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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

AAPG Bulletin

Abstract


Volume: 64 (1980)

Issue: 5. (May)

First Page: 687

Last Page: 688

Title: Paleogeographic Evolution of Late Paleozoic Taos Trough, Northern New Mexico: ABSTRACT

Author(s): J. Michael Casey

Article Type: Meeting abstract

Abstract:

The Taos trough (or Rowe-Mora basin) of northern New Mexico was one of several tectonically active cratonic basins associated with the late Paleozoic Ancestral Rockies. As the basin and adjacent uplifts evolved, the depositional systems and paleogeography varied in conjunction with changing tectonic stability, fluctuating

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sediment input, evolution and integration of sediment dispersal systems, and varying water depth.

Morrowan time was characterized by a widespread transgression by a shallow sea flanked by low-lying, muddy strand plains. At this time the surrounding uplifts were relatively low-relief features and supplied only fine-grained sediment to the basin. By Atokan time, vertical movements elevated the Uncompahgre uplift to the west of the trough, and coarse alluvial fan, braided stream, and fan-delta complexes prograded eastward into the basin. During this episode of intense diastrophism to the west, the eastern side of the trough remained fairly stable and a broad, shallow-marine shelf sloped gently off the Sierra Grande arch. Farther south, carbonates accumulated on the Pecos shelf.

This general depositional and paleogeographic pattern continued into Desmoinesian time. However, to the north the Cimarron arch had become a major positive feature by earliest Desmoinesian time and several braided stream-fan-delta systems prograded southward and southwestward into the basin. By middle Desmoinesian time an extensive coastal plain had developed along the western margin of the trough, with low-sinuosity rivers feeding lobate deltas.

A major middle to late Desmoinesian transgression inundated this coastal plain and shallow shelf conditions prevailed throughout most of late Desmoinesian time. In latest Desmoinesian time, southward prograding fluvial-deltaic systems began filling the northern part of the basin causing a net southward regression. By Early Permian time the basin was dominated by continental sedimentation with southward flowing braided streams.

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