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Integrated Studies Of Intracontinental Deformation In The Interior Western Usa, Cretaceous To Recent, Jacob Oliver Thacker

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

The advent of plate tectonic theory satisfactorily explained a number of deformation belts around the world. However intracontinental deformation (deformation inboard of a plate margin) remains poorly understood in plate tectonic models. In order to further our understanding of intracontinental tectonics and its effects, this dissertation examines paleotectonic and neotectonic settings within the interior western USA.

Chapter 1 focuses on late Miocene–Recent deformation inboard of the San Andreas plate margin fault and its role on the integration history of the lower Colorado River. The neotectonic analysis included geometric and kinematic fault data collected in key geologic units to characterize the …

Geology Of The Southern Part Of The Ortiz Mountains Santa Fe County, New Mexico, John W. Peterson

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

The Ortiz Mountains lie in a belt of early Tertiary intrusive centers adjacent to the Rio Grande depression of north-central New Mexico. Tertiary organic activity and subsequent erosion have etched this mountain group into considerable relief.

Intrusive activity occurred during early Tertiary Espinaso time and resulted in emplacement of sills and dikes of a central stock. Correlation of volcanism with intrusive phases is difficult. Most volcansim probably occurred during the later part of Ortiz igneous activity. An elongate vent is exposed in the eastern part of the mountains and structurally occupies the highest position in the group.

The principle igneous …

Geology Of The Northern Part Of The Ortiz Mountains, Santa Fe County, New Mexico, Otis M. Mcrae

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

The northern part of the Ortiz Mountains of north-central New Mexico consists of a tilted fault block of Cretaceous Mancos shale and Mesaverde formation intruded by latite-andesite porphyry sills and laccoliths and a nepheline-bearing augite manzonite stock. Igneous activity started with the development of a volcanic vent in what is now the central part of the mountains. Volcanic debris from the vent want removed from the area by erosion and provided sedimentary material for the late [ ] Espinaso volcanics of the adjoining areas. Intrusion of the latite-andesite porphyry sills and laccolite followed extrusive igneous activity, as demonstrated by the …

Geology Of The Canjilon Cauldron Sink Near Bernalillo, Sandoval County, New Mexico, Felix E. Mutschler

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Canjilon Hill is located on the west side of the Rio Grande, about 2 3/4 miles north-northwest of Bernalillo. Exposed on the hill is a local unit of breccia, conglomerate, and sandstone, which forms an elongate saucer-shaped body 4100 feet long, 2200 feet wide and 280 to 500+ feet thick. Unlike the underlying Santa Fe formation these strata contain an abundance of large angular basalt pebbles, cobbles, and boulders. In this paper these strata are termed the Canjilon formation of the Santa Fe group. Structural and sedimentological evidence suggest that the Canjilon formation was deposited in a subsidence depression initiated …

Stratigraphic Relationships Of Cretaceous And Early Tertiary Rocks Of A Part Of Northwestern San Juan Basin, Elmer H. Baltz Jr.

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

No abstract provided.

Geology Of The Southern Ladron Mountains, Socorro County, New Mexico, E.A. Noble

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

The Ladron Mountains are in a fault-block range consisting in large part of Pre-Cambrian rocks. They are flanked on the west by Paleozoic sediments and elsewhere by Tertiary and Quaternary deposits. The Pre-Cambrian rocks of the southern Ladron Mountains consist of a thick sequence of quartzite and schist which has been granitized by a sub-adjacent intrusion to such a degree that only remnants of unaltered quartzite and schist remain, the remainder of the rocks being largely paragneiss and para-granite. The nature of the intrusion is not known, but it is suggested that it may have been at least partly formed …