The Anthropology, Geospatial and Earth Science Department is hosting a seminar by Ken Coles titled “A Paleozoic Jackpot in Nevada: Starved Deposition Can Feed Us a Lot of Information.”
Seminar Abstract
The upper Paleozoic of the Great Basin in Nevada records the disruption of an Atlantic-type margin by multiple orogenic events. The first of these events is enigmatic; it created a major overthrust belt without any trace of subduction or oceanic crustal rocks. Sediments starved of clastic material (sand, silt, and clay) that predate the thrusting include phosphatic chert and bedded barite. These constrain the timing and style of deformation in the Mississippian and are consistent with an origin along the western margin of Laurentia rather than transport from a great distance as part of an exotic terrane.