Project Info

Using detrital zircon geochronology to constrain Paleozoic sediment source areas and dispersal patterns along the Colorado Front Range

Zane Jobe | zanejobe@mines.edu

From modern landscapes, we know that rivers and winds move sediment down from mountainous regions into accumulations in sedimentary basins. During the Permian period in North America, two sediment sources delivered sediment into the Front Range area: rivers carried sediment eastward from the ancestral Rocky Mountains, and winds/sand dunes carried sediment westward from the Appalachian Mountains. This project focuses on reconstructing the paleogeography of the Front Range area, particularly the interplay of sediment delivered from the west (by rivers) and the east (by sand dunes). The student will help design the entire project, including planning a sampling campaign, sample processing, and data analysis. Specifically, the project activities will include sampling 8-10 Permian-aged sandstones from Colorado Springs to central Wyoming and dating ~100 detrital zircons from each sample using a mass spectrometer. By knowing the age distributions of the zircons, we can determine the sediment provenance (i.e., where the sediment came from, for example the Appalachians or the ancestral Rocky Mountains).
This project has broad applications, including a better understanding of Permian sediment dispersal patterns in North America, as well as the timing of the ancestral Rocky Mountain uplifts and Permian paleoclimate reconstruction (i.e., wet vs. dry cycles). We can also use this data to help predict when and how much sediment was delivered to the Permian basin (Texas), a large and active oil and gas province.

Grand Challenge:

More Information

For an example of the end-product that we would like to produce, see this paper by Dickinson and Gehrels (2009) https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article/121/3-4/408-433/2365 
Also see the general stratigraphy of Colorado here http://coloradostratigraphy.org/
For an introduction to dating detrital zircons, see this short course (module 4) https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1RGx40B8wy2QYd3IOYIhvCv9-QZa8AadSQjroYdUnzzY&hl=en#

Grand Engineering: Develop carbon sequestration methods