Stratigraphic relationships of the Eocene Duchesne River Formation and Oligocene Bishop Conglomerate, northeastern Utah—pulsed sedimentary response to rollback of the subducted Farallon slab (original) (raw)

The Uinta Mountains are an east-west-trending, reverse fault-bounded, basement-cored Laramide uplift. The Eocene Duchesne River Formation and Oligocene Bishop Conglomerate represent late stage, intermontane basin fill of the Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah. Detailed mapping (1:24,000 scale), clast counts in conglomerate beds, description of lithology and stratigraphic contacts, and radiometric dating of pyroclastic fall beds of the Duchesne River Formation and Bishop Conglomerate in the Vernal NW quadrangle in northeastern Utah reveal stratal geometries of middle Cenozoic depositional units, the uplift and unroofing history of the eastern Uinta Mountains, and give evidence for the pulsed termination of Laramide uplift related to rollback of the Farallon slab and lithospheric delamination. These relationships show the continuation of Laramide uplift in this region until after 37.9 Ma and before 34 Ma, an age younger than the previously reported 45 to 40 Ma. The Duchesne River Format...