Landscape Evolution of Continental-Scale River Systems

Ch 1. PALEO-BELL RIVER CONCEPT

1.1. Introduction:

1.2. Paleo-Bell River drainage divides:

1.3. Amazon River - the paleo-Bell River's twin:

1.4. Historical development of paleo-Bell River concept:

1.5. Detrital zircon geochronology:

1.6. Transcontinental river systems have tectonically active headwaters:

1.7 Concluding thoughts:

1.8. References Cited:

Ch. 2. PALEO-BELL RIVER DELTA

2.1. Introduction

2.2. Location and extent of the delta:

2.3. Hydrocarbon exploration of the delta:

2.4. Age and tectonic origin of Labrador Sea:

2.5. Stratigraphy of the delta:

2.6. Rise and fall of Western Interior and Hudson Seaways:

2.7. Erosion of the delta by glacial ice-streams:

2.8. Northwest Atlantic Mid-ocean Channel:

2.9. References Cited

Ch. 3. PALEO-BELL RIVER DETRITAL-ZIRCON SOURCES

3.1. Introduction:

3.2. Detrital-zircon U-Pb dates:

3.3. Dates from the delta:

3.4. Two phases of deposition:

3.5. Bedrock sources for paleo-Bell delta zircons:

3.6. Case study: Test of Colorado Plateau detrital zircon sources in delta at 34-18 million years:

3.7. Comparison to other North American deposits:

3.8. References Cited:

Ch. 4. CHAPTER 4. PALEO-BELL RIVER CAPTURES THE GREAT BASIN

4.1. Introduction:

4.2. Western Interior Seaway-Template for the paleo-Bell River:

4.3. Tectonic setting:

4.4. Early headwaters:

4.5. Paleo-Missouri drainage basin, 58 to 18 m.y.a.:

4.6. Paleo-Missouri River captures Great Basin:

4.7. Basin and Range Province:

4.8. Sixmile Creek Formation:

4.9. Yellowstone hotspot:

4.10. Summary:

4.11. References Cited:

Ch. 5. CHAPTER 5. PALEO-BELL RIVER CAPTURES THE COLORADO PLATEAU

5.1. Introduction:

5.2. Colorado Plateau connection:

5.3.1. Williston Basin:

5.3.2. Crazy Mountains and Beartooth Plateau:

5.3.3. Bighorn Mountains and Canyon:

5.3.4. Wind River Canyon:

5.3.5. Granite Mountains and Beaver Divide:

5.3.6. Great Lakes of the Rockies:

5.3.7. Paleo-California River:

5.3.8. Browns Park Graben:

5.3.9. Rio Grande Rift Valley:

5.3.10. Colorado Plateau:

5.3.11. Mogollon Rim: 

5.3.12. Southern Cordilleran magmatic arc:

5.3.13. Triassic/Jurassic wind-blown sandstones:

5.3.14. Chuska erg:

5.3.15. Little Colorado River:

5.4. Summary:

5.5. References cited:

CHAPTER 6. PALEO-BELL RIVER AND EARLY GRAND CANYON

6.1. Introduction:

6.2 A. 59 to 58 Million Years Ago. Drainage to Labrador Sea:

6.3.B. 58 to 55 Million Years Ago. Sluggish Rivers, Diversion to Gulf of Mexico:

6.4.C. 55 to 43 Million Years Ago. "Great Lakes of the Rockies":

6.5.D. 42 to 38 Million Years Ago. Regional Erosional Planation of Laramide Foreland:

6.6.E. 37 to 28 Million Years Ago. Chuska Erg Sand Dunes:

6.7.F. 28-16 Million Years Ago. Deep Erosional dissection of Early Grand Canyon and Colorado Plateau:

6.8.G. 16 to 6 Million Years Ago. Drainage Reversal of Colorado Plateau:

6.9.H. 6 Million Years Ago to present. Erosional dissection of Grand Canyon Inner Gorge as Colorado River finds its way to the Gulf of California:

6.10. Summary:

6.11. References cited:

CHAPTER 7: DESTRUCTION OF THE PALEO-BELL RIVER

7.1. Introduction:

7.2. Drainage changes at 18 million years ago:

7.3. Drainage changes from 10 to 4 million years ago:

7.4. Ice-age drainage changes in past two million years:

7.5. References cited:

CHAPTER 8.  PALEO-BELL AND OTHER TRANSCONTINENTAL RIVERS

8.1. Introduction:

8.2. Mackenzie River, Northwest Canada:

8.3. Amazon River:

8.4. Big Siberian Rivers:

8.5. Big African Rivers:

8.6. References Cited:

CHAPTER 9.  CONCLUSIONS

9.1. As the Western Interior Seaway and its branch, the Hudson Seaway, withdrew from North America about 59 million years ago, the paleo-Bell River drained northeastward along the exposed sea beds to a delta in the Labrador Sea.

9.2. From 59 to 34 million years ago most of sediment in the paleo-Bell River delta comprised mud that was eroded from marine formations in the beds of the Seaways.

9.3. At 34 million years ago the paleo-California River, which drained from southern California and Arizona to central Wyoming, was diverted from the "Great Lakes of the Rockies", across the Granite Mountains of Wyoming, to the headwaters of the paleo-Yellowstone River, and thence to the paleo-Bell River and its delta in the Labrador Sea.

9.4. Thick sand wedges arrived in the delta as erosion dissected the Colorado Plateau and Wyoming/Montana Rockies, 34 to 18 million years ago.

9.5. Some of the sand was recycled from the Chuska erg (sand-dune sea) of the southern Colorado Plateau.

9.6. Erosion of the Navajo Sandstone of the southern Colorado Plateau shed sand and Grenville-age detrital zircons to the paleo-Bell River delta. Some of the sand was captured in the Browns Park and Beaver Divide grabens of Colorado and Wyoming as the paleo-California River flowed north.

9.7. Tell-tale detrital zircons from the Cordilleran magmatic arc in southern Arizona show up in the paleo-Bell River delta in Saglek sand wedges, 28-18 million years ago.

9.8. At 18-17 million years ago, Basin-and-Range faulting cut off the paleo-California River in Wyoming but opened a knickpoint across the Lewis and Clark Line in Montana between the paleo-Missouri River and Great Basin drainage.

9.9. The paleo-California River basin reversed flow to the south to become the Colorado River basin as the Wyoming Rockies were tectonically uplifted.

9.10. The Colorado River drained into a closed Colorado Plateau drainage basin from 18 to six million years ago.

9.11. The Colorado River cut the km-deep Inner Gorge through floor of early Grand Canyon, six million years ago, with flow to a new delta in the Gulf of California.

9.12. The Yellowstone Hot Spot track trended northeast across Idaho and crossed the paleo-Missouri River from ten to four million years ago, cutting off northward flow from the Great Basin.

9.13. After about two million years ago, Pleistocene continental glaciers covered Canada, destroying the main part of the paleo-Bell River drainage basin. Ice sheets flowed south from Canada into Montana/North Dakota, blocking flow of the paleo-Missouri and paleo-Yellowstone Rivers, diverting their drainage to the Mississippi River, and incising the modern course of the Missouri River.