The Archean Precambrian Wyoming province is bounded on the north and south by regionally extensive early Proterozoic mobile belts. Archean rocks have been remobilized by early Proterozoic tectonic events in the northern belt, but the southern belt does not appear to contain rocks as old as Archean. On the east, an early Proterozoic suture belt separates the province from the Archean Superior province. The western margin lies under the western Overthrust belt. The paleotectonic articulation among these anisotropic Precambrian lithostructural terranes, in response to cratonic and continental margin vertical and horizontal forces, influenced the distribution of many Phanerozoic stratigraphic facies. An analysis of the major unconformities in the stratigraphic record in light of the Precambrian lithostructural history of the western shelf discloses new observations concerning the petroleum source rock and reservoir rock stratigraphy of the northern Rocky Mountain region. A correlation between these tectonic terranes and the localization of regional hydrocarbon accumulations has been observed and has been useful in basin analyses for exploration.

End_of_Article - Last_Page 869------------