K/Ar chronologies of tephra units from the Middle Jurassic Sundance, and Late Early Cretaceous Mowry and Shell Creek Formations, Big Horn Basin, WY
Abstract
The Middle Jurassic Sundance and Late Early Cretaceous Shell Creek and Mowry Formations of the Big Horn Basin, Wyoming, contain an extensive record of altered tephra. These tephra are likely related to contemporary volcanic activity in the Sierra Nevada and various Coast Range terranes to the west and provide valuable chronometric control on the sedimentary record within a portion of the Sevier-aged and later Cordilleran foreland basin. In addition, several of these altered tephra (bentonites) provide a valuable economic resource. Despite the prominence of these strata across the basin, few isotopic ages have been reported to date. Here we present new K/Ar ages on biotite phenocrysts from those tephra occurrences as a chronometric check on samples that contained zircons with significant Pb loss, that preclude more precise U/Pb age determinations. A bulk biotite sample extracted from an altered tuff in the Lower Sundance Formation gives an age of 167.5 × 5 Ma. This tuff occurs just above a dinosaur track-bearing peritidal sequence. Bulk biotite ages from the lower Shell Creek Formation give an age of 100.3 × 3 Ma and are statistically indistinguishable from biotite grains dated at 103.1 × 3 Ma extracted from the economically important 'Clay Spur' bentonite found at the top of the Mowry Shale. This work provides important new chronometric constraints on a portion of the Medial Jurassic to Late Early Cretaceous stratigraphy of the Big Horn Basin, Wyoming, and may be useful in understanding the regional tectonics that helped shape the development of the Sevier foreland basin and Western Interior Seaway.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013AGUFM.V13D2644J
- Keywords:
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- 1115 GEOCHRONOLOGY Radioisotope geochronology