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Quantifying heterogeneity in sedimentary units at multiple scales: an investigation into the complex depositional record of the Ventura and Powder River basins

Gilbert, John Clark
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Jobe, Zane R.
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Date
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2023
Date Submitted
Keywords
black shale
 Cretaceous Interior Seaway
 detrital zircon geochronology
 drone photogrammetry
 strike slip basins
 submarine fan
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2023 - Mines Theses & Dissertations
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https://hdl.handle.net/11124/178525
Embargo Expires
2024-10-18
Abstract
Sedimentary basins record important changes in climate and tectonic activity throughout Earth history. These basins contain valuable natural resources and the extraction of these mineral and hydrocarbon deposits have changed the course of human history. The depositional record contained within these basins is often cryptic and incomplete, and localized changes in sediment routing, deposition rates or erosional processes can be evidence of large-scale changes in tectonics or climate. Sedimentary rocks can exhibit large-scale heterogeneity over the distance of an ocean basin, small-scale geochemical changes in the pore space between grains and even temporal changes and research requires multiple scales of investigation. This thesis investigates heterogeneity in sedimentary basins at multiple scales by 1) reinterpreting the tectonic history of the Ventura basin by quantifying changes in the U-Pb zircon dates, automated mineralogy and provenance; 2) demonstrating lateral and vertical heterogeneity in the depositional architecture of a submarine-channel element outcrop using drone photogrammetry and 3) documenting how the scale of investigation effects the interpretation of x-ray fluorescence spectrometry (i.e., elemental geochemistry) data. The multi-disciplined approach of this research integrates methods that are useful at quantifying heterogeneity at different scales and develops new analogs for depositional and tectonic changes. These analogs are valuable to the exploration of important natural resources and to predicting future changes in the depositional record.
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