New 40Ar-39Ar and detrital zircon U-Pb ages for the Upper Cretaceous Wahweap and Kaiparowits formations on the Kaiparowits Plateau, Utah: implications for regional correlation, provenance, and biostratigraphy

In order to better constrain the age and provenance of the Upper Cretaceous Wahweap and Kaiparowits formations in southern Utah, U-Pb SHRIMP ages were obtained for detrital zircons from three sandstone samples, in addition to the first 40Ar-39Ar age for the Wahweap Formation, obtained from a devitrified volcanic ash horizon (bentonite). The ash horizon, located 40 m above the base of the Wahweap Formation, yields an age of 80.1 ± 0.3 Ma. The new radiometric data improve upon previous biostratigraphic age estimates for the Wahweap Formation and indicate that the formation was deposited between approximately 81 and 76 Ma. The youngest population of detrital zircons from the base of the Wahweap Formation clusters...

Categories: Publication; Types: Citation, Journal Citation; Tags: 40Ar/39Ar, Cretaceous Research, campanian, detrital zircons, vertebrate paleontology, All tags... western interior basin, Fewer tags