Miocene tephrochronology in the northern Basin and Range

Silicic air-fall tephra layers with unaltered glass shards preserved in Miocene basins of the northern Basin and Range Province (NBR) were sampled from well-exposed sections in the Goose Creek (GCB) and Ibapah (IB) basins in the northeastern NBR, and the El Pasco basin (EPB) in the southwestern NBR. Each basin may contain up to 50 tephras. Glass shards from individual tephras in any one basin are compositionally distinct, as shown by XRF and electron microprobe analysis. Seventeen tephra correlate between two or more basins; 12 of these are regionally important, providing precise stratigraphic ties across the NbR. Four regionally correlative tephras are white biotitic ashes from southern Nevada sources, whereas eight are gray vitric ashes from Yellowstone hot spot sources. Dates on tephra layers and lava flows in the basins, and on ashflow units correlated with four other tephra provide a preliminary chronology for the tephra in the all basins. In each section [Delta]h/[Delta]t appears constant on time scales [>=]1 Ma, but variation in [Delta]h/[Delta]t is demonstrated from IB, and is likely typical of all basins. Sedimentation in all five basins begins in the time interval of 14.5--12.5 Ma, which may represent the beginning of a phase of regional extensionmore » in the NBR. Post-[approximately]9.5 Ma deformation has affected all basins and likely contributed to the termination of sedimentation in the exposed areas of these basins.« less