Pliocene and Quaternary history of the Rio Grande, the axial river of the southern Rio Grande rift, New Mexico, USA

Mack, Greg H.; Seager, William R.; Leeder, M. R.; Pérez‐Arlucea, Marta; Salyards, Stephen L.

doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2006.07.002

Cited by 44 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Of these large DFS, the Okavango DFS has been widely studied (e.g., McCarthy et al, 1988McCarthy et al, ,1991McCarthy et al, , 1992 Axial DFS occur where a half-graben is filled and the axial system spills into an adjacent (downstream) 482 half-graben if accommodation exists between the lateral DFS (Mack et al, 1997(Mack et al, , 2006. This fill and spill 483 type scenario is considered to have occurred a number of times, resulting in linkage of half-grabens to 484 form a throughgoing axial river system thatfeeds an axial DFS in the terminal half-graben (Mack et al, 485 1997).…”

Section: Okavango Rift Basin 423mentioning

confidence: 99%

Fluvial geomorphic elements in modern sedimentary basins and their potential preservation in the rock record: A review

et al. 2015

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Section: Okavango Rift Basin 423mentioning

confidence: 99%

Fluvial geomorphic elements in modern sedimentary basins and their potential preservation in the rock record: A review

et al. 2015

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“…The southern part of the rift was the depositional center of this extended axial stream system; the preexisting topography was largely buried under rapidly aggrading fluvial and lacustrine sediments (Mack et al, 2006). The first evidence of the Rio Grande in the southern rift near the Franklin Mountains has been dated at 5 Ma by using paleomagnetic reversals and dating of volcanic rocks interbedded within the sediments (Mack et al, 1998b;.…”

Section: Regional Setting and Geological Descriptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first evidence of the Rio Grande in the southern rift near the Franklin Mountains has been dated at 5 Ma by using paleomagnetic reversals and dating of volcanic rocks interbedded within the sediments (Mack et al, 1998b;. Fluvial deposition had shifted to the east side of the Franklin Mountains by 2 Ma when the ancestral Rio Grande spilled through Fillmore Gap between the Organ and Franklin Mountains (Seager et al, 1984;Mack et al, 2006) (Fig. 2).…”

Section: Regional Setting and Geological Descriptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The date was determined by comparing soil development on the oldest unfaulted fan to the soil on the youngest faulted fan (Seager, 1983). Movement along the Artillery Range fault between the north Franklin and Organ Mountains may have blocked the ancestral Rio Grande's course into the Hueco Basin at least 650,000 yr ago (Mack et al, 2006).…”

Section: Eastern Boundary Fault Zonementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The terraces overlie Rio Grande channel fills on the west flank of the range and therefore are younger than 5 Ma (Mack et al, 2006). The ancestral Rio Grande left cross-bedded and horizontally laminated pebbly sandstones and mudstones (Mack et al, 1998b) that formed the surface across which the terraces were initially deposited.…”

Section: Deformed Terraces Of the Franklin Mountainsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pliocene–Holocene deformation in the southern Rio Grande rift as inferred from topography and uplifted terraces of the Franklin Mountains, southern New Mexico and western Texas

2018

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In most extensional terrains such as the Rio Grande rift, alluvial fans and bajadas cover faults and terraces as extension progresses, thus limiting the faults and terraces as useful records of uplift. However, in the Franklin Mountains of western Texas and southern New Mexico (USA), rapid aggradation of basin floors by extensive playa lakes and floodplain deposits of the Rio Grande during the Pliocene buried the irregular mountain-front fans, thus creating a low-gradient surface. This originally planar surface was subsequently uplifted and deformed during faulting, providing a record of the Pliocene-Holocene extensional deformation in the southern Rio Grande rift. Deformation and uplift of the Franklin Mountains in the southern Rio Grande rift was estimated by measuring the elevation of late Pliocene terraces that are adjacent to range-bounding faults. The uplifted terraces are exposed along both sides of the Franklin Mountains, and lie as much as 130 m above their original elevation. Together the uplifted terraces form an anticlinal arch that mimics the profile of the range crest of the mountains. Three important conclusions can be drawn from the similarity of profiles among the terraces and mountain crest. First, the observation that the terraces mimic the range crest implies that the present-day topography of the mountains is likely tectonic in origin. Second, the east-side terraces are higher than the west-side terraces, suggesting rotation of the mountains during deformation. Estimated rotation since the Pliocene is ~5% of the total rotation. Third, fault throw rate calculations indicate differential slip along the length of the eastern boundary fault zone. The fault profile and throw rate calculations along the eastern margin of the range are skewed to the south, suggesting that the southern segment of the Franklin Mountains has accumulated a majority of the slip during this time frame. These observations, coupled with geophysical data highlighting buried faults beneath the El Paso (Texas)-Juárez (Mexico) metropolitan region, suggest that normal faults related to uplift of the Franklin Mountains have been growing in length toward the south over the last several million years.

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Icebergs in the Nordic Seas Throughout the Late Pliocene

Smith

Hill

Dolan

et al. 2018

Paleoceanog and Paleoclimatol

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The Arctic cryosphere is changing and making a significant contribution to sea level rise. The Late Pliocene had similar CO 2 levels to the present and a warming comparable to model predictions for the end of this century. However, the state of the Arctic cryosphere during the Pliocene remains poorly constrained. For the first time we combine outputs from a climate model with a thermodynamic iceberg model to simulate likely source regions for ice‐rafted debris (IRD) found in the Nordic Seas from Marine Isotope Stage M2 to the mid‐Piacenzian Warm Period and what this implies about the nature of the Arctic cryosphere at this time. We compare the fraction of melt given by the model scenarios with IRD data from four Ocean Drilling Program sites in the Nordic Seas. Sites 911A, 909C, and 907A show a persistent occurrence of IRD that model results suggest is consistent with permanent ice on Svalbard. Our results indicate that icebergs sourced from the east coast of Greenland do not reach the Nordic Seas sites during the warm Late Pliocene but instead travel south into the North Atlantic. In conclusion, we suggest a continuous occurrence of marine‐terminating glaciers on Svalbard and on East Greenland (due to the elevation of the East Greenland Mountains during the Late Pliocene). The study has highlighted the usefulness of coupled climate model‐iceberg trajectory modeling for understanding ice sheet behavior when proximal geological records for Pliocene ice presence or absence are absent or are inconclusive.

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Pliocene and Quaternary history of the Rio Grande, the axial river of the southern Rio Grande rift, New Mexico, USA

Cited by 44 publications

References 42 publications

Fluvial geomorphic elements in modern sedimentary basins and their potential preservation in the rock record: A review

Fluvial geomorphic elements in modern sedimentary basins and their potential preservation in the rock record: A review

Pliocene–Holocene deformation in the southern Rio Grande rift as inferred from topography and uplifted terraces of the Franklin Mountains, southern New Mexico and western Texas

Icebergs in the Nordic Seas Throughout the Late Pliocene

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