--> Abstract: Tectonic Sequence Stratigraphy, Early Permian Dry Mountain Trough, East-Central Nevada, by W. S. Snyder, D. M. Gallegos, C. Spinosa, and D. L. Schwarz; #91010 (1991)

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Tectonic Sequence Stratigraphy, Early Permian Dry Mountain Trough, East-Central Nevada

SNYDER, WALTER S., DORA M. GALLEGOS, and CLAUDE SPINOSA, Boise State University, Boise, ID, and DAVID L. SCHWARZ, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

The Early Permian Dry Mountain trough (DMT) of east-central Nevada is one of several tectonic basins and associated uplifts that developed along the continental margin during the latest Pennsylvanian-Early Permian Dry Mountain tectonic phase. The sequence stratigraphy reflects a combination of eustatic sea level changes and tectonic uplift or subsidence. Fewer than one to only a few million years separate the development of sequence boundaries within the DMT. At this scale, differences among published eustasy curves preclude their use as definitive tools to identify eustatically controlled sequence boundaries. Nevertheless, available data indicate several pulses of tectonism affected sedimentation within the DMT.

We are attempting to develop criteria to distinguish tectonic from eustatic sequence boundaries. Detailed biostratigraphic data are required to provide an independent check on the correlation of sequence boundaries between measured sections. For example, the same age boundary may reflect tectonic uplift in one part of the basin and subsidence in another. The uplift may or may not result in subaerial exposure and erosion. For those boundaries that do not result from subaerial exposure, lithofacies and biofacies analyses are required to infer relative uplift (water depth decrease) or subsidence (water depth increase). There are inherent resolution limitations in both the paleontologic and sedimentologic methodologies. These limitations, combined with those of eustasy curves, dictate the preliminary nature of our results.

 

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91010©1991 AAPG Rocky Mountain Section Meeting, Billings, Montana, July 28-31, 1991 (2009)