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R. M. Flores

Publications and source records attributed to R. M. Flores.

24 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
USGS1983

Environmental-stratigraphic cross sections of the Cretaceous Fox Hills Sandstone and Hell Creek Formation and Paleocene Fort Union Formation, Richland and Roosevelt Counties, Montana

This study was conducted to determine the stratigraphic, lithofacies, and deopsitional relationships of the Cretaceous Fox Hills Sandstone and Hell Creek Formation and The Paleocene Fort Union Formation. These relationships, shown in sections A-A', B-B', C-C', and D-D', we established form nearly continuous exposures in the Missouri River valley in Richland and Roosevelt Counties, Mont. The river valley topography is characterized by badlands, which permitted detailed description and construction of the stratigraphic framework of the formations within a 30-mi-long belt of exposures paralleling the Missouri River. This area of study is on the western flank of the Williston Basin and east of the Poplar Dome. The latter structure imparted a northeasterly regional dip to the rocks, which averages 25 ft per mi and is as much as 100 ft per mi according to Spencer (1980). The regional dip resulted in exposure of older rocks (Cretaceous) in the west to younger rocks (Tertiary) in the east.

Montana↗
USGS1981

Differentiation of delta-front and barrier lithofacies of the Upper Cretaceous Pictured Cliffs Sandstone, southwest San Juan Basin, New Mexico.

This Sandstone represents a regressive littoral marine unit deposited during the final retreat of the Cretaceous epeiric sea. Differences in rock type, internal and penecontemporaneous deformation structures, textural sequences, mineral composition and trace fossil content permit recognition of laterally contemporaneous delta-front and barrier lithofacies. The delta-front lithofacies consists of distal bar, distributary mouth bar, and distributary channel deposits. The barrier lithofacies consists of shoreface, beach, washover channel, tidal inlet, tidal channel, and ebb-tidal delta deposits; these lithofacies are coarsening-upward sequences of shale, siltstone and sandstone, locally scoured in the upper part by fining-upward channel deposits.-from Authors

Mountain Geologist↗
USGS1979

Coal depositional models in some Tertiary and Cretaceous coal fields in the U.S. Western Interior

Detailed stratigraphic and sedimentological studies of the Tertiary Tongue River Member of the Fort Union Formation in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming, and the Cretaceous Blackhawk Formation and Star Point Sandstone in the Wasatch Plateau, Utah, indicate that the depositional environments of coal played a major role in controlling coal thickness, lateral continuity, potential minability, and type of floor and roof rocks. The potentially minable, thick coal beds of the Tongue River Member were primarily formed in long-lived floodbasin backswamps of upper alluvial plain environment. Avulsion of meandering fluvial channels contributed to the erratic lateral extent of coals in this environment. Laterally extensive coals formed in floodbasin backswamps of a lower alluvial plain environment; however, interruption by overbank and crevasse-splay sedimentation produced highly split and merging coal beds. Lacustrine sedimentation common to the lower alluvial plain, similar to the lake-covered lower alluvial valley of the Atchafalaya River Basin, is related to a high-constructive delta. In contrast to these alluvial coals are the deltaic coal deposits of the Blackhawk Formation. The formation consists of three coal populations: upper delta plain, lower delta plain, and ‘back-barrier’. Coals of the lower delta plain are thick and laterally extensive, in contrast to those of the upper delta plain and ‘back-barrier’, which contain abundant, very thin and laterally discontinuous carbonaceous shale partings. The reworking of the delta-front sediments of the Star Point Sandstone suggests that the Blackhawk-Star Point delta was a high-destructive system.

Utah, Wyoming↗
USGS1979

Restored stratigraphic cross sections and coal correlations in the Tongue River member of the Fort Union Formation, Powder River area, Montana

Exposures of the lower two thirds of the Tongue River Member of the Paleocene Fort Union Formation were measured along the Powder River valley in southeastern Montana in the Moorhead and Birney-Broadus coalfields. This report documents the stratigraphic variations, lateral continuity of partly eroded coal beds along the line of section, and shows ten sections for the Tongue River Member in this study area. This report is a companion to the report by Flores and Canavello (1979). The study area represents a linear distance of 35 miles along the Powder River valley and extends from the Wyoming-Montana State line to a point 7 miles southeast of Broadus. Mont. (see index map). Within this area are relatively continuous outcrops of the middle and lower parts of the Tongue River Member.

Montana↗
USGS1978

Factors controlling heavy-mineral variations on the South Texas outer continental shelf, Gulf of Mexico

Heavy-mineral distribution on the outer continental shelf off the southern coast of Texas shows regional variability induced by provenance and local variability reflecting genetic differences in sea-floor sediments. Q-mode factor analysis showed that three suites of heavy minerals are present. The southern ancestral Rio Grande delta sediments contain a distinct opaque-pyroxene-garnet suite, whereas the northern ancestral Brazes-Colorado delta sediments contain a tourmaline-green hornblende suite. An interdelta region contains a heavy mineral suite that is mixed owing to contributions from both ancestral deltas. Analysis of variance, correlation, and regression methods indicate that heavy-mineral variations in each sedimentary province have been significantly influenced by hydraulic fractionation by size, shape, and density, and by a selective chemical decomposition of unstable minerals. These factors have operated at varying degrees on the relict, palimpsest, and modern sediment populations of the sedimentary provinces since the end of Pleistocene time. The differential effects of these processes on the sediments have resulted in local variations that contribute to the total mineralogical variability. A comparison of the heavy mineral suites of the modern and relict Rio Grande delta sediments, which are derived from a common provenance, also shows mineral variations resulting from factors other than provenance.

Texas↗