Paleogeographic and paleotectonic setting of sedimentary basins in the Sevier thrust belt and hinterland, eastern Great Basin

The eastern Great Basin contains a sparse record of broadly distributed Cretaceous sedimentary rocks which record: evolution of intermontane basins during development of the Sevier (Sv)contractional orogen and incipient extensional collapse of the elevated Sv hinterland (east-central NV), and complex tectono-sedimentary interactions between frontal thrust belt structures and the western margin of the adjacent foreland basin. Palinspastic restoration of these strata and associated structures to pre-Tertiary extension positions reveals a clearer pictures of Cretaceous basin paleogeography and allows comparison with the Puna/Altiplano plateau and precordillera thrust belt of the Neogene Andean orogen. Two syntectonic stratal assemblages are present in east-central NV. Lower Cretaceous alluvial strata (Newark Canyon Fm) record basin development coeval with emergence of contractional structures in the Sv hinterland. Localized early Cretaceous basins were possibly piggyback immature; periods of open drainage to the to the east and south suggest connection with the nascent Sv foreland basin to the east (Cedar Mountain/Sanpete Fms) prior to major thrust loading in central Utah. Development of hinterland structures is almost recorded by Aptian-Albian foreland basin alluvial deposits in SW Utah (Dakota Fm) and southern Nevada (Willow Tank Fm). Upper Cretaceous to Eocene strata (Sheep Pass Fm) record inception of regionally abundant alluvial-lacustrinemore » basins which developed in response to onset of latest Cretaceous extension and associated collapse of the Sv hinterland. Evolution of the structurally complex western margin of the Sv foreland basin is recorded in Cretaceous through Eocene strata deposited in: piggyback basins which were at times hydrologically connected to the adjacent foreland basins, and thrust-proximal portions of the foreland basin. These proximal areas are characterized by folding and faulting of basin fill and development of intrabasinal unconformities.« less