Structures at Buck Mountain, Nevada: Establishing the Southeastern Extent of Mid-Pennsylvanian Tectonism

Abstract

This paper reports the structural and stratigraphic history of Buck Mountain, Nevada, and its regional significance in the development of southwestern Laurentia during the late Paleozoic. The two distinct generations of folding have similar style and/or timing to other fold sets in late Paleozoic strata of northern Nevada. Unconformities in the upper Paleozoic strata at Buck Mountain are consistent with unconformities documented in northern and east-central Nevada. Northwest-vergent folds (F1) in the Morrowan–Atokan Ely Limestone are erosionally truncated and unconformably overlain by the middle Desmoinesian Hogan Formation and middle Wolfcampian (Sakmarian) Upper Strathearn Formation. This upper Paleozoic stratigraphic package was subsequently refolded by the Buck Mountain Syncline and associated mesoscale folds (F2). F2 folds lack tight age control but are interpreted to be associated with the Cretaceous central Nevada thrust belt. Critically, none of these structures are localized above or below low-angle faults. The unconformity between the Ely and Hogan formations is consistent with the C5 regional unconformity. Importantly, it constrains the age of northwest-vergent deformation on Buck Mountain. West-vergent folds and west-directed thrusts are documented at several locations in northern and east-central Nevada, but because of the dominance of the C6 unconformity and/or lack of robust age control, the age of these structures has not been tightly constrained. The evidence at Buck Mountain indicates that west-vergent structures predate the C5 unconformity. Buck Mountain is important because it: (1) precisely brackets the age of west-vergent deformation in Nevada to pre–mid-Desmoinesian (sub C5-unconformity) and (2) defines a southeastern edge to the late Paleozoic west-vergent deformation in northern and east-central Nevada.