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Synorogenic evolution of large-scale drainage patterns: Isotope paleohydrology of sequential Laramide basins

Steven J. Davis^*,, Hari T. Mix^**, Bettina A. Wiegand^***, Alan R. Carroll and C. Page Chamberlain^**

^* Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Stanford, California 94305, USA
^** Environmental Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA
^*** Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA
Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA

Corresponding author: sjdavis{at}stanford.edu

hmix{at}stanford.edu; chamb{at}stanford.edu

bwiegand{at}stanford.edu

acarroll{at}geology.wisc.edu

In the past decade, we and others have compiled an extensive dataset of O, C and Sr isotope stratigraphies from sedimentary basins throughout the Paleogene North American Cordillera. In this study, we present new results from the Piceance Creek Basin of northwest Colorado, which record the evolving hydrology of the Eocene Green River Lake system. We then place the new data in the context of the broader Cordilleran dataset and summarize implications for understanding the synorogenic evolution of large-scale drainage patterns. The combined data reflect (1) a period of throughgoing foreland rivers heading in the Sevier fold-and-thrust belt and flowing east, (2) ponding of freshwater lakes in the foredeep as Laramide uplifts blocked drainage, (3) hydrologic closure that led to both intensive evaporation in the terminal sink of the Piceance Creek Basin and integration of catchments over length-scales >1000 km, (4) infilling of basin accommodation by southward migrating magmatism in distal catchments, leading to the freshening and demise of intraforeland lakes that also stepped south over time.

Key Words: Isotope ratios • North American Cordillera • Green River Lakes • Sevier fold-and-thrust belt • paleoaltimetry • limnogeology