Tectono-stratigraphic framework of Neoproterozoic to Cambrian strata, west-central U.S.: Protracted rifting, glaciation, and evolution of the North American Cordilleran margin (original) (raw)

2014, Earth-Science Reviews

Paleoenvironmental and Paleotectonic Significance of Neoproterozoic Diamictites in Actively Rifting Basins

2017

Thick successions of poorly-sorted admixtures of clasts and matrix (diamictite) are widely regarded as evidence for synchronous ‘panglacials’ of global extent during the Cryogenian period (c. 720-635 Ma). In this thesis, diamictite facies are examined in detail using an impressive collection of newly available sub-surface data consisting of some 300 km of drill core through the Grand Conglomérat, Democratic Republic of Congo, and by field investigations of the exceptionally well-exposed Kingston Peak Formation in eastern California, USA. Diamictites are shown to be of mass flow origin (debrites) present within thick (<3 km) successions of genetically-related sediment gravity flow facies (olistostromes, slumps, and turbidites) deposited in deep-water within rapidly subsiding rift basins. Thick slope aprons likely formed at the base of fault scarps and tectonically oversteepened and unstable gravelly slopes that periodically underwent collapse, forming diamictite as a consequence o...

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