepared following the 2007 GSA Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado, these 15 guides illustrate the latest geological and archeological thinking on a variety of current research themes. Regional-scale topics include landscape responses to dynamic processes of volcanism and uplift in Yellowstone and western Colorado, geomorphic evolution along the Front Range of Colorado and on the High Plains of South Dakota, and geoarchaeological research in central Colorado and western Nebraska. A series of papers illustrates tectonic and stratigraphic processes through time and space, with discussions of Precambrian structures in western Colorado, Jurassic deposition in south-central Colorado, and near-shore stratigraphic patterns in the Cretaceous strata of the Book Cliffs. One paper reviews potential seismic signatures in Cretaceous and Early Tertiary strata in northern Wyoming and Montana, and another discusses patterns of extension in southern Nevada and adjacent portions of California. Other topics in this well-rounded volume include the history of volcanism and gold mineralization at Cripple Creek, development of coalbed methane resources in the Powder River Basin, and a long-lived subsurface coal fire in western Colorado. Follow in the footsteps of these field trips, and see for yourself the patterns and evidence discussed.
Clastic sedimentology, sedimentary architecture, and sequence stratigraphy of fluvio-deltaic, shoreface, and shelf deposits, Upper Cretaceous, Book Cliffs, eastern Utah and western Colorado
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Published:January 01, 2008
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CiteCitation
Simon A.J. Pattison, Huw Williams*, Paul Davies*, 2008. "Clastic sedimentology, sedimentary architecture, and sequence stratigraphy of fluvio-deltaic, shoreface, and shelf deposits, Upper Cretaceous, Book Cliffs, eastern Utah and western Colorado", Roaming the Rocky Mountains and Environs: Geological Field Trips, Robert G. Raynolds
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Abstract
The 300-km-long Books Cliffs are a world-class field laboratory for studying clastic sedimentology, sedimentary architecture, and sequence stratigraphy, and serve as an outcrop analog for fluvio-deltaic and shoreface-to-shelf hydrocarbon reservoirs worldwide. These famous rocks have been used to develop, test and refine sedimentological and stratigraphic ideas and models over the years, including the principles and concepts of sequence stratigraphy. This field guide focuses on the following themes: (a) sedimentology, sedimentary architecture, and sequence stratigraphy of fluvial, coastal plain, river- and wave-dominated deltas, and shoreface-to-shelf deposits, (b) stacking patterns in high versus low accommodation settings, (c) distribution of reservoir and non-reservoir facies in a predictive sequence stratigraphic framework, (d) relationship between relative sea level, shoreline position, and stratigraphic architecture, and (e) alternative sequence stratigraphic models for the interpretation of channel-shoreface packages.
Keywords: accommodation space, Book Cliffs, Cretaceous, deltaic, fluvial, sedimentaryarchitecture, sedimentology, sequence stratigraphy, shelf, shoreface, Western InteriorSeaway
- Basin and Range Province
- Book Cliffs
- Cenozoic
- clastic rocks
- Colorado
- continental shelf
- Cretaceous
- deltaic environment
- field trips
- fluvial environment
- lithostratigraphy
- Mancos Shale
- Mesaverde Group
- Mesozoic
- North America
- Paleogene
- road log
- sedimentary rocks
- sedimentary structures
- sequence stratigraphy
- shore features
- stratigraphic units
- Tertiary
- United States
- Upper Cretaceous
- Utah
- Wasatch Formation
- Western Interior
- Western Interior Seaway
- eastern Utah
- western Colorado