Academic literature on the topic 'Tuff marker beds'
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Journal articles on the topic "Tuff marker beds"
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Perova, Elena, Anatoly Zaitsev, John Spratt, Nataliya Vlasenko, Nataliya Vladimirovna Platonova, and Olga Bubnova. "Thermodynamic analysis of primary and secondary minerals stability in melilite-nephelinite tuff with Australopithecus Afarensis footprints, Laetoli, Tanzania." Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Earth Sciences 67, no. 2 (2022): 227–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.21638/spbu07.2022.202.
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The Laetoli area in northern Tanzania is an important palaeo-anthropological site, where the oldest footprints of Australopithecus afarensis reside. Aeolian tuffs are the major rock type at Laetoli and they are divided into Lower and Upper Laetolil Beds that were deposited at an interval of 4.36 and 3.63 million years. The Upper Laetolil Beds contain eight layers of air-fall tuffs known as marker tuffs. The Australopithecus afarensis footprints are observed on the surface of the white tuff, which is a part of the Upper Laetolil marker tuff 7, also known as the “Footprint Tuff.” The interpolated age of the marker tuff 7 is 3.66 million years. Two mineral assemblages are distinguished in the Upper Laetolil marker tuffs. The first assemblage consists of primary tuff minerals and includes clinopyroxene (diopside, augite, aegirine-augite), nepheline, melilite (åkermanite and alumoåkermanite), garnet (andradite and schorlomite), magnetite, and others. The second mineral assemblage consists of secondary minerals, montmorillonite, calcite, and phillipsite. They were formed during replacement of the primary minerals, volcanic glass, and ash cementation. Thermodynamic calculations show that the major primary tuff minerals (melilite and nepheline) are stable at variable sodium activity and pH values. Replacement of melilite and nepheline by montmorillonite is caused by a decrease of sodium activity in slightly alkaline, neutral and acidic conditions (рН < 10). Montmorillonite is not present in the altered nephelinitic tuff of the Sadiman volcano (which is considered as a source of the Laetolil Beds) where kaolinite is the major secondary mineral. This is explained by the difference in H2O fugacity with higher lgfH2O values in Sadiman and lower values in Laetoli. Relationships between primary and secondary tuffs minerals on the lgaHCO3 vs pH plot suggest mineral transformation within the Laetolil Beds in slightly acid and neutral con- ditions (рН = 5–7) compared with more alkaline conditions at Sadiman (рН > 10).
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Maravelis, Angelos G., Jake Breckenridge, Kevin Ruming, Erin Holmes, Yuri Amelin, and William J. Collins. "Re-assessing the Upper Permian Stratigraphic Succession of the Northern Sydney Basin, Australia, by CA-IDTIMS." Geosciences 10, no. 11 (November 22, 2020): 474. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/geosciences10110474.
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High precision Chemical abrasion-isotope dilution thermal ionisation mass spectrometry (CA-IDTIMS) U-Pb zircon results from tuff marker beds that are interstratified within the Upper Permian deposits of the northern Sydney Basin add constraints on the timing of sediment deposition, and afford a better understanding of the regional stratigraphy. The results indicate a magmatic influence during the deposition of the sediments, with episodic events spanning at least from 255.65 ± 0.08 to 255.08 ± 0.09 Ma. The zircon data suggest that the studied sedimentary rocks and tuffs have accumulated simultaneously over a short time interval, which contrasts with current stratigraphic models that suggest a much greater period of deposition and stratigraphic thickness. Therefore, an updated stratigraphic correlation of the basin is suggested, which combines the presently defined Lambton, Adamstown, and Boolaroo sub-groups into a single Lambton sub-group. This updated correlation framework is stratigraphically and geochronologically constrained and provides a more precise exploration model for the northern Sydney Basin. This case study highlights the valuable contribution of the CA-IDTIMS method in intrabasinal correlations of sedimentary successions, when integrated with a robust sedimentological framework, to minimize the stratigraphic uncertainties.
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Lowe, Alexander J., Christopher K. West, and David R. Greenwood. "Volcaniclastic lithostratigraphy and paleoenvironment of the lower Eocene McAbee fossil beds, Kamloops Group, British Columbia, Canada." Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 55, no. 8 (August 2018): 923–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjes-2018-0019.
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The lower Eocene McAbee fossil beds (∼53 Ma), in south-central British Columbia, Canada, represent a lacustrine sequence deposited during a time of pervasive regional volcanism. Previous studies on fossil assemblages at the McAbee fossil beds consist of amalgamated collections of plants from several disjunct and stratigraphically unconstrained exposures and horizons, with limited knowledge of the spatio-temporal variation in depositional and taphonomic setting. This study presents a high-resolution lithostratigraphic analysis of the McAbee main site to provide stratigraphic, paleoenvironmental, and taphonomic context to fossil collections. A lithostratigraphic framework was developed for the McAbee main site by correlating tuff marker beds. The sequence was divided into eight lithostratigraphic units on the basis of systematic lithologic trends, a result of varying degrees of volcanic influences. An absence of shallow water indicators, bioturbation, and evidence for fluvio–deltaic influence, and the nonrestricted presence of highly abundant and diverse well-preserved plant fossils indicates a deep water, yet relatively near shore facies, suggesting steep sided lake margins. This taphonomic regime imparts minimal transport- and degradation-induced biases in fossil plant assemblages and suggests plant fossils represent local vegetation growing near the point of deposition. The new lithostratigraphic framework coupled with a refined understanding of depositional setting and taphonomic regime demonstrates the opportunity to document conditions of forest ecology within a dynamic volcanic environment over millennial and multi-millennial time scales.
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Sun, Shou-Liang, Shu-Wang Chen, Zhong-Jie Yang, Tao Zhang, Yong-Fei Li, Ji-Chang Zhu, Huai-Chun Wu, Tian-Tian Wang, Yue-Juan Zheng, and Qiu-Hong Ding. "Age of the Tuchengzi Formation in Western Liaoning Province and the Jurassic–Cretaceous Boundary from the Continuous Core Records of Well YD1, Jinyang Basin." Minerals 12, no. 8 (July 28, 2022): 953. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/min12080953.
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The Tuchengzi Formation is widely distributed in western Liaoning Province with a clear top and bottom. It is the focal area for the delineation of the terrestrial Jurassic–Cretaceous boundary in China. Based on continuous core samples taken from well YD1, detailed lithostratigraphic sequences and zircon uranium–lead (U-Pb) dating were used to investigate the Tuchengzi Formation. The zircon U-Pb ages of the tuff samples taken from the First and Third Members of the Tuchengzi Formation ranged from 153.8 to 137.16 Ma, indicating that they were formed in the late Middle Jurassic–Early Cretaceous. Dating results from the bottom of the Second Member of the Tuchengzi Formation indicate that the sedimentary time of the stratum is no later than 145.7 ± 2.1 Ma. We concluded that the Jurassic–Cretaceous boundary of the Jinyang Basin in western Liaoning province may be located at the interface at a depth of 464 m in well YD1. This conclusion is consistent with the Jurassic–Cretaceous boundary that has been presumed by other researchers based on paleontological assemblage features found in recent years, and can provide useful geological marker beds for the future study of the terrestrial Jurassic–Cretaceous boundary. In addition, the authors also systematically sorted the potential development areas and layers of the terrestrial Jurassic–Cretaceous boundary line, which may also provide useful geological marker beds for the future study of the terrestrial Jurassic–Cretaceous boundary.
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Sarna-Wojcicki, Andrei M., Charles E. Meyer, Harry R. Bowman, N. Timothy Hall, Paul C. Russell, Marta J. Woodward, and Janet L. Slate. "Correlation of the Rockland Ash Bed, a 400,000-Year-Old Stratigraphic Marker in Northern California and Western Nevada, and Implications for Middle Pleistocene Paleogeography of Central California." Quaternary Research 23, no. 2 (March 1985): 236–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0033-5894(85)90031-6.
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Outcrops of an ash bed at several localities in northern California and western Nevada belong to a single air-fall ash layer, the informally named Rockland ash bed, dated at about 400,000 yr B.P. The informal Rockland pumice tuff breccia, a thick, coarse, compound tephra deposit southwest of Lassen Peak in northeastern California, is the near-source equivalent of the Rockland ash bed. Relations between initial thickness of the Rockland ash bed and distances to eruptive source suggest that the eruption was at least as great as that of the Mazama ash from Crater Lake, Oregon. Identification of the Rockland tephra allows temporal correlation of associated middle Pleistocene strata of diverse facies in separate depositional basins. Specifically, marine, littoral, estuarine, and fluvial strata of the Hookton and type Merced formations correlate with fluvial strata of the Santa Clara Formation and unnamed alluvium of Willits Valley and the Hollister area, in northwestern and west-central California, and with lacustrine beds of Mohawk Valley, fluvial deposits of the Red Bluff Formation of the eastern Sacramento Valley, and fluvial and glaciofluvial deposits of Fales Hot Spring, Carson City, and Washoe Valley areas in northeastern California and western Nevada. Stratigraphic relations of the Rockland ash bed and older tephra layers in the Great Valley and near San Francisco suggest that the southern Great Valley emerged above sea level about 2 my ago, that its southerly outlet to the ocean was closed sometime after about 2 my ago, and that drainage from the Great Valley to the ocean was established near the present, northerly outlet in the vicinity of San Francisco Bay about 0.6 my ago.
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Samodurov, Vladimir P., Anatoly I. Druk, Konstantin Yu Balashov, and Yuriy N. Yalenski. "Structure and mineralogical composition of the tuff horizon of Petrikov potash deposit." Journal of the Belarusian State University. Geography and Geology, no. 1 (June 20, 2019): 119–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.33581/2521-6740-2019-1-119-127.
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Integrated data of the structure and mineralogical composition of the marking tuff horizon in the Upper-Devonian bed of the North-Shestovich synclinal zone are presented in this paper. Dependence of the tuff bed structure on the volcanic activity stage is revealed. Find out that the prevailing mineral of tuff is the structure-ordered illite 1M. Marked tuff horizon is situated inside the Upper-Devonian salt bed within Petrikov synclinal zone and comes up into the overlaying clay-marl formation of the surrounding geological beds.
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Rasmussen, Birger, Janet R. Muhling, Jian-Wei Zi, Harilaos Tsikos, and Woodward W. Fischer. "A 1.25 Ga depositional age for the “Paleoproterozoic” Mapedi red beds, Kalahari manganese field, South Africa: New constraints on the timing of oxidative weathering and hematite mineralization." Geology 48, no. 1 (October 28, 2019): 44–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/g46707.1.
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Abstract The Great Oxidation Event (GOE) is marked by the loss of readily oxidizable detrital minerals and the onset of oxidative weathering. One of the oldest post-GOE weathering surfaces, which extends for almost 350 km along strike, occurs in Griqualand West, South Africa. It is best preserved east of the Blackridge thrust, where oxidized paleoweathering profiles are developed below the unconformity at the base of Mapedi-Gamagara red beds. In the Maremane Dome, the red beds preserve pisolitic hematite laterites, which indicate a highly oxygenated atmosphere and suggest hot and humid climatic conditions. The Mapedi and Gamagara Formations are undated east of the Blackridge thrust but were thought to be lithological correlatives of the ≥1.91 Ga Mapedi red bed sequence to the west. Here, we report a U-Pb zircon age of 1.25 Ga for a felsic tuff in red beds of the Mapedi Formation in the Kalahari manganese field. The new tuff age shows that the Mapedi red beds east of the thrust were deposited >650 m.y. after the Mapedi Formation to the west, and therefore they are part of a distinct Mesoproterozoic sequence. Based on lithologic and sedimentological similarities, the Mapedi-east and Gamagara formations are likely to be correlatives that were deposited on an ancient weathering surface at ca. 1.25 Ga. Our findings suggest that key evidence for a highly oxygenated atmosphere during the early Paleoproterozoic actually formed at ca. 1.25 Ga during a major episode of Mesoproterozoic oxidative weathering.
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Sliwa, Renate, and Joan Esterle. "Rangal Supermodel 2015." APPEA Journal 56, no. 2 (2016): 598. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/aj15104.
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More than 6,000 boreholes were compiled to develop a consistent regional scale stratigraphic framework for the Permian Rangal, Baralaba and Bandana coal measures (CMs) within the Bowen Basin. Coal beds and tuff horizons were used as stratigraphic markers, supported by chemostratigraphy and age dating. Results corroborate the general subdivisions of these different coal measures relative to basin location, but increase resolution on migrating depocentres in response to foreland loading and subsidence on coal thickness and splitting patterns. In the north, the Rangal CMs comprise two main seams, correlated as Leichhardt and Vermont. The Yarrabee Tuff is consistently present and splits the Vermont seam. The main Leichhardt seam exhibits relatively simple offset stacking relationships with the underlying Vermont and overlying Phillips seams. In the southwest, the Bandana CMs comprise two to three significant seams—the Aries-Castor, Pollux (Leichhardt equivalent) and Orion—along with the Pisces containing the Yarrabee Tuff. Seams exhibit complex Z splitting and vertical interburden stacking. Locally super-thick seams (crabs) form from convergence of thinner split seams in areas of relative stability over basement highs. In the Taroom Trough, the Baralaba CMs show the greatest response to loading, as seams thin and split along the eastern margin. The variability in the splitting patterns, coupled with the coal measures total thickness, corroborate the extension of the final basin depocentre northward, which was not preserved.
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Stanley Jr, George D., and Christopher A. McRoberts. "A coral reef in the Telkwa Range, British Columbia: the earliest Jurassic example." Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 30, no. 4 (April 1, 1993): 819–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/e93-068.
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An end-Triassic mass extinction profoundly affected reef ecosystems that flourished in the Late Triassic Tethys seaway. The collapse of Late Triassic coral–sponge reefs was followed by an Early Jurassic (Hettangian–Sinemurian) perturbation interval with a near-global absence of reefs and sharp reductions in diversity. A Jurassic (Sinemurian) reef in the Hazelton Group of central British Columbia appears to fill the gap. Its paleoecology and composition show it to be the first large-framework example in North America and perhaps the world. It demonstrates that the reef-building Triassic coral, Phacelostylophyllum, survived the extinction event and was constructing reefs in Early Jurassic time during a global reef eclipse. The reef is a 48 m thick bioherm that grew within the island-arc complex of Stikinia. Following a decrease in volcanism, reef building began with bivalves growing upon water-lain tuffs. The reef was dominated by large dendroid–phaceloid corals, primarily Phacelostylophyllum rugosum, a species known from the Upper Triassic of Italy, which produced extensive constructional framework. Other fossils include bivalves, solitary and colonial corals, and a variety of dwellers and reef destroyers. Three stages of growth are present. During siliciclastic deposition, the reef mound grew into a bioherm with steep relief and flanking beds. Two intervals of arrested growth marked by pyroclastic lenses and hard grounds punctuated the reef's history. The reef was finally overwhelmed by volcaniclastic sediment, was uplifted, and developed paleokarst. The reef is unique in understanding the dynamics of recovery after the end-Triassic mass extinction.
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Reheis, Marith C., John Caskey, Jordon Bright, James B. Paces, Shannon Mahan, and Elmira Wan. "Pleistocene lakes and paleohydrologic environments of the Tecopa basin, California: Constraints on the drainage integration of the Amargosa River." GSA Bulletin 132, no. 7-8 (November 21, 2019): 1537–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/b35282.1.
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Abstract The Tecopa basin in eastern California was a terminal basin that episodically held lakes during most of the Quaternary until the basin and its modern stream, the Amargosa River, became tributary to Death Valley. Although long studied for its sedimentology, diagenesis, and paleomagnetism, the basin’s lacustrine and paleoclimate history has not been well understood, and conflicting interpretations exist concerning the relations of Tecopa basin to the Amargosa River and to pluvial Lake Manly in Death Valley. Previous studies also did not recognize basinwide tectonic effects on lake-level history. In this study, we focused on: (1) establishing a chronology of shoreline deposits, as the primary indicator of lake-level history, utilizing well-known ash beds and new uranium-series and luminescence dating; (2) using ostracodes as indicators of water chemistry and water source(s); and (3) correlating lake transgressions to well-preserved fluvial-deltaic sequences. During the early Pleistocene, the Tecopa basin hosted small shallow lakes primarily fed by low-alkalinity water sourced mainly from runoff and (or) a groundwater source chemically unlike the modern springs. The first lake that filled the basin occurred just prior and up to the eruption of the 765 ka Bishop ash during marine isotope stage (MIS) 19; this lake heralded the arrival of the Amargosa River, delivering high-alkalinity water. Two subsequent lake cycles, coeval with MIS 16 (leading up to eruption of 631 ka Lava Creek B ash) and MIS 14 and (or) MIS 12, are marked by prominent accumulations of nearshore and beach deposits. The timing of the youngest of these three lakes, the High lake, is constrained by a uranium-series age of ca. 580 ± 120 ka on tufa-cemented beach gravel and by estimates from sedimentation rates. Highstand deposits of the Lava Creek and High lakes at the north end of the basin are stratigraphically tied to distinct sequences of fluvial-deltaic deposits fed by alkaline waters of the Amargosa River. The High lake reached the highest level achieved in the Tecopa basin, and it may have briefly discharged southward but did not significantly erode its threshold. The High lake was followed by a long hiatus of as much as 300 k.y., during which there is evidence for alluvial, eolian, and groundwater-discharge deposition, but no lakes. We attribute this hiatus, as have others, to blockage of the Amargosa River by an alluvial fan upstream near Eagle Mountain. A final lake, the Terminal lake, formed when the river once again flowed south into Tecopa basin, but it was likely short-lived due to rapid incision of the former threshold south of Tecopa. Deposits of the Terminal lake are inset below, and are locally unconformable on, deposits of the High lake and the nonlacustrine deposits of the hiatus. The Terminal lake reached its highstand at ca. 185 ± 21 ka, as dated by infrared-stimulated luminescence on feldspar in beach sand, a time coincident with perennial lake mud and alkaline-tolerant ostracodes in the Badwater core of Lake Manly during MIS 6. A period of stillstand occurred as the Terminal lake drained when the incising river encountered resistant Stirling Quartzite near the head of present-day Amargosa Canyon. Our studies significantly revise the lacustrine and drainage history of the Tecopa basin, show that the MIS 6 highstand was not the largest lake in the basin as previously published (with implications for potential nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain, Nevada), and provide evidence from shoreline elevations for ∼20 m of tectonic uplift in the northern part of the basin across an ENE-trending monoclinal flexure.
Dissertations / Theses on the topic "Tuff marker beds"
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Redden, G. "Textural and compositional variation of tuff marker beds at the Mount Isa and George Fisher deposits; implications for origin and mineralisation." Thesis, 2018. https://hdl.handle.net/2440/133459.
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This item is only available electronically.World-class resources of Cu, Pb and Zn are deposited at Mount Isa Mines and George Fisher Mine, North West Queensland, hosted within the Urquhart Shale unit (1655 Ma) of the Proterozoic Mount Isa Inlier. Numerous beds of tuffaceous metasediments are also intercalated within the carbonaceous units and have been relied on for constraining sequence stratigraphy. Tuff Marker Beds (TMBs) are described as cherty beds with cross-fractures at a high angle to bedding, and as having a highly potassic composition (Croxford, 1964). They provide the only indication of proximal volcanism associated with sedimentation; a line of evidence used to support a syngenetic sedimentary exhalative model of ore formation. The origin of potassic enrichment has previously been interpreted to be related to the composition of the original detrital sediments (including possible ash-fall tephra) and an unconstrained hydrothermal or diagenetic component. TMB samples for this study, collected from Mount Isa Copper Operations (MICO) and George Fisher Mine (GFM), indicate potassic enrichment is not confined to TMBs. Additionally, characteristic fining-upwards sequences were not observed, which is consistent with the interpretation that some of the potassic enrichment is a hydrothermal alteration product, formed either as part of the diagenesis or from later mineralisation-related fluid events. TMB mineralogical and geochemical compositions are closely related to base metal sulphide mineralisation with textural evidence of several episodes of fluid migration, including potassic enrichment. Results indicate that the K-feldspar rich beds identified at MICO are not genuine air-fall tuffs. Textural investigations of mineralised TMBs support a post-sedimentation and deformation paragenesis of ore emplacement of the Urquhart Shale, providing further evidence for an epigenetic Cu and Pb-Zn mode of ore formation at Mount Isa and George Fisher. It is proposed that TMBs record volcanogenic sedimentation and provide a record of potassic and mineralisation-related alteration events but are unrelated to ore genesis.
Thesis (B.Sc.(Hons)) -- University of Adelaide, School of Physical Sciences, 2018
Book chapters on the topic "Tuff marker beds"
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Nyborg*, Torrey, and E. Bruce Lander*. "Vertebrate paleontology and Cenozoic depositional environments of Death Valley National Park, California, USA." In Field Excursions from Las Vegas, Nevada: Guides to the 2022 GSA Cordilleran and Rocky Mountain Joint Section Meeting, 1–22. Geological Society of America, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/2022.0063(01).
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ABSTRACT The vertebrate paleontology, lithostratigraphies, and depositional environments of the Cenozoic continental Titus Canyon and Furnace Creek Formations have been the subjects of several recent investigations. The two units are exposed in the Amargosa Range in northeastern Death Valley National Park, Inyo County, southeastern California, USA. Fossil tracks and trackways are preserved in playa mudflat deposits of the Pliocene Furnace Creek Formation at the Cow Creek tracksite on the western slope of the central Funeral Mountains. The tracksite includes footprints of birds and land mammals, as well as associated sedimentary structures. The lower red beds of the Titus Canyon Formation have produced numerous fossilized bones and teeth at Titus and upper Titanothere Canyons in the southeastern half of the Grapevine Mountains. The fossil remains represent 17 extinct genera and species of land mammals and one genus and species of pond turtle. The taxa constitute the Titus Canyon Fauna. The rodents Quadratomus? gigans and Dolocylindrodon texanus, the bear dog Daphoenictis n. sp. (small), and the tapir Colodon stovalli are associated elsewhere only in the correlative, late early late Duchesnean Upper Porvenir Local Fauna of Trans-Pecos or Far West Texas. The local fauna occurs in the Blue Cliff Horizon (i.e., above lower marker bed) in the lower part of the Chambers Tuff Formation. The two assemblages share 12 species. The age of the latter unit is constrained by corrected single-crystal laser-fusion 40Ar/39Ar dates of 37.83 ± 0.09 Ma for the underlying Buckshot Ignimbrite and 37.14 ± 0.08 Ma for the overlying Bracks Rhyolite. However, both determinations should be considered tentative and subject to change with further investigation. The first green conglomerate unit of the Titus Canyon Formation overlies the lower red beds, underlies the Monarch Canyon Tuff Bed, and has produced the first records of land mammal footprints and a land plant (petrified palm wood) from the formation. The Monarch Canyon Tuff Bed and the Unit 38 Tuff Bed, which lies at the mutual tops of the upper “red beds” and the Titus Canyon Formation, are 34.7 ± 0.7 m.y. old and 30.4 ± 0.6 m.y. old, respectively, based on recalculated 40Ar/39Ar dates. Consequently, the Titus Canyon Formation is latest middle Eocene to earliest Oligocene in age, according to the 2020 Paleogene time scale.
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Knott, Jeffrey R., Andrei M. Sarna-Wojcicki, John A. Barron, Elmira Wan, Lynn Heizler, and Priscilla Martinez. "Tephrochronology of the Miocene Monterey and Modelo Formations, California." In Understanding the Monterey Formation and Similar Biosiliceous Units across Space and Time. Geological Society of America, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/2022.2556(08).
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ABSTRACT Tuff beds (volcanic ash beds and tuffs) have been known in the Miocene Monterey and Modelo Formations since they were initially described nearly 100 yr ago. Yet, these tephra layers have remained largely ignored. The ages and correlation of the Monterey and Modelo Formations are predominantly based on associated biostratigraphy. Here, we combined tephrochronology and biostratigraphy to provide more precise numerical age control for eight sedimentary sequences of the Monterey and Modelo Formations from Monterey County to Orange County in California. We correlated 38 tephra beds in the Monterey and Modelo Formations to 26 different dated tephra layers found mainly in nonmarine sequences in Nevada, Idaho, and New Mexico. We also present geochemical data for an additional 19 tephra layers in the Monterey and Modelo Formations, for which there are no known correlative tephra layers, and geochemical data for another 11 previously uncharacterized tephra layers in other areas of western North America. Correlated tephra layers range in age from 16 to 7 Ma; 31 tephra layers erupted from volcanic centers of the Snake River Plain, northern Nevada to eastern Idaho; 13 other tephra layers erupted from the Southern Nevada volcanic field; and the eruptive source is unknown for 12 other tephra layers. These tephra layers provide new time-stratigraphic markers for the Monterey and Modelo Formations and for other marine and nonmarine sequences in western North America. We identified tephra deposits of four supereruptions as much as 1200 km from the eruptive sources: Rainier Mesa (Southern Nevada volcanic field) and Cougar Point Tuff XI, Cougar Point Tuff XIII, and McMullen Creek (all Snake River Plain).