Jurassic onset of foreland basin deposition in

northwestern Montana, USA: Implications for along-strike

synchroneity of Cordilleran orogenic activity
F. Fuentes*, P.G. DeCelles, G.E. Gehrels
Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA

ABSTRACT
Stratigraphic, provenance, and subsidence analyses suggest that by the Middle to Late
Jurassic a foreland basin system was active in northwestern Montana (United States). U-Pb
ages of detrital zircons and detrital modes of sandstones indicate provenance from accreted
terranes and deformed miogeoclinal rocks to the west. Subsidence commenced ca. 170 Ma and
followed a sigmoidal pattern characteristic of foreland basin systems. Thin Jurassic deposits
of the Ellis Group and Morrison Formation accumulated in a backbulge depozone. A regional
unconformity and/or paleosol zone separates the Morrison from Early Cretaceous foredeep
deposits of the Kootenai Formation. The model presented here is consistent with regional
deformation events registered in hinterland regions, and challenges previous interpretations
of a strongly diachronous onset of Cordilleran foreland basin deposition from northwestern
Montana to southern Canada.

INTRODUCTION
One of the most controversial aspects of the Cordilleran thrust
belt and foreland basin system is also one of the most fundamental, i.e.,
when did this system initially develop? Estimates for the onset of fore-
land basin accumulation in the western interior of the United States span
~75 m.y. from Early Jurassic to Aptian time (Heller et al., 1986; Bjerrum
and Dorsey, 1995; DeCelles and Currie, 1996; Allen et al., 2000, Dorsey
and LaMaskin, 2007), whereas most workers agree that a foreland basin
was established in southern Canada by the Middle to Late Jurassic (Cant
and Stockmal, 1989; Fermor and Moffat, 1993; McMechan and Thompson,
1993; Poulton et al., 1994; Ross et al., 2005). Gillespie and Heller (1995)
inferred that foreland basin development in the western United States was
~40 m.y. later than in Canada, giving rise to the notion of strongly diachro-
nous orogeny. In this paper we present stratigraphic, geochronologic, and
provenance data from northwestern Montana that support the hypothesis
that Middle Jurassic deposition took place in a retroarc foreland basin
system. We conclude that initial foreland basin development was nearly
synchronous along the United States and southern Canadian portions of
the Cordilleran thrust belt.
REGIONAL SETTING AND JURASSIC–
EARLY CRETACEOUS STRATIGRAPHY
Three major tectonic elements compose the Cordilleran orogenic
system at the latitude of northwestern Montana and southern Canada
(Fig. 1): a western region of accreted terranes (e.g., Colpron et al., 2007;
Giorgis et al., 2008); a fold-and-thrust belt involving Paleozoic and Meso-
zoic sedimentary rocks in its frontal part, and mainly Proterozoic strata
in the hinterland; and a Mesozoic–early Paleogene foreland basin system
that has been partially incorporated into the fold-and-thrust belt. In north-
western Montana an unconformity representing ~150 m.y. separates the
youngest preorogenic strata of the Mississippian Madison Group from
the oldest strata that possibly could be linked to Cordilleran orogenic evo-
lution, the Middle Jurassic Ellis Group (Fig. 2).
The Ellis Group consists of ~100–200 m of Bajocian–Oxfordian
clastic and carbonate marine deposits of the Sawtooth, Rierdon, and Swift
*E-mail: ffuentes@email.arizona.edu.
Formations (Mudge, 1972). The Ellis Group correlates with the upper part
of the Fernie Formation of southwest Alberta and southeast British Colum-
bia (Poulton et al., 1994). The overlying Morrison Formation consists of
~60–80 m of fine-grained estuarine to nonmarine strata, its upper part
usually overprinted by strong pedogenesis. Palynology of three Morrison
samples yielded Oxfordian–Kimmeridgian ages (GSA Data Repository
Table DR11), suggesting temporal continuity between the Ellis Group and
the Morrison Formation.
A regional unconformity or zone of extreme stratigraphic conden-
sation separates the Morrison from the overlying Lower Cretaceous
Kootenai Formation. In places this unconformity cuts into the lower part
of the Ellis Group along incised paleovalleys (Dolson and Piombino,
1994). The Kootenai consists of ~200–400 m of fluvial and minor lacus-
trine deposits. This and correlative units have been sparsely dated as
Barremian(?)–Aptian (DeCelles, 2004). New palynology and detrital
zircon data extend this age range into the lower Albian (Tables DR1
and DR2). The Lower Cretaceous, as well as the overlying 2500 m
succession of Albian–early Eocene age, was deposited in the foredeep
depozone of the Cordilleran foreland basin system (Suttner et al., 1981;
Gillespie and Heller, 1995; DeCelles, 2004).
DETRITAL ZIRCON U-Pb AGES
A total of 476 U-Pb ages of detrital zircon grains from five samples
of Jurassic and Early Cretaceous sandstones was obtained by laser-
ablation–multicollector inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry
at the University of Arizona LaserChron Center (analytical procedures in
Gehrels et al., 2008). Analyses that yielded isotopic data with acceptable
discordance, precision, and in-run fractionation are shown in Table DR2.
The ages are plotted on relative probability diagrams (Fig. 3); peaks on
these diagrams are considered robust if defined by three or more analyses.
In addition to provenance information, the youngest cluster of ages for
each sample gives a maximum depositional age.
1
GSA Data Repository item 2009091, Table DR1 (palynology table), Table
DR2 (geochronologic analyses), and Table DR3 (detrital modes of sandstones),
is available online at www.geosociety.org/pubs/ft2009.htm, or on request from
editing@geosociety.org or Documents Secretary, GSA, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder,
CO 80301, USA.

© 2009 The Geological Society of America. For permission to copy, contact Copyright Permissions, GSA, or editing@geosociety.org.
GEOLOGY,
Geology, April
April 2009
2009; v. 37; no. 4; p. 379–382; doi: 10.1130/G25557A.1; 4 figures; Data Repository item 2009091. 379
 120°W 115°W

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500 Km x 100 Km
A B
Cenozoic extensional Paleogene forearc and

Stratigraphy of fold-and-thrust
basin fill subduction complex

Accretioned elements
Tertiary volcanic rocks Cretaceous subduction
complex

belt and forealnd basin

Figure 1. A: General location map of Cordilleran orogenic system showing area Cretaceous intrusive rocks Insular Superterrane
of B. B: Simplified tectonic map of the fold-and-thrust belt and foreland basin
Mesozoic to lower Tertiary
of study area with accreted terranes to the west (terranes based on Dickinson,

Intermontane
foreland basin deposits Stikinia
2004; Colpron et al., 2007). Blue box indicates area of sample collection. Red Paleozoic and Mesozoic

terranes
Cache Creek
circle shows location of section used for subsidence curve in Figure 2. deformed sedimentary rocks
Middle and late Proterozoic Kootenai and
Belt and Windermere Quesnell
Early Proterozoic pre-
Belt metamorphic rocks

Sample Eb from the Sawtooth Formation produced age clusters with Simplified Terrane Regional Tectonic
a miogeoclinal signature (Gehrels and Ross, 1998). Most detrital zircons stratigraphy accretion deformation subsidence
events 80
yielded ages older than ca. 1 Ga; a few grains provided ages in the range
up to Early Eocene
Foredeep deposits

419–467 Ma, typical of upper Paleozoic–Triassic strata in the thrust belt;

St. Mary, Hall Lake,

T
two grains have Late Proterozoic ages; and one zircon yielded a syndepo- C

Moyie thrusts
100 100
CRETACEOUS

KOOTENAI FM.

sitional age of ca. 171 Ma. The range of grains older than 1 Ga suggests A
that the zircons of this sample were recycled from several intervals within

Granitic rocks emplacement

EARLY

the miogeocline, and perhaps reflects an early fold-and-thrust belt involv- 120
A Regional metamorphism

Major exhumation
Insular superterrane

120
ing Paleozoic strata in the hinterland region. However, because zircons in B

Thrusting
Sweetgrass arch uplift
the miogeocline were mainly recycled from North American basement H
V
and Grenville sources, a potential eastern contribution cannot be ruled out. 140 140
B
The single Jurassic grain supports a western source.
T
LATE

MORRISON
Samples 1GR14 from the Swift Formation and 1GRZ from the K FM.
JURASSIC

Intermontane belt

Morrison Formation provided zircons with a similar age spectrum. Most 160 O SW. ?
ELLIS GR.

160
C R.
grains are older than 1 Ga, a few provided Late Proterozoic ages, and
MIDDLE

B
S.
sample 1GRZ produced an additional cluster in the range 403–457 Ma. B
However, the key aspect of these samples is that they contain clusters of 180 A

ages in the ranges 223–329 Ma and 156–180 Ma. The Mississippian– T 0 0.5 1 Km

Triassic range is characteristic of igneous rocks of the eastern part of

the Intermontane belt (Monger et al., 1982). The lack of other sources
of zircons with those ages in the area indicates that terranes in the Inter-
montane belt were structurally elevated and supplying sediments to a
basin located hundreds of kilometers to the east. Relatively abundant
Jurassic, arc-derived grains, further substantiate a western provenance
as early as Oxfordian time.
Sample 1GR100 from the basal sandstone of the Kootenai Formation
yielded abundant grains with a miogeoclinal signature, a few Permian and
Triassic zircons, and a relative increase in zircons derived from Middle
Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous volcanic centers, a pattern that is amplified in
sample 1FG70 from the middle part of the unit. Sample 1FG70 provided
abundant ages in the range 104–238 Ma, indicating predominant sources
in the magmatic arc and Intermontane belt.
Most samples contained grains of Late Proterozoic ages, with
unknown sources in the region. A possible scenario is transport along axial
fluvial systems from the south, in the Colorado Plateau region, where zir-
cons of that age have been identified (Dickinson and Gehrels, 2008).
Figure 2. Chart showing local Middle Jurassic–Early Cretaceous
stratigraphy, main tectonic events in northwestern Montana and
southwestern Canada, and tectonic subsidence curve for northwest-
ern Montana foreland basin system. Time scale is from Palmer and
Geissman (1999) and tectonic events are from sources discussed in
text. Location of subsidence curve is in Figure 1B; paleobathymetric
uncertainty is shown in gray.
MODAL SANDSTONE PETROGRAPHY
Framework modes of 12 medium-grained sandstones from the Ellis
Group and Morrison and Kootenai Formations were determined by point-
counting ~450 grains per slide according to the Gazzi-Dickinson method.
Raw data and recalculated norms are available in Table DR3. On QmFLt
(monocrystalline quartz–feldspar–total lithic) and QtFL diagrams (Fig. 4),
the samples plot in the recycled orogen fields of Dickinson and Suczek
(1979), indicating provenance from a suture or fold-and-thrust belt. The

380 GEOLOGY, April 2009

 Jurassic–Cretaceous Miogeocline SW
n
volcanism (upper part) U.S.A
Intermontane belt
Normalized age probability

1FG70 (Kootenai Fm.) – n = 99 Miogeocline

(NA basement,
Grenville,
Appalachian)
1GR100 (Kootenai Fm.) – n = 95
1GRZ (Morrison Fm.) – n = 87

1GR14 (Swift Fm.) – n = 98

Eb (Sawtooth Fm.) – n = 97
0 100 200 300 400 500 550 550 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
Age (Ma) Age (Ma)

Figure 3. Age-probability plots of U-Pb ages of detrital zircons. Black bars indicate depositional age of samples. Shaded areas indicate main
origins of zircons (from Coney and Evenchick, 1994; Roback and Walker, 1995; Gehrels and Ross, 1998; Ross and Villeneuve, 2003; Ross
et al., 2005; Link et al., 2007). Note change in horizontal scale in plots.

lithic fraction is dominated by chert, limestone, shale, and phyllite. These Figure 4. Ternary dia- Qm Qt
data strongly implicate sediment sources in deformed (meta)sedimentary grams showing modal-
framework grain com-
rocks of the Cordilleran thrust belt. positions of sandstones.
Provenance fields after RO
SUBSIDENCE HISTORY Dick in son and Suczek RO CB
( 1 9 7 9 ) . R O — re c y c l e d CB
Middle Jurassic–Danian strata in northwestern Montana were
decompacted and backstripped according to the methods described in orogen; CB—continental
block; MA—magmatic arc. MA MA
Angevine et al. (1990) and Allen and Allen (2005). The resulting tec- Raw data are in Table DR3
tonic subsidence curve (Fig. 2) has a sigmoidal shape, as expected from (see footnote 1). Qm— F
F 50% Lm Lt L
progressive stacking of foreland basin depozones in front of a migrating monocrystalline quartz; KEY
orogenic load (DeCelles and Currie, 1996). The period 171–151 Ma, Qt—total quartz; F—feld- Kootenai
spar; L—nonquartzose Formation
during deposition of the Ellis Group and Morrison Formation, repre- lithic grains; Lm, Lv, Ls— Morrison
Formation
sents initial, moderate subsidence in the region inboard of the flexural metamorphic, volcanic, Lv Ls Ellis Group
forebulge. The multistory paleosols in the uppermost Morrison Forma- and sedimentary lithic
tion indicate a continental condensed section, which is transitional into grains.
the interval 151–127 Ma, marking a regional unconformity between
Morrison and Kootenai strata. This unconformity has been recognized
throughout the Cordilleran foreland basin, and attributed to the migration Timing of thrusting is poorly constrained in hinterland regions, but is
of a flexural forebulge (DeCelles, 2004). The Late Jurassic–Valanginian pre–middle Cretaceous in the United States–Canada border region (Price
eustatic fall (Haq et al., 1987) may have contributed to erosion and low and Sears, 2000), and perhaps as old as late Middle Jurassic (McMechan and
net sediment accumulation. From ca. 127 Ma onward, subsidence rates Thompson, 1993).
increased rapidly, a trend that is typical of foredeep deposits. The principal argument for a later Cretaceous onset of fore-
land basin development in this region is based on the assumption that
INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS foreland basin sediment is confined to a relatively thick moat of flexural
Data presented here demonstrate that a foreland basin system became subsidence directly adjacent to the thrust belt load (Gillespie and Heller,
active in northwest Montana as early as Bajocian time. Onset of subsidence 1995). Ellis Group and Morrison deposits do not thicken westward as
and lithic-rich clastic sediment accumulation ca. 170 Ma, after a hiatus expected for foredeep deposits. However, sediment derived from the
of ~150 m.y., indicates the development of a tectonically active orogenic thrust belt can be deposited on top of the flexural forebulge as well as in
belt to the west. Detrital zircon ages from Oxfordian–Kimmeridgian sand- the backbulge depozone (e.g., Horton and DeCelles, 1997; Yu and Chou,
stones of the Swift and Morrison Formations provide unequivocal proof 2001; Roddaz et al., 2005). We suggest that relatively tabular and thin
that sediment was derived from the eastern part of the Intermontane belt. Ellis and Morrison deposits in northwestern Montana were deposited in a
Ellis and Morrison sandstones suggest derivation from deformed miogeo- backbulge depozone, and that the unconformity and/or condensation zone
clinal strata to the west. that caps them was produced in part by migration of a forebulge through
Timing of terrane accretion and deformation in the hinterland is the region. The model presented here is consistent with previous interpre-
consistent with Middle to Late Jurassic foreland basin initiation in north- tations to the south that suggest the onset of foreland basin sedimentation
western Montana (Fig. 2). The Intermontane terranes accreted to North during the Jurassic, and supports synchronous development of a foreland
America during the Middle Jurassic (e.g., Coney and Evenchick, 1994; basin system from as far south as central Utah (Bjerrum and Dorsey, 1995;
Dickinson, 2004; Colpron et al., 2007; Dorsey and LaMaskin, 2007), DeCelles and Currie, 1996) to southern Canada. This is consistent with
and the Insular superterrane soon after. Regional metamorphism in the coeval growth of the western Cordillera in response to rapid westward
Omineca belt occurred between ca. 180 and 162 Ma (Archibald et al., movement of North America as heralded by Middle Jurassic seafloor
1983; Fermor and Moffat, 1993), with rapid exhumation at 165–150 Ma. spreading in the North Atlantic (Coney and Evenchick, 1994).

GEOLOGY, April 2009 381

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Funding was provided by ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, the Geological
Society of America, and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. We
thank Ylenia Almar, Erin Brenneman, and Nicole Russell for assistance during field
work. Alan Carroll, Guy Plint, Paul Heller, and Tina Niemi provided constructive
reviews that helped us to improve the paper.
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Manuscript received 2 October 2008
Revised manuscript received 25 November 2008
Manuscript accepted 2 December 2008
Printed in USA
GEOLOGY, April 2009