Late Cenozoic drainage reversal, east-central Idaho, and its relation to possible undiscovered placer deposits

Ruppel, E.T.

doi:10.2113/gsecongeo.62.5.648

Cited by 11 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…Antweiler (U.S. Geological Survey, 1980) found gold distributed throughout a veneer of Tertiary gravels with thicknesses of 30-100 ft or more that blanketed parts of the Sapphire Range. Similar evidence of major drainage diversions in surrounding areas of Idaho and Montana was discussed by Atwood (1916), Capps (1941), Anderson (1947), and Ruppel (1967).…”

Section: Regional Drainage Developmentsupporting

confidence: 67%

Geology and mineral deposits of the Miners Gulch area, Granite County, Montana

Loen¹,

Blaskowski²,

Elliott³

1989

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Section: Regional Drainage Developmentsupporting

confidence: 67%

Geology and mineral deposits of the Miners Gulch area, Granite County, Montana

Loen¹,

Blaskowski²,

Elliott³

1989

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“…For the three basin-range valleys east of the Beaverhead, Lemhi, and Lost River ranges, Ruppel (1967) summarized evidence that the north half of three south-flowing drainages had been reversed from south flowing to north flowing. This reversal supports the idea of late Cenozoic arching along the present crest of the west arm of the Yellowstone crescent (Fig.…”

Section: Altitude Changes North Of the Snake River Plainmentioning

confidence: 83%

Chapter 1: The track of the Yellowstone hot spot: Volcanism, faulting, and uplift

Pierce¹,

Morgan²

1992

Geological Society of America Memoirs

289

339

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The track of the Yellowstone hot spot is represented by a systematic northeast-trending linear belt of silicic, caldera-forming volcanism that arrived at Yellowstone 2 Ma, was near American Falls, Idaho about 10 Ma, and started about 16 Ma near the Nevada-Oregon-Idaho border. From 16 to 10 Ma, particularly 16 to 14 Ma, volcanism was widely dispersed around the inferred hot-spot track in a region that now forms a moderately high volcanic plateau. From 10 to 2 Ma, silicic volcanism migrated N54°E toward Yellowstone at about 3 cm/year, leaving in its wake the topographic and structural depression of the eastern Snake River Plain (SRP). This <10-Ma hot-spot track has the same rate and direction as that predicted by motion of the North American plate over a thermal plume fixed in the mantle. The eastern SRP is a linear, mountainbounded, 90-km-wide trench almost entirely(?) floored by calderas that are thinly covered by basalt flows. The current hot-spot position at Yellowstone is spatially related to active faulting and uplift.Basin-and-range faults in the Yellowstone-SRP region are classified into six types based on both recency of offset and height of the associated bedrock escarpment. The distribution of these fault types permits definition of three adjoining belts of faults and a pattern of waxing, culminating, and waning fault activity. The central belt, Belt II, is the most active and is characterized by faults active since 15 ka on range fronts >700 m high. Belt II has two arms forming a V that joins at Yellowstone: One arm of Belt II trends south to the Wasatch front; the other arm trends west and includes the sites of the 1959 Hebgen Lake and 1983 Borah Peak earthquakes. Fault Belt I is farthest away from the SRP and contains relatively new and reactivated faults that have not produced new bedrock escarpments higher than 200 m during the present episode of faulting. Belt III is the innermost active belt near the SRP. It contains faults that have moved since 15 to 120 ka and that have been active long enough to produce range fronts more than 500 m high. A belt with inactive faults, belt IV, occurs only south of the SRP and contains range-front faults that experienced high rates of activity coincident with hot-spot volcanism in the late Tertiary on the adjacent SRP. Comparison of these belts of fault activity with historic seismic activity reveals similarities but differences in detail.That uplift migrated outward from the hot-spot track is suggested by (1) the Yellowstone crescent of high terrain that is about 0.5 km higher than the surrounding terrain, is about 350 km across at Yellowstone, wraps around Yellowstone like a bow wave, and has arms that extend 400 km southerly and westerly from its apex;(2) readily erodible rocks forming young, high mountains in parts of this crescent; (3) geodetic surveys and paleotopographic reconstructions that indicate young uplift near the axis of the Yellowstone crescent; (4) the fact that on the outer slope of this Pierce, K. L., and Morgan, L. A., 1992, The track of the Y...

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“…Arguments for south oriented flow began when Umpleby [2] concluded the northwest oriented Lemhi River (L in Figure 2) in Idaho (now flow- [8] in a study of Idaho gravel deposits supported south oriented drainage from the Big Hole River (BH) drainage basin into Idaho. Bayrd [9] working near the study region's southeast corner concluded drainage once flowed in a south direction to where the modern day Colorado River and its south oriented Green River tributary are now located (not shown in figures here, but in Colorado which is seen in Figure 1).…”

Section: Previous Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Origin of Mountain Passes across Continental Divide Segments Surrounding the Southwest Montana Big Hole and Beaverhead River Drainage Basins, USA

Clausen¹

2017

OJG

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The evolution of southwest Montana's Big Hole and Beaverhead River drainage basins is determined from topographic map evidence related to mountain passes crossing what are today high altitude drainage divides including North America's east-west Continental Divide. Map evidence, such as orientations of valleys leading away from mountain passes (and saddles) and barbed tributaries found along the downstream drainage routes, is used to reconstruct flow directions of streams and rivers that once crossed the present-day high mountain divides. Large south-oriented anastomosing complexes of diverging and converging channels are interpreted to have eroded what are today closely spaced passes and saddles now notched into high mountain ridges. Water in those south-oriented channels is interpreted to have flowed across emerging mountains and subsiding basins. Headward erosion of deeper southeast-oriented valleys, assisted by crustal warping, concentrated south-oriented water in fewer and deeper valleys as the water flowed from southwest Montana into what are today Idaho and the Snake River drainage basin. Headward erosion of the Big Hole River valley between the emerging Anaconda and Pioneer Mountains, also assisted by crustal warping, reversed all Big Hole Basin drainage so as to create the north-, east-, and south-oriented Big Hole River drainage route. A final and even more major reversal of flow in the present-day north-oriented Montana Missouri River valley, with the assistance of additional crustal warping, next ended all remaining flow to Idaho and the Snake River drainage basin and reversed and captured all drainage in the present-day north-oriented Big Hole, Beaverhead, and Red Rock River drainage basins. The observed map evidence indicates that prior to the final flow reversal events, large volumes of south-oriented water flowed across southwest Montana's Big Hole and Beaverhead River drainage basins.

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Late Cenozoic drainage reversal, east-central Idaho, and its relation to possible undiscovered placer deposits

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Geology and mineral deposits of the Miners Gulch area, Granite County, Montana

Geology and mineral deposits of the Miners Gulch area, Granite County, Montana

Chapter 1: The track of the Yellowstone hot spot: Volcanism, faulting, and uplift

Origin of Mountain Passes across Continental Divide Segments Surrounding the Southwest Montana Big Hole and Beaverhead River Drainage Basins, USA

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