A Synthesis of Late Paleozoic Sedimentation in Central and Eastern New Mexico: Implications for Timing of Ancestral Rocky Mountains Deformation

Abstract

The Ancestral Rocky Mountains (ARM) represent an intraplate deformational event that resulted in a series of Precambrian-cored basement uplifts with adjacent basins that accumulated Pennsylvanian to early Permian strata. Tectonic models for the event are debated largely because of the lack of robust age control in the basin fill. In New Mexico, the ARM event resulted in a series of basins with some of the best biostratigraphic records across the orogenic province. This article utilizes published biostratigraphic and lithostratigraphic data to (1) reconcile the onset of subsidence by first accumulation of Pennsylvanian strata, (2) establish a period of peak subsidence estimated by maximum accumulation rate, (3) correlate estimated peak subsidence with the first appearance of arkose derived from the adjacent denuded Precambrian-cored block, and (4) demarcate synorogenic strata from Permian strata that are postorogenic. Results demonstrate that within New Mexico ARM basins, (1) onset was relatively synchronous, predominantly beginning in early Atokan time; (2) peak subsidence, while potentially younging southward, was relatively coeval in the Middle to Late Pennsylvanian; (3) first occurrence of arkose either predates the period of peak subsidence or is coeval with peak subsidence; and (4) early Permian strata across the study area onlap preexisting faults and folds, and/or form a buttress unconformity with Precambrian basement.