California

@article{crossref1850california,
    title = "California",
    year = "1850",
    journal = "Scientific American",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican05181850-274i",
    doi = "10.1038/scientificamerican05181850-274i",
    number = "35",
    pages = "274-274",
    volume = "5"
}

@article{barnes1960northern,
    author = "Barnes, George",
    title = "Northern California-Southern California Sections",
    year = "1960",
    journal = "American Journal of Physics",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1119/1.1935985",
    doi = "10.1119/1.1935985",
    number = "8",
    pages = "753-755",
    volume = "28"
}

@techreport{bandy1969middle1,
    author = "Bandy, O. L. and Arnal, R. E",
    title = "Middle Tertiary Basin development, San Joaquin Valley, California",
    year = "1969",
    howpublished = "Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 80, p. 783-820",
    note = "talkorigins\_source = {true}; raw\_reference = {Bandy, O. L., and Arnal, R. E., 1969, Middle Tertiary Basin development, San Joaquin Valley, California: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 80, p. 783-820.}"
}

@misc{bazeley1972san2,
    author = "Bazeley, W",
    title = "San Emidio Nose Field",
    year = "1972",
    howpublished = "American Association of Petroleum Geologists, v. 16, p. 297-312",
    note = "talkorigins\_source = {true}; raw\_reference = {Bazeley, W., 1972, San Emidio Nose Field: American Association of Petroleum Geologists, v. 16, p. 297-312.}"
}

@article{molnar1974a5,
    author = "Molnar, R. E",
    title = "A distinctive theropod dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of Baja California",
    year = "1974",
    journal = "Journal of Paleontology, v. 48, p. 1009-1017",
    note = "talkorigins\_source = {true}; raw\_reference = {Molnar, R. E., 1974, A distinctive theropod dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of Baja California: Journal of Paleontology, v. 48, p. 1009-1017.}"
}

@misc{biddle1975channel3,
    author = "Biddle, K. T. and Maher, J. C. and Carter, P. D",
    title = "Channel Turbidite Sandstones in the Elk Hills Member of the Monterey Shale, in Maher, J. C., ed., Petroleum Geology of the Naval Peeetroleum Reserve No.1, Elk Hills, Kern County, California, 912 of USGS Professional Paper",
    year = "1975",
    howpublished = "United States Geological Survey, p. 79-85",
    note = "talkorigins\_source = {true}; raw\_reference = {Biddle, K. T., Maher, J. C., and Carter, P. D., 1975, Channel Turbidite Sandstones in the Elk Hills Member of the Monterey Shale, in Maher, J. C., ed., Petroleum Geology of the Naval Peeetroleum Reserve No.1, Elk Hills, Kern County, California, 912 of USGS Professional Paper: United States Geological Survey, p. 79-85.}"
}

@techreport{miller1980potential4,
    author = "Miller, D. C",
    title = "Potential hazards from future eruptions of Mount Shasta volcano, northern California",
    year = "1980",
    howpublished = "United States Geological Survey Bulletin, v. 1503; 43 pp",
    note = "talkorigins\_source = {true}; raw\_reference = {Miller, D. C., 1980, Potential hazards from future eruptions of Mount Shasta volcano, northern California: United States Geological Survey Bulletin, v. 1503; 43 pp.}"
}

@article{crossref1984california,
    title = "California",
    year = "1984",
    journal = "Journal of Nurse-Midwifery",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1016/0091-2182(84)90032-6",
    doi = "10.1016/0091-2182(84)90032-6",
    number = "2",
    pages = "71-72",
    volume = "29"
}

@article{wrmorris1986submarine,
    author = "W. R. Morris, C. J. Busby-Spera, J.",
    title = "Submarine Canyon in a Forearc Basin, Upper Cretaceous Rosario Group, Baja California, Mexico: ABSTRACT",
    year = "1986",
    journal = "AAPG Bulletin",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1306/94885845-1704-11d7-8645000102c1865d",
    doi = "10.1306/94885845-1704-11d7-8645000102c1865d",
    openalex = "W2118411033",
    volume = "70"
}

@misc{fulford1994tectonic,
    author = "Fulford, M. M. and Busby, C. J.",
    title = "Tectonic Controls on Non‐Marine Sedimentation in a Cretaceous Fore‐Arc Basin, Baja California, Mexico",
    year = "1994",
    booktitle = "Tectonic Controls and Signatures in Sedimentary Successions",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444304053.ch17",
    doi = "10.1002/9781444304053.ch17",
    openalex = "W1498127155",
    pages = "301-333"
}

@incollection{cressy1997the,
    author = "Cressy, Frank B.",
    title = "THE UPPER CRETACEOUS TURLOCK SUBMARINE CHANNEL AND ASSOCIATED GAS ENTRAPMENT Merced County, California",
    year = "1997",
    booktitle = "Geology of The Northern San Joaquin Basin Gas Province",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.32375/1997-mp43.4",
    doi = "10.32375/1997-mp43.4",
    openalex = "W2236664605"
}

@article{ponce1999groundwater,
    author = "Ponce, V.M. and Pandey, R.P. and Kumar, S.",
    title = "Groundwater recharge by channel infiltration in El Barbon basin, Baja California, Mexico",
    year = "1999",
    journal = "Journal of Hydrology",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0022-1694(98)00220-0",
    doi = "10.1016/s0022-1694(98)00220-0",
    number = "1-4",
    openalex = "W2081909329",
    pages = "1-7",
    volume = "214",
    references = "doi101016b9780750668576x50000, doi101061asce07339429198511191227, doi101061jyceaj0005119, openalexw268217169, openalexw606996297"
}

@article{doi102113333179,
    author = "Maestas, Yvette",
    title = "LATE CRETACEOUS FORAMINIFERA, PALEOENVIRONMENTS, AND PALEOCEANOGRAPHY OF THE ROSARIO FORMATION, SAN ANTONIO DEL MAR, BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO",
    year = "2003",
    journal = "The Journal of Foraminiferal Research",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.2113/33.3.179",
    doi = "10.2113/33.3.179",
    openalex = "W2069885648",
    references = "doi1010079781489957603, doi1010160016703783902326, doi101017cbo9780511628948, doi10102993pa03266, doi10103835097000, doi1011300016760619951071164mlccot23co2, doi1011300091761319940220719bfdoia23co2, doi102113gsjfr163207, doi102973dsdpproc291171975, fulford1994tectonic, openalexw2611647714"
}

@article{doi101016jtecto200404017,
    author = "Busby, Cathy J.",
    title = "Continental growth at convergent margins facing large ocean basins: a case study from Mesozoic convergent-margin basins of Baja California, Mexico",
    year = "2004",
    journal = "Tectonophysics",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tecto.2004.04.017",
    doi = "10.1016/j.tecto.2004.04.017",
    openalex = "W2012625291",
    references = "doi1010160191814195900217, doi101029rg024i002p00217, doi101130001676061986971037doowat20co2, doi1011300016760619881001704tosb23co2, doi1011300016760620011131142ctcaaf20co2, doi1011300091761319900181173suuora23co2, doi101130spe206, fulford1994tectonic, openalexw2000029815, openalexw425049407, openalexw580680426"
}

@misc{finkelman2006california,
    author = "Finkelman, Paul",
    title = "California",
    year = "2006",
    booktitle = "African American Studies Center",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.44607",
    doi = "10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.44607"
}

@article{doi101016jmarpetgeo200701003,
    author = "Kane, Ian and Kneller, Ben and Dykstra, Mason and Kassem, Ahmed A. and McCaffrey, William D.",
    title = "Anatomy of a submarine channel–levee: An example from Upper Cretaceous slope sediments, Rosario Formation, Baja California, Mexico",
    year = "2007",
    journal = "Marine and Petroleum Geology",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2007.01.003",
    doi = "10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2007.01.003",
    openalex = "W2055957863"
}

@article{doi101130b262151,
    author = "Trop, Jeffrey M.",
    title = "Latest Cretaceous forearc basin development along an accretionary convergent margin: South-central Alaska",
    year = "2007",
    journal = "Geological Society of America Bulletin",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1130/b26215.1",
    doi = "10.1130/b26215.1",
    openalex = "W2153862890",
    references = "doi102113333179"
}

Cretaceous bryozoans from western North America are very poorly known. This paper describes twelve species of cheilostomes from the Upper Cretaceous of southern California and Baja California. The only previously described bryozoan, Ceriocava eastoni Woollacott, 1966, from the Holz Member (?Turonian–Campanian), Ladd Formation of the Santa Ana Mountains, is transferred from Cyclostomata to Cheilostomata, made the type species of the new genus Zimmerella and placed in the family Chiplonarinidae. The following new Campanian– Maastrichtian species are described from the Rosario, Point Loma, and Cabrillo formations of San Diego County, California and Le Misión, Baja California: Wilbertopora sannerae sp. nov., Onychocella schopforum sp. nov., Trichinopolia californica sp. nov., and T. lata sp. nov.

@article{doi101666070331,
    author = "Taylor, Paul D.",
    title = "Late Cretaceous Cheilostome Bryozoans from California and Baja California",
    year = "2008",
    journal = "Journal of Paleontology",
    abstract = "Cretaceous bryozoans from western North America are very poorly known. This paper describes twelve species of cheilostomes from the Upper Cretaceous of southern California and Baja California. The only previously described bryozoan, Ceriocava eastoni Woollacott, 1966, from the Holz Member (?Turonian–Campanian), Ladd Formation of the Santa Ana Mountains, is transferred from Cyclostomata to Cheilostomata, made the type species of the new genus Zimmerella and placed in the family Chiplonarinidae. The following new Campanian– Maastrichtian species are described from the Rosario, Point Loma, and Cabrillo formations of San Diego County, California and Le Misión, Baja California: Wilbertopora sannerae sp. nov., Onychocella schopforum sp. nov., Trichinopolia californica sp. nov., and T. lata sp. nov.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1666/07-033.1",
    doi = "10.1666/07-033.1",
    openalex = "W2095681392",
    references = "doi1010160195667181900331, doi102113333179"
}

@misc{crossref2009california,
    title = "California",
    year = "2009",
    booktitle = "America's Natural Places: Pacific and West",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.5040/9798400610073.0008",
    doi = "10.5040/9798400610073.0008",
    pages = "34-57"
}

@article{ethington2009global,
    author = "Ethington, Philip J.",
    title = "Global California Contra Greater California",
    year = "2009",
    journal = "California History",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.2307/40495245",
    doi = "10.2307/40495245",
    number = "1",
    pages = "53-72",
    volume = "87"
}

The distribution of Cenozoic ash-fl ow tuffs in the Great Basin and the Sierra Nevada of eastern California (United States) demonstrates that the region, commonly referred to as the Nevadaplano, was an erosional highland that was drained by major westand east-trending rivers, with a north-south paleodivide through eastern Nevada. The 28.9 Ma tuff of Campbell Creek is a voluminous (possibly as much as 3000 km 3), petrographically and compositionally distinctive ash-fl ow tuff that erupted from a caldera in north-central Nevada and spread widely through paleovalleys across northern Nevada and the Sierra Nevada. The tuff can be correlated over a modern area of at least 55,000 km 2, from the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada to the Ruby Mountains in northeastern Nevada, present-day distances of ~280 km west and 300 km northeast of its source caldera. Corrected for later extension, the tuff fl owed ~200 km to the west, downvalley and across what is now the Basin and Range-Sierra Nevada structural and topographic boundary, and ~215 km to the northeast, partly upvalley, across the inferred paleodivide, and downvalley to the east. The tuff also fl owed as much as 100 km to the north and 60 km to the south, crossing several east-west divides between major paleovalleys. The tuff of Campbell Creek fl owed through, and was deposited in, at least fi ve major paleovalleys in western Nevada and the eastern Sierra Nevada. These characteristics are unusual compared to most other ash-fl ow tuffs in Nevada that also fl owed great distances downvalley, but far less east and north-south; most tuffs were restricted to one or two major paleovalleys. Important factors in this greater distribution may be the great volume of erupted tuff and its eruption after ~3 Ma of nearly continuous, major pyroclastic eruptions near its caldera that probably fi lled in nearby topography. Distribution of the tuff of Campbell Creek and other ash-fl ow tuffs and continuity of paleovalleys demonstrates that (1) the Basin and Range-Sierra Nevada structural and topographic boundary did not exist before 23 Ma; (2) the Sierra Nevada was a lower, western ramp to the Nevadaplano; and (3) any faulting before 23 Ma in western Nevada, including in what is now the Walker Lane, and before 29 Ma in northern Nevada as far east as what is now the Ruby Mountains metamorphic core complex, was insuffi cient to disrupt the paleodrainages. These data are further evidence that major extension in Nevada occurred predominantly in the late Cenozoic. Characteristics of paleovalleys and tuff distributions suggest that the valleys resulted from prolonged erosion, probably aided by the warm, wet Eocene climate, but do not resolve the question of the absolute elevation of the Nevadaplano. Paleovalleys existed at least by ca. 50 Ma in the Sierra Nevada and by 46 Ma in northeastern Nevada, based on the age of the oldest paleovalley-fi lling sedimentary or tuff deposits. Paleovalleys were much wider (5-10 km) than they were deep (to 1.2 km; greatest in western Nevada and decreasing toward the paleo-Pacifi c Ocean) and typically had broad, fl at bottoms and low-relief interfl uves. Interfl uves in Nevada had elevations of at least 1.2 km because paleovalleys were that deep. The gradient from the caldera eastward to the inferred paleodivide had to be suffi ciently low so that the tuff could fl ow upstream more than 100 km. Two Quaternary ash-flow tuffs where topography is nearly unchanged since eruption fl owed similar distances as the mid-Cenozoic tuffs at average gradients of ~2.5-8 m/km. Extrapolated 200-300 km (pre-extension) from the Pacifi c Ocean to the central Nevada caldera belt, the lower gradient would require elevations of only 0.5 km for valley fl oors and 1.5 km for interfl uves. The great eastward, upvalley fl ow is consistent with recent stable isotope data that indicate low Oligocene topographic gradients in the Nevadaplano east of the Sierra Nevada, but the minimum elevations required for central Nevada are signifi cantly less than indicated by the same stable isotope data. Although best recognized in the northern and central Sierra Nevada, early to middle Cenozoic paleodrainages may have crossed the southern Sierra Nevada. Similar early to middle Cenozoic paleodrainages existed from central Idaho to northern Sonora, Mexico, and persisted over most of that region until disrupted by major Middle Miocene extension. Therefore, the Nevadaplano was the middle part of an erosional highland that extended along at least this length. The timing of origin and location of this more all-encompassing highland indicates that uplift was predominantly a result of Late Cretaceous (Sevier) contraction in the north and a combination of Late Cretaceous-early Cenozoic (Sevier and Laramide) contraction in the south.

@article{doi101130ges007271,
    author = "Henry, Christopher D. and Hinz, Nicholas H. and Faulds, James E. and Colgan, Joseph P. and John, David A. and Brooks, Elwood R. and Cassel, Elizabeth J. and Garside, L.J. and Davis, Douglas A. and Castor, Stephen B.",
    title = "Eocene-Early Miocene paleotopography of the Sierra Nevada-Great Basin-Nevadaplano based on widespread ash-flow tuffs and paleovalleys",
    year = "2012",
    journal = "Geosphere",
    abstract = "The distribution of Cenozoic ash-fl ow tuffs in the Great Basin and the Sierra Nevada of eastern California (United States) demonstrates that the region, commonly referred to as the Nevadaplano, was an erosional highland that was drained by major westand east-trending rivers, with a north-south paleodivide through eastern Nevada. The 28.9 Ma tuff of Campbell Creek is a voluminous (possibly as much as 3000 km 3), petrographically and compositionally distinctive ash-fl ow tuff that erupted from a caldera in north-central Nevada and spread widely through paleovalleys across northern Nevada and the Sierra Nevada. The tuff can be correlated over a modern area of at least 55,000 km 2, from the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada to the Ruby Mountains in northeastern Nevada, present-day distances of \textasciitilde 280 km west and 300 km northeast of its source caldera. Corrected for later extension, the tuff fl owed \textasciitilde 200 km to the west, downvalley and across what is now the Basin and Range-Sierra Nevada structural and topographic boundary, and \textasciitilde 215 km to the northeast, partly upvalley, across the inferred paleodivide, and downvalley to the east. The tuff also fl owed as much as 100 km to the north and 60 km to the south, crossing several east-west divides between major paleovalleys. The tuff of Campbell Creek fl owed through, and was deposited in, at least fi ve major paleovalleys in western Nevada and the eastern Sierra Nevada. These characteristics are unusual compared to most other ash-fl ow tuffs in Nevada that also fl owed great distances downvalley, but far less east and north-south; most tuffs were restricted to one or two major paleovalleys. Important factors in this greater distribution may be the great volume of erupted tuff and its eruption after \textasciitilde 3 Ma of nearly continuous, major pyroclastic eruptions near its caldera that probably fi lled in nearby topography. Distribution of the tuff of Campbell Creek and other ash-fl ow tuffs and continuity of paleovalleys demonstrates that (1) the Basin and Range-Sierra Nevada structural and topographic boundary did not exist before 23 Ma; (2) the Sierra Nevada was a lower, western ramp to the Nevadaplano; and (3) any faulting before 23 Ma in western Nevada, including in what is now the Walker Lane, and before 29 Ma in northern Nevada as far east as what is now the Ruby Mountains metamorphic core complex, was insuffi cient to disrupt the paleodrainages. These data are further evidence that major extension in Nevada occurred predominantly in the late Cenozoic. Characteristics of paleovalleys and tuff distributions suggest that the valleys resulted from prolonged erosion, probably aided by the warm, wet Eocene climate, but do not resolve the question of the absolute elevation of the Nevadaplano. Paleovalleys existed at least by ca. 50 Ma in the Sierra Nevada and by 46 Ma in northeastern Nevada, based on the age of the oldest paleovalley-fi lling sedimentary or tuff deposits. Paleovalleys were much wider (5-10 km) than they were deep (to 1.2 km; greatest in western Nevada and decreasing toward the paleo-Pacifi c Ocean) and typically had broad, fl at bottoms and low-relief interfl uves. Interfl uves in Nevada had elevations of at least 1.2 km because paleovalleys were that deep. The gradient from the caldera eastward to the inferred paleodivide had to be suffi ciently low so that the tuff could fl ow upstream more than 100 km. Two Quaternary ash-flow tuffs where topography is nearly unchanged since eruption fl owed similar distances as the mid-Cenozoic tuffs at average gradients of \textasciitilde 2.5-8 m/km. Extrapolated 200-300 km (pre-extension) from the Pacifi c Ocean to the central Nevada caldera belt, the lower gradient would require elevations of only 0.5 km for valley fl oors and 1.5 km for interfl uves. The great eastward, upvalley fl ow is consistent with recent stable isotope data that indicate low Oligocene topographic gradients in the Nevadaplano east of the Sierra Nevada, but the minimum elevations required for central Nevada are signifi cantly less than indicated by the same stable isotope data. Although best recognized in the northern and central Sierra Nevada, early to middle Cenozoic paleodrainages may have crossed the southern Sierra Nevada. Similar early to middle Cenozoic paleodrainages existed from central Idaho to northern Sonora, Mexico, and persisted over most of that region until disrupted by major Middle Miocene extension. Therefore, the Nevadaplano was the middle part of an erosional highland that extended along at least this length. The timing of origin and location of this more all-encompassing highland indicates that uplift was predominantly a result of Late Cretaceous (Sevier) contraction in the north and a combination of Late Cretaceous-early Cenozoic (Sevier and Laramide) contraction in the south.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1130/ges00727.1",
    doi = "10.1130/ges00727.1",
    openalex = "W2053777304",
    references = "doi1010160012821x77900607, doi101016016896228790025x, doi101016s0009254197001599, doi101126science1059412, doi101126science1154339, doi1011300016760619748583pstibo20co2, doi1011300016760619881001023papsol23co2, doi101130b302741, doi101130ges001221, doi1021130530027, doi102475ajs294156, doi102475ajs3012182, doi102475ajs3042105"
}

Abstract We present a compilation of 8717 U‐Pb analyses from 95 detrital zircon samples of Jurassic‐Eocene North American Cordillera foreland basin strata. Of these samples, 30 are new and previously unpublished. Variation in detrital zircon age spectra between samples records erosion or recycling of basement and cover rocks within the Cordilleran orogenic wedge. Each sample can be classified into one of six major provenance groups, whose age spectra suggest derivation from (1) Mesozoic eolianites of the western United States, (2) Paleozoic passive margin strata of the western United States, (3) Paleozoic passive margin strata of western Canada, (4) the Mogollon Highlands, (5) the Cordilleran magmatic arc, or (6) Yavapai‐Mazatzal Province crystalline basement rocks. Referencing these provenance interpretations to their location and stratigraphic deposition age produces a detailed spatial and temporal record of sediment dispersal within the foreland basin system. Late Jurassic provenance is dominated by recycling of Mesozoic eolianites from sources in the Sevier thrust belt. Cretaceous‐Eocene provenance is dominated by recycling of the passive margin, with increasing complexity upsection. We interpret that this provenance transition records a basin‐wide unroofing sequence. A composite age‐probability plot of 1539 young (<250 Ma) detrital zircons reveals at least four age‐abundance peaks that we interpret to represent periodic high‐flux magmatism in the Cordilleran arc.

@article{doi101002tect20065,
    author = "Laskowski, Andrew K. and DeCelles, Peter G. and Gehrels, George E.",
    title = "Detrital zircon geochronology of Cordilleran retroarc foreland basin strata, western North America",
    year = "2013",
    journal = "Tectonics",
    abstract = "Abstract We present a compilation of 8717 U‐Pb analyses from 95 detrital zircon samples of Jurassic‐Eocene North American Cordillera foreland basin strata. Of these samples, 30 are new and previously unpublished. Variation in detrital zircon age spectra between samples records erosion or recycling of basement and cover rocks within the Cordilleran orogenic wedge. Each sample can be classified into one of six major provenance groups, whose age spectra suggest derivation from (1) Mesozoic eolianites of the western United States, (2) Paleozoic passive margin strata of the western United States, (3) Paleozoic passive margin strata of western Canada, (4) the Mogollon Highlands, (5) the Cordilleran magmatic arc, or (6) Yavapai‐Mazatzal Province crystalline basement rocks. Referencing these provenance interpretations to their location and stratigraphic deposition age produces a detailed spatial and temporal record of sediment dispersal within the foreland basin system. Late Jurassic provenance is dominated by recycling of Mesozoic eolianites from sources in the Sevier thrust belt. Cretaceous‐Eocene provenance is dominated by recycling of the passive margin, with increasing complexity upsection. We interpret that this provenance transition records a basin‐wide unroofing sequence. A composite age‐probability plot of 1539 young (<250 Ma) detrital zircons reveals at least four age‐abundance peaks that we interpret to represent periodic high‐flux magmatism in the Cordilleran arc.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1002/tect.20065",
    doi = "10.1002/tect.20065",
    openalex = "W1558259929",
    references = "doi1010160012821x75900886, doi101016jepsl200909013, doi101016jsedgeo200401009, doi101016s009282408790019x, doi1010292007gc001805, doi101038270403a0, doi101038ngeo469, doi10113000167606, doi101146annurevea16050188002551, doi102475ajs3042105"
}

@article{cloudhughes2014california,
    author = "Cloud-Hughes, Michelle A. and Baker, Marc A.",
    title = "California",
    year = "2014",
    journal = "Madroño",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.3120/0024-9637-61.4.414",
    doi = "10.3120/0024-9637-61.4.414",
    number = "4",
    pages = "414-415",
    volume = "61"
}

ABSTRACT The Triassic Yanchang Formation contains the main oil-bearing strata in the Ordos Basin, central China. But the sedimentology of the Upper Triassic is still under debate, and flood-generated, hyperpycnal-flow deposits and their implications for unconventional petroleum development have long been overlooked. Our study indicates that hyperpycnites are well developed in the seventh oil member of the Yanchang Formation. They are characterized by couplets of upward-coarsening intervals and upward-fining intervals, separated by microscale erosion surfaces. The origination of hyperpycnal flows was controlled mainly by episodic tectonic movements and the humid climate. The deposits extend from distributary estuaries into the deep lake, have intercalations of dark shales and tuffs, and coexist with debrites and turbidites as a result of the progradation of subaqueous fans. The hyperpycnites have implications for unconventional petroleum reservoirs, because the flows supplied not only large amounts of coarse grains and organic material to the deep-water, fine-grained central lake sediments but also affected the ecosystems, resulting in a higher total organic carbon content in the sediments.

@article{doi10130606101615095,
    author = "Yang, Renchao and Jin, Zhijun and van Loon, A.J. and Han, Zuozhen and Fan, Aiping",
    title = "Climatic and tectonic controls of lacustrine hyperpycnite origination in the Late Triassic Ordos Basin, central China: Implications for unconventional petroleum development",
    year = "2016",
    journal = "AAPG Bulletin",
    abstract = "ABSTRACT The Triassic Yanchang Formation contains the main oil-bearing strata in the Ordos Basin, central China. But the sedimentology of the Upper Triassic is still under debate, and flood-generated, hyperpycnal-flow deposits and their implications for unconventional petroleum development have long been overlooked. Our study indicates that hyperpycnites are well developed in the seventh oil member of the Yanchang Formation. They are characterized by couplets of upward-coarsening intervals and upward-fining intervals, separated by microscale erosion surfaces. The origination of hyperpycnal flows was controlled mainly by episodic tectonic movements and the humid climate. The deposits extend from distributary estuaries into the deep lake, have intercalations of dark shales and tuffs, and coexist with debrites and turbidites as a result of the progradation of subaqueous fans. The hyperpycnites have implications for unconventional petroleum reservoirs, because the flows supplied not only large amounts of coarse grains and organic material to the deep-water, fine-grained central lake sediments but also affected the ecosystems, resulting in a higher total organic carbon content in the sediments.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1306/06101615095",
    doi = "10.1306/06101615095",
    openalex = "W2518131847",
    references = "doi101016jmarpetgeo200902012, doi101111j13653091201201353x, doi101130g348701"
}

@article{doi101016jearscirev201703002,
    author = "Fitz‐Díaz, Elisa and Lawton, Timothy F. and Juárez-Arriaga, Edgar and Chávez‐Cabello, Gabriel",
    title = "The Cretaceous-Paleogene Mexican orogen: Structure, basin development, magmatism and tectonics",
    year = "2017",
    journal = "Earth-Science Reviews",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2017.03.002",
    doi = "10.1016/j.earscirev.2017.03.002",
    openalex = "W2591683469",
    references = "doi101016jtecto200404017, doi1010291999jb900248, doi101038ngeo469, doi101046j13652117199601491x, doi101111j1365246x1981tb02715x, doi101130001676061978891189motfb20co2, doi1011300091761319821070taatoo20co2, doi101139e83094, doi101144sp3281, doi1018268bsgm2001v54n1a4, doi102475ajs3042105, doi1035767gscpgbull183332, doi105860choice320317, posamentier2011deepwater"
}

@article{doi101016jjsames201810005,
    author = "López‐Conde, Oliver A. and Sterli, Juliana and Chavarría‐Arellano, María L. and Brinkman, Donald B. and Montellano-Ballesteros, Marisol",
    title = "Turtles from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) of El Gallo Formation, Baja California, Mexico",
    year = "2018",
    journal = "Journal of South American Earth Sciences",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsames.2018.10.005",
    doi = "10.1016/j.jsames.2018.10.005",
    openalex = "W2897790744",
    references = "doi1010160031018286901331, doi101016jtecto200404017, doi101139e02080, doi1016660022336020040780989dapftc20co2, doi10166609077r1, doi10166614002, doi103090610262296200073181198, doi1033740140580105, doi105962bhltitle12500, fulford1994tectonic, openalexw3208547338"
}

Abstract The Miocene Gorgoglione Flysch Formation records the stratigraphic product of protracted sediment transfer and deposition through a long‐lived submarine channel system developed in a narrow and elongate thrust‐top basin of the Southern Apennines (Italy). Channel‐fill deposits are exposed in an outcrop belt approximately 500 m thick and 15 km long, oriented oblique to the palaeoflow, which was roughly south‐eastward. These exceptional exposures of channel‐fill strata allow the stacking architectures and the evolution of the channel system to be analyzed at multiple scales, enabling the effects of syn‐sedimentary thrust tectonics and basin confinement on the depositional system development to be deciphered. Two end‐member types of elementary channel architecture have been identified: high‐aspect‐ratio, weakly‐confined channels, and low‐aspect‐ratio, incisional channels. Their systematic stacking results in a complex pattern of seismic‐scale depositional architectures that determines the stratigraphic framework of the deep‐water system. From the base of the succession, two prominent channel complex sets have been recognized, namely CS 1 and CS 2, consisting of amalgamated incisional channel elements and weakly‐confined channel elements. These channelized units are overlain by isolated incisional channels, erosional into mud‐prone slope deposits. The juxtaposition of different channel architectures is interpreted to have been governed by regional thrust‐tectonics, in combination with a high subsidence rate that promoted significant aggradation. In this scenario, the alternating ‘in sequence’ and ‘out of sequence’ tectonic pulses of the basin‐bounding thrusts controlled the activation of coarse‐clastic inputs in the basin and the resulting stacking architectures of channelized units. The tectonically‐driven confinement of the depositional system limited the lateral offset in channel stacking, preventing large‐scale avulsions. This study represents an excellent opportunity to analyze the stratigraphic evolution of a submarine channel system in tectonically‐active settings from an outcrop perspective. It should find wide applicability in analogous depositional systems, whose stratigraphic architecture has been influenced by tectonically‐controlled lateral confinement and associated lateral tilting.

@article{doi101111sed12490,
    author = "Casciano, Claudio Ivan and Patacci, Marco and Longhitano, Sergio G. and Tropeano, Marcello and McCaffrey, William D. and Celma, Claudio Di",
    title = "Multi‐scale analysis of a migrating submarine channel system in a tectonically‐confined basin: The Miocene Gorgoglione Flysch Formation, southern Italy",
    year = "2018",
    journal = "Sedimentology",
    abstract = "Abstract The Miocene Gorgoglione Flysch Formation records the stratigraphic product of protracted sediment transfer and deposition through a long‐lived submarine channel system developed in a narrow and elongate thrust‐top basin of the Southern Apennines (Italy). Channel‐fill deposits are exposed in an outcrop belt approximately 500 m thick and 15 km long, oriented oblique to the palaeoflow, which was roughly south‐eastward. These exceptional exposures of channel‐fill strata allow the stacking architectures and the evolution of the channel system to be analyzed at multiple scales, enabling the effects of syn‐sedimentary thrust tectonics and basin confinement on the depositional system development to be deciphered. Two end‐member types of elementary channel architecture have been identified: high‐aspect‐ratio, weakly‐confined channels, and low‐aspect‐ratio, incisional channels. Their systematic stacking results in a complex pattern of seismic‐scale depositional architectures that determines the stratigraphic framework of the deep‐water system. From the base of the succession, two prominent channel complex sets have been recognized, namely CS 1 and CS 2, consisting of amalgamated incisional channel elements and weakly‐confined channel elements. These channelized units are overlain by isolated incisional channels, erosional into mud‐prone slope deposits. The juxtaposition of different channel architectures is interpreted to have been governed by regional thrust‐tectonics, in combination with a high subsidence rate that promoted significant aggradation. In this scenario, the alternating ‘in sequence’ and ‘out of sequence’ tectonic pulses of the basin‐bounding thrusts controlled the activation of coarse‐clastic inputs in the basin and the resulting stacking architectures of channelized units. The tectonically‐driven confinement of the depositional system limited the lateral offset in channel stacking, preventing large‐scale avulsions. This study represents an excellent opportunity to analyze the stratigraphic evolution of a submarine channel system in tectonically‐active settings from an outcrop perspective. It should find wide applicability in analogous depositional systems, whose stratigraphic architecture has been influenced by tectonically‐controlled lateral confinement and associated lateral tilting.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1111/sed.12490",
    doi = "10.1111/sed.12490",
    openalex = "W2797713830",
    references = "doi10100797894009324181, doi101016jmarpetgeo200608001, doi101016s0040195198001899, doi101046j13652117199601491x, doi101111j136530911963tb01204x, doi101111j13653091201201353x, doi101306111302730367, doi101306212f7f312b2411d78648000102c1865d, doi1013062dc4091c0e4711d78643000102c1865d, li2018architectural, openalexw1570283708"
}

@article{li2018architectural,
    author = "Li, Pan and Kneller, Ben and Thompson, Philip and Bozetti, Guilherme and dos Santos, Thisiane",
    title = "Architectural and facies organisation of slope channel fills: Upper Cretaceous Rosario Formation, Baja California, Mexico",
    year = "2018",
    journal = "Marine and Petroleum Geology",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2017.11.026",
    doi = "10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2017.11.026",
    openalex = "W2768992118",
    pages = "632-649",
    volume = "92",
    references = "doi1010160037073889900997, doi101016jmarpetgeo200301004, doi101016jmarpetgeo200308003, doi101016jmarpetgeo200608001, doi101016jmarpetgeo200902012, doi101016s0264817202000090, doi101046j136530912000047s1062x, doi101306111302730367, doi101306212f7f312b2411d78648000102c1865d, doi1013062dc4091c0e4711d78643000102c1865d, openalexw1570283708"
}

Abstract Overbank deposits of submarine channels are typically thin‐bedded, fine‐grained and predominantly characterized by a series of sedimentary structures interpreted to record a relatively simple history of waning flow. Here, a new type of bedform indicative of Froude‐supercritical flow is reported from successions of thin‐bedded turbidites interpreted as channel overbank deposits in the Upper Cretaceous Rosario Formation, Baja California, Mexico. A link is demonstrated between the development of overbank deposits in the form of depositional terraces or internal levees and contemporaneously active sediment transport, bypass and deposition of coarser‐grained material in a channel. The overbank bedforms overlie an erosion surface and contain a suite of sedimentary structures indicative of initially Froude‐supercritical flow conditions and a progressive waning of flow strength. In some cases, a stacked repetition of facies is interpreted to record a rejuvenation of flow energy. The characteristic sedimentary sequence observed is as follows: (a) long wavelength, low amplitude erosional surface with superimposed scours; (b) antidune backsets; (c) upper stage plane‐parallel lamination; (d) subcritical climbing ripples; (e) supercritical climbing ripples; (f) lower stage planar laminated tops; (g) a sharp upper surface. The exact vertical sequence of sedimentary structures encountered varies depending on the point of observation with respect to the bedform crest and distance from the parent channel. The recognition of these distinctive bedforms allows for interpretation of sediment bypass and proximity to a channel thalweg. These bedforms have not hitherto been described and provide a further example of the range of flow processes operating in submarine channel–levee systems, which aids depositional environment interpretation in both subsurface and outcrop studies.

@article{doi101002dep278,
    author = "McArthur, Adam D. and Kane, Ian and Bozetti, Guilherme and Hansen, Larissa and Kneller, Ben",
    title = "Supercritical flows overspilling from bypass‐dominated submarine channels and the development of overbank bedforms",
    year = "2019",
    journal = "The Depositional Record",
    abstract = "Abstract Overbank deposits of submarine channels are typically thin‐bedded, fine‐grained and predominantly characterized by a series of sedimentary structures interpreted to record a relatively simple history of waning flow. Here, a new type of bedform indicative of Froude‐supercritical flow is reported from successions of thin‐bedded turbidites interpreted as channel overbank deposits in the Upper Cretaceous Rosario Formation, Baja California, Mexico. A link is demonstrated between the development of overbank deposits in the form of depositional terraces or internal levees and contemporaneously active sediment transport, bypass and deposition of coarser‐grained material in a channel. The overbank bedforms overlie an erosion surface and contain a suite of sedimentary structures indicative of initially Froude‐supercritical flow conditions and a progressive waning of flow strength. In some cases, a stacked repetition of facies is interpreted to record a rejuvenation of flow energy. The characteristic sedimentary sequence observed is as follows: (a) long wavelength, low amplitude erosional surface with superimposed scours; (b) antidune backsets; (c) upper stage plane‐parallel lamination; (d) subcritical climbing ripples; (e) supercritical climbing ripples; (f) lower stage planar laminated tops; (g) a sharp upper surface. The exact vertical sequence of sedimentary structures encountered varies depending on the point of observation with respect to the bedform crest and distance from the parent channel. The recognition of these distinctive bedforms allows for interpretation of sediment bypass and proximity to a channel thalweg. These bedforms have not hitherto been described and provide a further example of the range of flow processes operating in submarine channel–levee systems, which aids depositional environment interpretation in both subsurface and outcrop studies.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1002/dep2.78",
    doi = "10.1002/dep2.78",
    openalex = "W2949212110",
    references = "doi101016003707388890005x, doi101046j136530912000047s1062x, doi101111j136530911975tb00290x, doi101111j136530911983tb00702x, doi101111j136530911988tb01250x, doi101111j136530911995tb00395x, doi101144gslsp19950940104, doi101306212f7f312b2411d78648000102c1865d, doi1013062dc4091c0e4711d78643000102c1865d, doi101306c1ea4f7716c911d78645000102c1865d, doi102110jsr20201, li2018architectural"
}

Abstract Submarine channel systems convey terrestrially derived detritus from shallow-marine environments to some of the largest sediment accumulations on Earth, submarine fans. The stratigraphic record of submarine slope channels includes heterogeneous, composite deposits that provide evidence for erosion, sediment bypass, and deposition. However, the timing and duration of these processes is poorly constrained over geologic time scales. We integrate geochronology with detailed stratigraphic characterization to temporally constrain the stratigraphic evolution recorded by horizontally to vertically aligned channel-fill stacking patterns in a Nanaimo Group channel system exposed on Hornby and Denman Islands, British Columbia, Canada. Twelve detrital zircon samples (n = 300/sample) were used to calculate maximum depositional ages, which identified a new age range for the succession from ca. 79 to 63 Ma. We document five phases of submarine-channel evolution over 16.0 ± 1.7 m.y. including: an initial phase dominated by incision, sediment bypass, and limited deposition (phase 1); followed by increasingly shorter and more rapid phases of deposition on the slope by laterally migrating (phase 2) and aggrading channels (phase 3); a long period of deep incision (phase 4); and a final rapid phase of vertical channel aggradation (phase 5). Our results suggest that ∼60% of the evolutionary history of the submarine channel system is captured in an incomplete, poorly preserved record of incision and sediment bypass, which makes up &lt;20% of outcropping stratigraphy. Our findings are applicable to interpreting submarine channel-system evolution in ancient and modern settings worldwide and fundamentally important to understanding long-term sediment dispersal in the deep sea.

@article{doi101130ges020911,
    author = "Englert, Rebecca G. and Hubbard, Stephen M. and Matthews, W. A. and Coutts, Daniel S. and Covault, Jacob A.",
    title = "The evolution of submarine slope-channel systems: Timing of incision, bypass, and aggradation in Late Cretaceous Nanaimo Group channel-system strata, British Columbia, Canada",
    year = "2019",
    journal = "Geosphere",
    abstract = "Abstract Submarine channel systems convey terrestrially derived detritus from shallow-marine environments to some of the largest sediment accumulations on Earth, submarine fans. The stratigraphic record of submarine slope channels includes heterogeneous, composite deposits that provide evidence for erosion, sediment bypass, and deposition. However, the timing and duration of these processes is poorly constrained over geologic time scales. We integrate geochronology with detailed stratigraphic characterization to temporally constrain the stratigraphic evolution recorded by horizontally to vertically aligned channel-fill stacking patterns in a Nanaimo Group channel system exposed on Hornby and Denman Islands, British Columbia, Canada. Twelve detrital zircon samples (n = 300/sample) were used to calculate maximum depositional ages, which identified a new age range for the succession from ca. 79 to 63 Ma. We document five phases of submarine-channel evolution over 16.0 ± 1.7 m.y. including: an initial phase dominated by incision, sediment bypass, and limited deposition (phase 1); followed by increasingly shorter and more rapid phases of deposition on the slope by laterally migrating (phase 2) and aggrading channels (phase 3); a long period of deep incision (phase 4); and a final rapid phase of vertical channel aggradation (phase 5). Our results suggest that ∼60\% of the evolutionary history of the submarine channel system is captured in an incomplete, poorly preserved record of incision and sediment bypass, which makes up \<20\% of outcropping stratigraphy. Our findings are applicable to interpreting submarine channel-system evolution in ancient and modern settings worldwide and fundamentally important to understanding long-term sediment dispersal in the deep sea.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1130/ges02091.1",
    doi = "10.1130/ges02091.1",
    openalex = "W2996728890",
    references = "doi10100797894009324181, doi101016jenvpol201308013, doi101016jepsl200909013, doi101016jgsf201811002, doi101016jmarpetgeo200301004, doi101016jmarpetgeo200608001, doi101130g329451, doi101130gsab28745, doi101306111302730367, doi103389feart201900080"
}

Abstract The Late Campanian (Late Cretaceous), upper part of the El Disecado Member, El Gallo Formation, Baja California, México, preserves a rich fossil assemblage of microvertebrates and macrovertebrates, silicified logs, macroscopic plant remains, and pollen that was likely deposited as the distal part of a subaerial fan. The unit was episodic and high energy, with its salient features deriving from active river channels and sheet, debris-flow deposits. Landscape stability is indicated by the presence of compound paleosol horizons, containing Fe2O3 mottling in B horizons, cutans, and calcium carbonate concretions. All of these features indicate wet/dry cyclicity in subsurface horizons, likely attributable to such cyclicity in the climate. Drainage was largely to the north and to a lesser extent, the west; however, some current flow to the south and east is preserved which, in conjunction with the proximal location of marginal marine deposits, suggest the influence of tides in this setting. The fossil vertebrates preserved in this part of the El Disecado Member are almost exclusively allochthonous, preserved as disarticulated isolated clasts in hydraulic equivalence in the braided fluvial system. A relatively diverse microvertebrate assemblage is preserved, the largest components of which are first, dinosaurs, and second, turtles. Non-tetrapod fossils are relatively uncommon, perhaps reflecting an absence of permanent standing water in this depositional setting. Here we report a high-precision U-Pb date of 74.706 + 0.028 Ma (2σ internal uncertainty), obtained from zircons in an airfall tuff. The tuff is located low within the sequence studied; therefore, most of the sedimentology and fossils reported here are slightly younger. This date, which improves upon previously published 40Ar/39Ar geochronology, ultimately allows for comparison of these El Gallo faunas and environments with coeval ones globally. Primary stable isotopic nodules associated with roots in the paleosols of the terrestrial portion of the El Disecado Member are compared with ratios from similar sources from coeval northern and eastern localities in North America. Distinctive latitudinal gradients are observed in both δ13C and δ18O, reflecting the unique southern and western, coastal geographic position of this locality. These differences are best explained by differences in the floras that populated the northern and eastern localities, relative to the southern and western floras reported here.

@article{doi101130ges022071,
    author = "Fastovsky, David E. and Montellano-Ballesteros, Marisol and Fricke, Henry and Ramezani, Jahandar and Tsukui, Kaori and Wilson, Gregory P. and Hall, P. S. and Hernández-Rivera, René and Alvarez, G. Mora",
    title = "Paleoenvironments, taphonomy, and stable isotopic content of the terrestrial, fossil-vertebrate–bearing sequence of the El Disecado Member, El Gallo Formation, Upper Cretaceous, Baja California, México",
    year = "2020",
    journal = "Geosphere",
    abstract = "Abstract The Late Campanian (Late Cretaceous), upper part of the El Disecado Member, El Gallo Formation, Baja California, México, preserves a rich fossil assemblage of microvertebrates and macrovertebrates, silicified logs, macroscopic plant remains, and pollen that was likely deposited as the distal part of a subaerial fan. The unit was episodic and high energy, with its salient features deriving from active river channels and sheet, debris-flow deposits. Landscape stability is indicated by the presence of compound paleosol horizons, containing Fe2O3 mottling in B horizons, cutans, and calcium carbonate concretions. All of these features indicate wet/dry cyclicity in subsurface horizons, likely attributable to such cyclicity in the climate. Drainage was largely to the north and to a lesser extent, the west; however, some current flow to the south and east is preserved which, in conjunction with the proximal location of marginal marine deposits, suggest the influence of tides in this setting. The fossil vertebrates preserved in this part of the El Disecado Member are almost exclusively allochthonous, preserved as disarticulated isolated clasts in hydraulic equivalence in the braided fluvial system. A relatively diverse microvertebrate assemblage is preserved, the largest components of which are first, dinosaurs, and second, turtles. Non-tetrapod fossils are relatively uncommon, perhaps reflecting an absence of permanent standing water in this depositional setting. Here we report a high-precision U-Pb date of 74.706 + 0.028 Ma (2σ internal uncertainty), obtained from zircons in an airfall tuff. The tuff is located low within the sequence studied; therefore, most of the sedimentology and fossils reported here are slightly younger. This date, which improves upon previously published 40Ar/39Ar geochronology, ultimately allows for comparison of these El Gallo faunas and environments with coeval ones globally. Primary stable isotopic nodules associated with roots in the paleosols of the terrestrial portion of the El Disecado Member are compared with ratios from similar sources from coeval northern and eastern localities in North America. Distinctive latitudinal gradients are observed in both δ13C and δ18O, reflecting the unique southern and western, coastal geographic position of this locality. These differences are best explained by differences in the floras that populated the northern and eastern localities, relative to the southern and western floras reported here.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1130/ges02207.1",
    doi = "10.1130/ges02207.1",
    openalex = "W3039296243",
    references = "doi101016jjsames201810005"
}

ABSTRACT Arroyo San Fernando, on the Pacific coast of Baja California, Mexico, provides a superb view of the architecture of a Maastrichtian active margin slope channel system and the record of its evolution through a third-order sea-level cycle. The succession is organized into architectural building blocks (channel-complex sets) consisting of a channel belt with an axial region and a channel-belt margin of terraces and internal levees. The channel belt is confined by an external levee on one side and by an erosion surface into the slope on the other. Each channel-complex set can be subdivided into three stages of evolution: Stage I consists of highly amalgamated coarse-grained channel complexes, Stage II consists of gravelly meander belts with marginal and stratigraphically intervening thin-bedded turbidites, and Stage III consists of mudstones representing abandonment. This succession is associated with repeated and therefore predictable changes in architecture, facies distribution, inferred seafloor morphology, and sedimentary process. We describe variability in the sedimentology, ichnology, palynology, provenance, and inferred sedimentary processes between and within these architectural elements. Channel formation and fill are attributed to erosion, sediment transport, and deposition by turbidity currents and lesser debris flows. Ichnology indicates enhanced oxygenation and supply of organic material, substrate type, and turbidity within the channel belt; the axial region can be differentiated from the terraces by differing response to turbidity-current intensity. Levee environments show ichnological gradients away from the channel towards background slope. Palynology reflects confinement of the supply of terrigenous material to the channel belt, but is also indicative of stratification within the turbidity-currents, as is the distribution of heavy minerals. Provenance is from the extinct part of the continental-margin arc to the east, via high-gradient gravelly streams and across a steep shoreline, with direct supply of coastal material to deep water. Architectural hierarchy bears comparison with other slope channel systems, but in common with them the fill represents only a small fraction of the time that the system was active.

@article{doi102110jsr20201,
    author = "Kneller, Ben and Bozetti, Guilherme and Callow, Richard H. T. and Dykstra, Mason and Hansen, Larissa and Kane, Ian and Li, Pan and McArthur, Adam D. and Catharina, Amanda Santa and Santos, Thisiane Dos and Thompson, Philip",
    title = "Architecture, process, and environmental diversity in a late Cretaceous slope channel system",
    year = "2020",
    journal = "Journal of Sedimentary Research",
    abstract = "ABSTRACT Arroyo San Fernando, on the Pacific coast of Baja California, Mexico, provides a superb view of the architecture of a Maastrichtian active margin slope channel system and the record of its evolution through a third-order sea-level cycle. The succession is organized into architectural building blocks (channel-complex sets) consisting of a channel belt with an axial region and a channel-belt margin of terraces and internal levees. The channel belt is confined by an external levee on one side and by an erosion surface into the slope on the other. Each channel-complex set can be subdivided into three stages of evolution: Stage I consists of highly amalgamated coarse-grained channel complexes, Stage II consists of gravelly meander belts with marginal and stratigraphically intervening thin-bedded turbidites, and Stage III consists of mudstones representing abandonment. This succession is associated with repeated and therefore predictable changes in architecture, facies distribution, inferred seafloor morphology, and sedimentary process. We describe variability in the sedimentology, ichnology, palynology, provenance, and inferred sedimentary processes between and within these architectural elements. Channel formation and fill are attributed to erosion, sediment transport, and deposition by turbidity currents and lesser debris flows. Ichnology indicates enhanced oxygenation and supply of organic material, substrate type, and turbidity within the channel belt; the axial region can be differentiated from the terraces by differing response to turbidity-current intensity. Levee environments show ichnological gradients away from the channel towards background slope. Palynology reflects confinement of the supply of terrigenous material to the channel belt, but is also indicative of stratification within the turbidity-currents, as is the distribution of heavy minerals. Provenance is from the extinct part of the continental-margin arc to the east, via high-gradient gravelly streams and across a steep shoreline, with direct supply of coastal material to deep water. Architectural hierarchy bears comparison with other slope channel systems, but in common with them the fill represents only a small fraction of the time that the system was active.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.2110/jsr.2020.1",
    doi = "10.2110/jsr.2020.1",
    openalex = "W3000026099",
    references = "doi101002dep278, doi101007978940172809615, doi1010160012825277900551, doi101016jmarpetgeo200301004, doi101016jmarpetgeo200608001, doi101016jmarpetgeo201202001, doi101016s0025322702005479, doi101046j136530912000047s1062x, doi101061asce0733942919911174414, doi101111j136530911977tb00136x, doi1013062dc4091c0e4711d78643000102c1865d, doi102110scn8403, li2018architectural"
}

@article{cevallosferriz2021cretaceous,
    author = "Cevallos-Ferriz, Sergio R.S. and Catharina, Amanda Santa and Kneller, Ben",
    title = "Cretaceous Lauraceae wood from El Rosario, Baja California, Mexico",
    year = "2021",
    journal = "Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.revpalbo.2021.104478",
    doi = "10.1016/j.revpalbo.2021.104478",
    openalex = "W3173257489",
    pages = "104478",
    volume = "292",
    references = "doi1010079783662045787, doi101016jepsl201103008, doi101016jmarpetgeo200701003, doi101016s0034666700000063, doi101086337838, doi101130mem140, doi101306st561240, doi102110jsr20201, doi1023071222750, doi105281zenodo16000084, doi105962bhltitle36034"
}

Abstract Accurate reconstruction of the Late Cretaceous paleogeography and tectonic evolution of the western North American Cordilleran margin is required to resolve the long-standing debate over proposed large-scale, orogen-parallel terrane translation. The Nanaimo Basin (British Columbia, Canada) contains a high-fidelity record of orogenic exhumation and basin subsidence in the southwestern Canadian Cordillera that constrains the tectonic evolution of the region. Integration of detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology, conglomerate clast U-Pb geochronology, detrital muscovite 40Ar/39Ar thermochronology, and Lu-Hf isotopic analysis of detrital zircon defines a multidisciplinary provenance signature that provides a definitive linkage with sediment source regions north of the Sierra Nevada arc system (western United States). Analysis of spatial and temporal provenance variations within Nanaimo Group strata documents a bimodal sediment supply with a local source derived from the adjacent magmatic arc in the southern Coast Mountains batholith and an extra-regional source from the Mesoproterozoic Belt Supergroup and the Late Cretaceous Atlanta lobe of the Idaho batholith. Particularly robust linkages include: (1) juvenile (εHf &gt;+10) Late Cretaceous zircon derived from the southern Coast Mountains batholith; (2) a bimodal Proterozoic detrital zircon signature consistent with derivation from Belt Supergroup (1700–1720 Ma) and ca. 1380 Ma plutonic rocks intruding the Lemhi subbasin of central Idaho (northwestern United States); (3) quartzite clasts that are statistical matches for Mesoproterozoic and Cambrian strata in Montana and Idaho (northwestern United States) and southern British Columbia; and (4) syndepositional evolved (εHf &gt;−10) Late Cretaceous zircon and muscovite derived from the Atlanta lobe of the Idaho batholith. These provenance constraints support a tectonic restoration of the Nanaimo Basin, the southern Coast Mountains batholith, and Wrangellia to a position outboard of the Idaho batholith in Late Cretaceous time, consistent with proposed minimal- fault- offset models (&lt;~1000 km).

@article{doi101130ges023941,
    author = "Mahoney, J. Brian and Haggart, James W. and Grove, Marty and Kimbrough, David L. and Isava, Virginia and Link, Paul K. and Pecha, Mark and Fanning, C. Mark",
    title = "Evolution of the Late Cretaceous Nanaimo Basin, British Columbia, Canada: Definitive provenance links to northern latitudes",
    year = "2021",
    journal = "Geosphere",
    abstract = "Abstract Accurate reconstruction of the Late Cretaceous paleogeography and tectonic evolution of the western North American Cordilleran margin is required to resolve the long-standing debate over proposed large-scale, orogen-parallel terrane translation. The Nanaimo Basin (British Columbia, Canada) contains a high-fidelity record of orogenic exhumation and basin subsidence in the southwestern Canadian Cordillera that constrains the tectonic evolution of the region. Integration of detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology, conglomerate clast U-Pb geochronology, detrital muscovite 40Ar/39Ar thermochronology, and Lu-Hf isotopic analysis of detrital zircon defines a multidisciplinary provenance signature that provides a definitive linkage with sediment source regions north of the Sierra Nevada arc system (western United States). Analysis of spatial and temporal provenance variations within Nanaimo Group strata documents a bimodal sediment supply with a local source derived from the adjacent magmatic arc in the southern Coast Mountains batholith and an extra-regional source from the Mesoproterozoic Belt Supergroup and the Late Cretaceous Atlanta lobe of the Idaho batholith. Particularly robust linkages include: (1) juvenile (εHf \>+10) Late Cretaceous zircon derived from the southern Coast Mountains batholith; (2) a bimodal Proterozoic detrital zircon signature consistent with derivation from Belt Supergroup (1700–1720 Ma) and ca. 1380 Ma plutonic rocks intruding the Lemhi subbasin of central Idaho (northwestern United States); (3) quartzite clasts that are statistical matches for Mesoproterozoic and Cambrian strata in Montana and Idaho (northwestern United States) and southern British Columbia; and (4) syndepositional evolved (εHf \>−10) Late Cretaceous zircon and muscovite derived from the Atlanta lobe of the Idaho batholith. These provenance constraints support a tectonic restoration of the Nanaimo Basin, the southern Coast Mountains batholith, and Wrangellia to a position outboard of the Idaho batholith in Late Cretaceous time, consistent with proposed minimal- fault- offset models (\<\textasciitilde 1000 km).",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1130/ges02394.1",
    doi = "10.1130/ges02394.1",
    openalex = "W3214681110",
    references = "doi101016jepsl200909013, doi101038288329a0, doi1011300091761319821070taatoo20co2, doi101130ges020911, doi101130l11381, doi101130spe206, doi101146annurevearth050212124012, doi101146annurevearth32101802120257, doi101146annurevearth34031405125202, doi101306c1ea55ad16c911d78645000102c1865d, doi1021130530277, doi102475ajs3042105"
}

Abstract Emplacement of submarine landslides, or mass‐transport deposits, can radically reshape the physiography of continental margins, and strongly influence subsequent sedimentary processes and dispersal patterns. Typically, progressive healing of the complicated relief generated by the submarine landslide occurs prior to progradation of sedimentary systems. However, subsurface and seabed examples show that submarine channels can incise directly into submarine landslides. Here, the evolution of a unique exhumed example of two adjacent, and partially contemporaneous, submarine channel‐fills is documented. The channels show deep incision (>75 m), and steep lateral margins (up to 70°), cut into a >200 m thick submarine landslide. The stepped basal erosion surface, and multiple terrace surfaces, are mantled by clasts (gravels to cobbles) reflecting periods of bedload‐derived sedimentation, punctuated by phases of downcutting and sediment bypass. The formation of multiple terrace surfaces in a low aspect ratio confinement is consistent with the episodic migration of knickpoints during entrenchment on the dip slope of the underlying submarine landslide. Overlying sandstone‐rich channel‐fills mark a change to aggradation. Laterally stacked channel bodies coincide with steps in the original large‐scale erosion surface, recording widening of the conduit; this is followed by tabular, highly aggradational fill. The upper fill, above a younger erosional surface, shows an abrupt change to partially confined tabular sandstones with normally graded caps, interpreted as lobe fringe deposits, which formed due to down‐dip confinement, followed by prograding lobe deposits. Overlying this, an up‐dip avulsion induced lobe switching and back‐stepping, and subsequent failure of a sandstone body up‐dip led to emplacement of a sandstone‐rich submarine landslide within the conduit. Collectively, this outcrop represents episodic knickpoint‐generated incision, and later infill, of a slope adjusting to equilibrium. The depositional signature of knickpoints is very different from existing models, but is probably reflective of other highly erosional settings undergoing large‐scale slope adjustment.

@article{doi101002dep2178,
    author = "Allen, Charlotte M. and Gomis‐Cartesio, Luz E. and Hodgson, David M. and Peakall, Jeff and Milana, Juan‐Pablo",
    title = "Channel incision into a submarine landslide on a Carboniferous basin margin, San Juan, Argentina: Evidence for the role of knickpoints",
    year = "2022",
    journal = "The Depositional Record",
    abstract = "Abstract Emplacement of submarine landslides, or mass‐transport deposits, can radically reshape the physiography of continental margins, and strongly influence subsequent sedimentary processes and dispersal patterns. Typically, progressive healing of the complicated relief generated by the submarine landslide occurs prior to progradation of sedimentary systems. However, subsurface and seabed examples show that submarine channels can incise directly into submarine landslides. Here, the evolution of a unique exhumed example of two adjacent, and partially contemporaneous, submarine channel‐fills is documented. The channels show deep incision (>75 m), and steep lateral margins (up to 70°), cut into a >200 m thick submarine landslide. The stepped basal erosion surface, and multiple terrace surfaces, are mantled by clasts (gravels to cobbles) reflecting periods of bedload‐derived sedimentation, punctuated by phases of downcutting and sediment bypass. The formation of multiple terrace surfaces in a low aspect ratio confinement is consistent with the episodic migration of knickpoints during entrenchment on the dip slope of the underlying submarine landslide. Overlying sandstone‐rich channel‐fills mark a change to aggradation. Laterally stacked channel bodies coincide with steps in the original large‐scale erosion surface, recording widening of the conduit; this is followed by tabular, highly aggradational fill. The upper fill, above a younger erosional surface, shows an abrupt change to partially confined tabular sandstones with normally graded caps, interpreted as lobe fringe deposits, which formed due to down‐dip confinement, followed by prograding lobe deposits. Overlying this, an up‐dip avulsion induced lobe switching and back‐stepping, and subsequent failure of a sandstone body up‐dip led to emplacement of a sandstone‐rich submarine landslide within the conduit. Collectively, this outcrop represents episodic knickpoint‐generated incision, and later infill, of a slope adjusting to equilibrium. The depositional signature of knickpoints is very different from existing models, but is probably reflective of other highly erosional settings undergoing large‐scale slope adjustment.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1002/dep2.178",
    doi = "10.1002/dep2.178",
    openalex = "W4210442660",
    references = "doi101002dep278, doi101111sed12890, doi102110jsr202038"
}

The distribution of sedimentary systems on Earth’s surface is intimately linked to tectonics, therefore, at plate boundaries the stratigraphic archive can unlock the timing and style of tectonism and relative plate motions. Using large-n detrital zircon and micropaleontological analyses, tied to field mapping and data collection, we unravel the timing of strike-slip motion and its influence on the development of a Cretaceous submarine canyon on a long-lived oblique-convergent margin. Structural analysis demonstrates that the canyon bedrock, composed of fluvial rocks (La Bocana Roja Fm., of maximum depositional age (MDA): 93.6±1.1 Ma), underwent both syn- and post-depositional contractional and extensional deformation during the Cenomanian-Turonian in response to dextral strike-slip movement. Relative sea-level rise associated with basin subsidence and hinterland uplift was coincident with incision and fill of a submarine canyon system (Punta Baja Fm., MDA 87.1±1.5 Ma to 84.9±2.0 Ma), which exploited structural lineaments in the bedrock. The canyon was filled by sediment derived from an uplifted magmatic arc during the Coniacian to Santonian, most likely shed from erosional topography associated with plutonic intrusions to the NE. Structural data suggest that oblique dextral strike-slip motion on the Pacific margin controlled the development and location of submarine erosion, and had ended by the earliest Santonian, significantly earlier than previously estimated. Basinward tilting led to uplift, followed by transgression and wave ravinement of the canyon fill, which was then overlain by a shallow-marine to fluvial system. Thus, the canyon was cut, filled, buried, uplifted and rotated basinward, planed off through wave ravinement, and onlapped by shallow-marine to fluvial sediments within an 8 Myr period. Our findings, in part, reconcile contrasting basin evolution models for the Late Mesozoic Pacific margin.

@article{doi102110001c37652,
    author = "Kane, Ian and Hodgson, David M. and Hubbard, Stephen M. and McArthur, Adam D. and Poyatos‐Moré, Miquel and Soutter, Euan and Flint, Stephen S. and Matthews, W. A.",
    title = "Deep-water Tectono-Stratigraphy at a Plate Boundary Constrained by Large N-Detrital Zircon and Micropaleontological Approaches: Peninsular Ranges Forearc, Baja California, Mexico",
    year = "2022",
    journal = "The Sedimentary Record",
    abstract = "The distribution of sedimentary systems on Earth’s surface is intimately linked to tectonics, therefore, at plate boundaries the stratigraphic archive can unlock the timing and style of tectonism and relative plate motions. Using large-n detrital zircon and micropaleontological analyses, tied to field mapping and data collection, we unravel the timing of strike-slip motion and its influence on the development of a Cretaceous submarine canyon on a long-lived oblique-convergent margin. Structural analysis demonstrates that the canyon bedrock, composed of fluvial rocks (La Bocana Roja Fm., of maximum depositional age (MDA): 93.6±1.1 Ma), underwent both syn- and post-depositional contractional and extensional deformation during the Cenomanian-Turonian in response to dextral strike-slip movement. Relative sea-level rise associated with basin subsidence and hinterland uplift was coincident with incision and fill of a submarine canyon system (Punta Baja Fm., MDA 87.1±1.5 Ma to 84.9±2.0 Ma), which exploited structural lineaments in the bedrock. The canyon was filled by sediment derived from an uplifted magmatic arc during the Coniacian to Santonian, most likely shed from erosional topography associated with plutonic intrusions to the NE. Structural data suggest that oblique dextral strike-slip motion on the Pacific margin controlled the development and location of submarine erosion, and had ended by the earliest Santonian, significantly earlier than previously estimated. Basinward tilting led to uplift, followed by transgression and wave ravinement of the canyon fill, which was then overlain by a shallow-marine to fluvial system. Thus, the canyon was cut, filled, buried, uplifted and rotated basinward, planed off through wave ravinement, and onlapped by shallow-marine to fluvial sediments within an 8 Myr period. Our findings, in part, reconcile contrasting basin evolution models for the Late Mesozoic Pacific margin.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.2110/001c.37652",
    doi = "10.2110/001c.37652",
    openalex = "W4293693781",
    references = "doi10100797894011490206, doi101007bf03021753, doi1010160031018288900302, doi101016jgsf201511006, doi101016jgsf201811002, doi101130b264061, doi101130spe206p1, doi101144001676492010177, doi1023071485834, fulford1994tectonic, openalexw580680426"
}

Abstract We report K-Pg-age deposits in Baja California, Mexico, consisting of terrestrial and shallow marine materials re-sedimented onto the continental slope, including corals, gastropods, bivalves, shocked quartz grains, an andesitic tuff with a SHRIMP U-Pb age (66.12 ± 0.65 Ma) indistinguishable from that of the K-Pg boundary, and charred tree trunks. The overlying mudstones show an iridium anomaly, and fungal and fern spores spikes. We interpret these heterogeneous deposits as a direct result of the Chicxulub impact, and a mega-tsunami in response to seismically-induced landsliding. The tsunami backwash carried the megaflora offshore in high-density flows, remobilizing shallow marine fauna and sediment en route. Charring of the trees at temperatures up to >1000°C took place in the interval between impact and arrival of the tsunami, which on the basis of seismic velocities and historic analogues amounted to only tens of minutes at most. This constrains the timing and causes of fires, and the minimum distance from the impact site over which fires may be ignited.

@misc{doi1021203rs3rs1686235v1,
    author = "Catharina, Amanda Santa and Kneller, Ben and Marques, Juliana Charão and McArthur, Adam D. and Cevallos-Ferriz, Sergio R.S. and Theurer, Thomas and Kane, Ian and Muirhead, David",
    title = "Forest fire at the K-Pg boundary on the Pacific margin of Baja California, Mexico: timing and causes",
    year = "2022",
    booktitle = "Research Square",
    abstract = "Abstract We report K-Pg-age deposits in Baja California, Mexico, consisting of terrestrial and shallow marine materials re-sedimented onto the continental slope, including corals, gastropods, bivalves, shocked quartz grains, an andesitic tuff with a SHRIMP U-Pb age (66.12 ± 0.65 Ma) indistinguishable from that of the K-Pg boundary, and charred tree trunks. The overlying mudstones show an iridium anomaly, and fungal and fern spores spikes. We interpret these heterogeneous deposits as a direct result of the Chicxulub impact, and a mega-tsunami in response to seismically-induced landsliding. The tsunami backwash carried the megaflora offshore in high-density flows, remobilizing shallow marine fauna and sediment en route. Charring of the trees at temperatures up to >1000°C took place in the interval between impact and arrival of the tsunami, which on the basis of seismic velocities and historic analogues amounted to only tens of minutes at most. This constrains the timing and causes of fires, and the minimum distance from the impact site over which fires may be ignited.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1686235/v1",
    doi = "10.21203/rs.3.rs-1686235/v1",
    openalex = "W4281640595",
    references = "cevallosferriz2021cretaceous"
}

@incollection{crossref2023california,
    title = "California Love / California Dreamin’",
    year = "2023",
    booktitle = "Why Willie Mae Thornton Matters",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.7560/321188-008",
    doi = "10.7560/321188-008",
    pages = "97-108"
}

The geological conditions and processes of fine-grained gravity flow sedimentation in continental lacustrine basins in China are analyzed to construct the model of fine-grained gravity flow sedimentation in lacustrine basin, reveal the development laws of fine-grained deposits and source-reservoir, and identify the sweet sections of shale oil. The results show that fine-grained gravity flow is one of the important sedimentary processes in deep lake environment, and it can transport fine-grained clasts and organic matter in shallow water to deep lake, forming sweet sections and high-quality source rocks of shale oil. Fine-grained gravity flow deposits in deep waters of lacustrine basins in China are mainly fine-grained high-density flow, fine-grained turbidity flow (including surge-like turbidity flow and fine-grained hyperpycnal flow), fine-grained viscous flow (including fine-grained debris flow and mud flow), and fine-grained transitional flow deposits. The distribution of fine-grained gravity flow deposits in the warm and humid unbalanced lacustrine basins are controlled by lake-level fluctuation, flooding events, and lakebed paleogeomorphology. During the lake-level rise, fine-grained hyperpycnal flow caused by flooding formed fine-grained channel–levee–lobe system in the flat area of the deep lake. During the lake-level fall, the sublacustrine fan system represented by unconfined channel was developed in the flexural slope breaks and sedimentary slopes of depressed lacustrine basins, and in the steep slopes of faulted lacustrine basins; the sublacustrine fan system with confined or unconfined channel was developed on the gentle slopes and in axial direction of faulted lacustrine basins, with fine-grained gravity flow deposits possibly existing in the lower fan. Within the fourth-order sequences, transgression might lead to organic-rich shale and fine-grained hyperpycnal flow deposits, while regression might cause fine-grained high-density flow, surge-like turbidity flow, fine-grained debris flow, mud flow, and fine-grained transitional flow deposits. Since the Permian, in the shale strata of lacustrine basins in China, multiple transgression-regression cycles of fourth-order sequences have formed multiple source-reservoir assemblages. Diverse fine-grained gravity flow sedimentation processes have created sweet sections of thin siltstone consisting of fine-grained high-density flow, fine-grained hyperpycnal flow and surge-like turbidity flow deposits, sweet sections with interbeds of mudstone and siltstone formed by fine-grained transitional flows, and sweet sections of shale containing silty and muddy clasts and with horizontal bedding formed by fine-grained debris flow and mud flow. The model of fine-grained gravity flow sedimentation in lacustrine basin is significant for the scientific evaluation of sweet shale oil reservoir and organic-rich source rock.

@article{doi101016s187638042360446x,
    author = "Zou, Caineng and Feng, Youliang and Yang, Zhi and Jiang, Wenqi and Zhang, Tianshu and Zhang, Hong and Wang, Xiaoni and Zhu, Jun-Yue and Wei, Qizhao",
    title = "Fine-grained gravity flow sedimentation and its influence on development of shale oil sweet sections in lacustrine basins in China",
    year = "2023",
    journal = "Petroleum Exploration and Development",
    abstract = "The geological conditions and processes of fine-grained gravity flow sedimentation in continental lacustrine basins in China are analyzed to construct the model of fine-grained gravity flow sedimentation in lacustrine basin, reveal the development laws of fine-grained deposits and source-reservoir, and identify the sweet sections of shale oil. The results show that fine-grained gravity flow is one of the important sedimentary processes in deep lake environment, and it can transport fine-grained clasts and organic matter in shallow water to deep lake, forming sweet sections and high-quality source rocks of shale oil. Fine-grained gravity flow deposits in deep waters of lacustrine basins in China are mainly fine-grained high-density flow, fine-grained turbidity flow (including surge-like turbidity flow and fine-grained hyperpycnal flow), fine-grained viscous flow (including fine-grained debris flow and mud flow), and fine-grained transitional flow deposits. The distribution of fine-grained gravity flow deposits in the warm and humid unbalanced lacustrine basins are controlled by lake-level fluctuation, flooding events, and lakebed paleogeomorphology. During the lake-level rise, fine-grained hyperpycnal flow caused by flooding formed fine-grained channel–levee–lobe system in the flat area of the deep lake. During the lake-level fall, the sublacustrine fan system represented by unconfined channel was developed in the flexural slope breaks and sedimentary slopes of depressed lacustrine basins, and in the steep slopes of faulted lacustrine basins; the sublacustrine fan system with confined or unconfined channel was developed on the gentle slopes and in axial direction of faulted lacustrine basins, with fine-grained gravity flow deposits possibly existing in the lower fan. Within the fourth-order sequences, transgression might lead to organic-rich shale and fine-grained hyperpycnal flow deposits, while regression might cause fine-grained high-density flow, surge-like turbidity flow, fine-grained debris flow, mud flow, and fine-grained transitional flow deposits. Since the Permian, in the shale strata of lacustrine basins in China, multiple transgression-regression cycles of fourth-order sequences have formed multiple source-reservoir assemblages. Diverse fine-grained gravity flow sedimentation processes have created sweet sections of thin siltstone consisting of fine-grained high-density flow, fine-grained hyperpycnal flow and surge-like turbidity flow deposits, sweet sections with interbeds of mudstone and siltstone formed by fine-grained transitional flows, and sweet sections of shale containing silty and muddy clasts and with horizontal bedding formed by fine-grained debris flow and mud flow. The model of fine-grained gravity flow sedimentation in lacustrine basin is significant for the scientific evaluation of sweet shale oil reservoir and organic-rich source rock.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1016/s1876-3804(23)60446-x",
    doi = "10.1016/s1876-3804(23)60446-x",
    openalex = "W4387783967",
    references = "doi102110jsr2020144"
}

ABSTRACT Understanding variations in the sedimentary processes and resulting stratigraphic architecture in submarine channel systems is essential for characterizing sediment bypass and sedimentary facies distribution on submarine slopes. In the Santonian to Campanian Cerro Toro Formation, southern Chile, a coarse-grained slope system, informally known as the Lago Sofia Member, developed in a structurally controlled environment, with complex and poorly established relationships with the surrounding mud-rich heterolithic deposits. A detailed architectural analysis of the most continuous and best-exposed channel system in the Lago Sofia Member, the Paine C channel system, provides insights on lateral facies transitions from channel axis to margin, stacked in a multi-phase sequence of events marked by abrupt changes in facies, facies associations, and architecture. The Paine C channel system is incised into siltstones and claystones interbedded with thin-bedded very fine sandstones, interpreted to be either channel-related overbank or unrelated background deposits. The coarse-grained deposits are divided into a lower conglomeratic unit and an upper sand-rich unit. The lower conglomeratic unit can be further subdivided into three phases: 1) highly depositional and/or aggradational, dominated by thick and laterally continuous beds of clast- to matrix-supported conglomerate, herein named transitional event deposits; 2) an intermediate phase, including deposits similar to those dominant in phase 1 but also containing abundant clast-supported conglomerates and lenticular sandstones; and 3) a bypass-dominated phase, which records an architectural change into a highly amalgamated ca. 45-m-thick package composed purely of lenticular clast-supported conglomerates with local lenticular sandstones. Between the conglomeratic phases, a meter-scale package composed of interbedded thin- to medium-bedded sandstone and mudstone deposits is interpreted to drape the entire channel, indicating periods of weaker gravity flows running down the channel, with no evidence of bedload transport. The upper sand-rich unit is divided into lower amalgamated and upper non-amalgamated phases, and represents a rapid architectural change interpreted to record an overall waning of the system. The sandstone unit laps out onto a mass-transport complex which is interpreted to have been triggered initially at the same time as major architectural change from conglomerates to sandstones. While mindful of the fact that each system is a complete analogue only for itself, we propose a new depositional model for coarse-grained submarine channel systems, in which particular characteristics can provide significant insights into architectural heterogeneity and facies transitions in channelized systems, allowing substantial improvement in subsurface facies prediction for fluid reservoirs.

@article{doi102110jsr2022020,
    author = "Bozetti, Guilherme and Kneller, Ben and Cronin, Bryan T. and Li, Pan and McArthur, Adam D. and Xu, Jingping",
    title = "Lateral and temporal variations of a multi-phase coarse-grained submarine slope channel system, Upper Cretaceous Cerro Toro Formation, southern Chile",
    year = "2023",
    journal = "Journal of Sedimentary Research",
    abstract = "ABSTRACT Understanding variations in the sedimentary processes and resulting stratigraphic architecture in submarine channel systems is essential for characterizing sediment bypass and sedimentary facies distribution on submarine slopes. In the Santonian to Campanian Cerro Toro Formation, southern Chile, a coarse-grained slope system, informally known as the Lago Sofia Member, developed in a structurally controlled environment, with complex and poorly established relationships with the surrounding mud-rich heterolithic deposits. A detailed architectural analysis of the most continuous and best-exposed channel system in the Lago Sofia Member, the Paine C channel system, provides insights on lateral facies transitions from channel axis to margin, stacked in a multi-phase sequence of events marked by abrupt changes in facies, facies associations, and architecture. The Paine C channel system is incised into siltstones and claystones interbedded with thin-bedded very fine sandstones, interpreted to be either channel-related overbank or unrelated background deposits. The coarse-grained deposits are divided into a lower conglomeratic unit and an upper sand-rich unit. The lower conglomeratic unit can be further subdivided into three phases: 1) highly depositional and/or aggradational, dominated by thick and laterally continuous beds of clast- to matrix-supported conglomerate, herein named transitional event deposits; 2) an intermediate phase, including deposits similar to those dominant in phase 1 but also containing abundant clast-supported conglomerates and lenticular sandstones; and 3) a bypass-dominated phase, which records an architectural change into a highly amalgamated ca. 45-m-thick package composed purely of lenticular clast-supported conglomerates with local lenticular sandstones. Between the conglomeratic phases, a meter-scale package composed of interbedded thin- to medium-bedded sandstone and mudstone deposits is interpreted to drape the entire channel, indicating periods of weaker gravity flows running down the channel, with no evidence of bedload transport. The upper sand-rich unit is divided into lower amalgamated and upper non-amalgamated phases, and represents a rapid architectural change interpreted to record an overall waning of the system. The sandstone unit laps out onto a mass-transport complex which is interpreted to have been triggered initially at the same time as major architectural change from conglomerates to sandstones. While mindful of the fact that each system is a complete analogue only for itself, we propose a new depositional model for coarse-grained submarine channel systems, in which particular characteristics can provide significant insights into architectural heterogeneity and facies transitions in channelized systems, allowing substantial improvement in subsurface facies prediction for fluid reservoirs.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.2110/jsr.2022.020",
    doi = "10.2110/jsr.2022.020",
    openalex = "W4324324093",
    references = "doi102110jsr202038"
}

ABSTRACT Present day submarine canyons are active conduits for the transfer of large volumes of sediment, carbon and pollutants from continents to oceans. However, the evolution of submarine canyons over geological timescales remains poorly understood due to their erosional nature and low preservation potential. The Late Cretaceous Punta Baja Formation represents a well‐preserved submarine canyon‐fill that evolved on a tectonically‐active ocean‐facing margin. Exposures provide kilometre‐scale continuous strike and dip sections of the 120 m thick and 1.2 km wide feature. An inherited tectonic fabric influenced the location and orientation of canyon incision into fluvial bedrock. The stratigraphic evolution of the Punta Baja submarine canyon is reconstructed from incision to fill, which shows that it remained an active sediment conduit throughout the time represented by the preserved fill. The depositional architecture of the north–south oriented erosionally confined canyon‐fill is asymmetrical, with sub‐vertically stacked channel‐fills to the west, and an overbank confined by the canyon margin to the east. Sedimentary process interactions led to depositional patterns that are considered distinct to submarine canyon fills. Dynamic topography generated by mass‐wasting processes captured sediment and drove knickpoint development, an autogenic mechanism that modifies sediment delivery to the ocean floor. Widespread upstream dipping surfaces in channel‐fills are interpreted as the stratigraphic expression of upstream migrating supercritical‐flow bedforms, which played an important role in sediment storage and transport in the canyon. The steep relief and internal topography of canyons leads to complicated and characteristic confined overbank flow behaviour and depositional patterns. This study provides insight into how processes that are observed in modern canyons are selectively preserved through the lifetime of the canyon and construct or destroy stratigraphy on geological timescales.

@article{doi101111sed13231,
    author = "Bouwmeester, Max J. and Kane, Ian and Hodgson, David M. and Flint, S. and Taylor, William J. and Soutter, Euan and McArthur, Adam D. and Poyatos‐Moré, Miquel and Marsh, Joshua R. and Keavney, Ed and Brunt, Rufus L. and Valdez‐Buso, Victoria",
    title = "Evolution and architecture of an exhumed ocean‐facing coarse‐grained submarine canyon fill, Baja California, Mexico",
    year = "2024",
    journal = "Sedimentology",
    abstract = "ABSTRACT Present day submarine canyons are active conduits for the transfer of large volumes of sediment, carbon and pollutants from continents to oceans. However, the evolution of submarine canyons over geological timescales remains poorly understood due to their erosional nature and low preservation potential. The Late Cretaceous Punta Baja Formation represents a well‐preserved submarine canyon‐fill that evolved on a tectonically‐active ocean‐facing margin. Exposures provide kilometre‐scale continuous strike and dip sections of the 120 m thick and 1.2 km wide feature. An inherited tectonic fabric influenced the location and orientation of canyon incision into fluvial bedrock. The stratigraphic evolution of the Punta Baja submarine canyon is reconstructed from incision to fill, which shows that it remained an active sediment conduit throughout the time represented by the preserved fill. The depositional architecture of the north–south oriented erosionally confined canyon‐fill is asymmetrical, with sub‐vertically stacked channel‐fills to the west, and an overbank confined by the canyon margin to the east. Sedimentary process interactions led to depositional patterns that are considered distinct to submarine canyon fills. Dynamic topography generated by mass‐wasting processes captured sediment and drove knickpoint development, an autogenic mechanism that modifies sediment delivery to the ocean floor. Widespread upstream dipping surfaces in channel‐fills are interpreted as the stratigraphic expression of upstream migrating supercritical‐flow bedforms, which played an important role in sediment storage and transport in the canyon. The steep relief and internal topography of canyons leads to complicated and characteristic confined overbank flow behaviour and depositional patterns. This study provides insight into how processes that are observed in modern canyons are selectively preserved through the lifetime of the canyon and construct or destroy stratigraphy on geological timescales.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1111/sed.13231",
    doi = "10.1111/sed.13231",
    openalex = "W4403110148",
    references = "doi102110001c37652"
}

Present day submarine canyons are active conduits for large volumes of sediment, carbon, and pollutants from continents to oceans. However, the evolution of submarine canyons over geological timescales remains poorly understood due to their erosional nature and low preservation potential. The Late Cretaceous Punta Baja Formation represents a well-preserved submarine canyon-fill on a tectonically-active ocean-facing margin. Outcrops provide km-scale continuous strike and dip sections of the 120 m thick and 1.2 km wide feature. An inherited tectonic fabric influenced the location and orientation of canyon incision into fluvial bedrock. The stratigraphic evolution of the Punta Baja submarine canyon is reconstructed from incision to fill, and shows that it remained an active sediment conduit throughout the time period represented by the preserved fill. The depositional architecture of the north-south oriented erosionally confined canyon-fill is asymmetric, with sub-vertically stacked channel-fills to the west, and an overbank confined by the canyon margin in the east. Sedimentary process interactions led to depositional patterns that we consider distinct to submarine canyon fills. Dynamic topography created by mass wasting processes captured sediment and drove knickpoint development, an autogenic mechanism that modifies sediment delivery to the ocean floor. We interpret widespread upstream dipping surfaces in channel-fills as the stratigraphic expression of migrating supercritical-flow bedforms, playing an important role in sediment storage and transport in the canyon. The proximal location of canyons and unique confinement configuration impact transverse and lateral gravity flow filtering, causing depositional patterns in the intra-canyon overbank areas that are less well organised than in published examples of external levees and which were previously poorly characterised for submarine canyons. This study provides insight into how processes that are observed in modern canyons are selectively preserved through the lifetime of the canyon and construct or destroy stratigraphy on geological timescales.

@misc{doi1031223x5v70k,
    author = "Bouwmeester, Max and Kane, Ian and Hodgson, David M. and Flint, Stephen S. and Taylor, William J. and Soutter, Euan and McArthur, Adam D. and Poyatos‐Moré, Miquel and Marsh, Josh and Keavney, Edward and Brunt, Rufus L. and Valdez‐Buso, Victoria",
    title = "Evolution and architecture of an exhumed ocean-facing coarse-grained submarine canyon fill, Baja California, Mexico",
    year = "2024",
    abstract = "Present day submarine canyons are active conduits for large volumes of sediment, carbon, and pollutants from continents to oceans. However, the evolution of submarine canyons over geological timescales remains poorly understood due to their erosional nature and low preservation potential. The Late Cretaceous Punta Baja Formation represents a well-preserved submarine canyon-fill on a tectonically-active ocean-facing margin. Outcrops provide km-scale continuous strike and dip sections of the 120 m thick and 1.2 km wide feature. An inherited tectonic fabric influenced the location and orientation of canyon incision into fluvial bedrock. The stratigraphic evolution of the Punta Baja submarine canyon is reconstructed from incision to fill, and shows that it remained an active sediment conduit throughout the time period represented by the preserved fill. The depositional architecture of the north-south oriented erosionally confined canyon-fill is asymmetric, with sub-vertically stacked channel-fills to the west, and an overbank confined by the canyon margin in the east. Sedimentary process interactions led to depositional patterns that we consider distinct to submarine canyon fills. Dynamic topography created by mass wasting processes captured sediment and drove knickpoint development, an autogenic mechanism that modifies sediment delivery to the ocean floor. We interpret widespread upstream dipping surfaces in channel-fills as the stratigraphic expression of migrating supercritical-flow bedforms, playing an important role in sediment storage and transport in the canyon. The proximal location of canyons and unique confinement configuration impact transverse and lateral gravity flow filtering, causing depositional patterns in the intra-canyon overbank areas that are less well organised than in published examples of external levees and which were previously poorly characterised for submarine canyons. This study provides insight into how processes that are observed in modern canyons are selectively preserved through the lifetime of the canyon and construct or destroy stratigraphy on geological timescales.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.31223/x5v70k",
    doi = "10.31223/x5v70k",
    openalex = "W4394807551",
    references = "doi102110001c37652"
}

Background Gravity-driven depositional processes play a pivotal role in shaping the geomorphology of subaqueous deltas worldwide, particularly by eroding the seafloor, leading to the formation of rugged submarine channels (SCs) and triggering various subaqueous geohazards. A comprehensive understanding of SCs is crucial for elucidating these depositional mechanisms and mitigating the risks associated with submarine geohazards. Although SCs in the Huanghe delta front have been previously identified, often described as seafloor gullies or subsurface “disturbed strata,” most studies have primarily concentrated on their engineering geological properties. However, there has been limited research on the scale, morphology, and development of these SCs, especially those that are buried within the stratigraphy. Methods This study integrates high-resolution sub-bottom data, sediment core analyses, and historical bathymetric data to investigate the morphology, distribution, and formation mechanisms of SCs in the Huanghe subaqueous delta. Results The SCs, both buried and exposed, are widespread along the middle and upper delta front, predominantly located at or near the landward flank of sediment gravity flow (SGF) -related accumulations. The buried SCs are characterized by cut-and-fill structures with transparent to semi-transparent fills, indicating rapid infilling processes as SGF energy dissipates. These buried channels were preserved within different sets of delta front deposits formed during 1855–1964 CE, 1964–1976 CE, and 1976–2007 CE, with the latter two periods separated by a significant lobe-switching event in 1976 CE. This event, combined with prevailing southeastward sediment transport and erosional regimes, appears to have controlled the preservation of SCs along the delta front: SCs in the Diaokou Lobe's delta front (pre-1976) suffered significant erosion, leaving only one set of channel (erosional remnants) preserved, while the SCs in the Qingshuigou Lobe's delta front (post-1976) are characterized by well-preserved, multi-phase channels at different horizons. The cross-section morphology of the SCs reveal three primary types: symmetrical, asymmetrical, and composite, corresponding respectively to (1) idealized SGF incision, (2) uneven incision intensity on either side of the SCs, and (3) the merging of two or more symmetrical/asymmetrical SCs. Conclusions We describe in detail the morphology, distribution and development of SCs in the modern Huanghe subaqueous delta. These findings provide insights into the formation and distribution of SCs in other shallow marine settings, particularly in delta front areas, and potentially offer information for disaster prevention and engineering development in such regions.

@article{doi103389fmars20241483768,
    author = "An, Shikang and Feng, Aiping and Feng, Wei and Wang, Ya Ping and Chen, Yufeng and Wu, Ziyin and Chen, Xiaolong and Yu, Yonggui and Pan, Yupeng and Liu, Shihao",
    title = "Development and distribution of submarine channels associated with sediment gravity flows in the modern Huanghe (Yellow River) subaqueous delta",
    year = "2024",
    journal = "Frontiers in Marine Science",
    abstract = "Background Gravity-driven depositional processes play a pivotal role in shaping the geomorphology of subaqueous deltas worldwide, particularly by eroding the seafloor, leading to the formation of rugged submarine channels (SCs) and triggering various subaqueous geohazards. A comprehensive understanding of SCs is crucial for elucidating these depositional mechanisms and mitigating the risks associated with submarine geohazards. Although SCs in the Huanghe delta front have been previously identified, often described as seafloor gullies or subsurface “disturbed strata,” most studies have primarily concentrated on their engineering geological properties. However, there has been limited research on the scale, morphology, and development of these SCs, especially those that are buried within the stratigraphy. Methods This study integrates high-resolution sub-bottom data, sediment core analyses, and historical bathymetric data to investigate the morphology, distribution, and formation mechanisms of SCs in the Huanghe subaqueous delta. Results The SCs, both buried and exposed, are widespread along the middle and upper delta front, predominantly located at or near the landward flank of sediment gravity flow (SGF) -related accumulations. The buried SCs are characterized by cut-and-fill structures with transparent to semi-transparent fills, indicating rapid infilling processes as SGF energy dissipates. These buried channels were preserved within different sets of delta front deposits formed during 1855–1964 CE, 1964–1976 CE, and 1976–2007 CE, with the latter two periods separated by a significant lobe-switching event in 1976 CE. This event, combined with prevailing southeastward sediment transport and erosional regimes, appears to have controlled the preservation of SCs along the delta front: SCs in the Diaokou Lobe's delta front (pre-1976) suffered significant erosion, leaving only one set of channel (erosional remnants) preserved, while the SCs in the Qingshuigou Lobe's delta front (post-1976) are characterized by well-preserved, multi-phase channels at different horizons. The cross-section morphology of the SCs reveal three primary types: symmetrical, asymmetrical, and composite, corresponding respectively to (1) idealized SGF incision, (2) uneven incision intensity on either side of the SCs, and (3) the merging of two or more symmetrical/asymmetrical SCs. Conclusions We describe in detail the morphology, distribution and development of SCs in the modern Huanghe subaqueous delta. These findings provide insights into the formation and distribution of SCs in other shallow marine settings, particularly in delta front areas, and potentially offer information for disaster prevention and engineering development in such regions.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2024.1483768",
    doi = "10.3389/fmars.2024.1483768",
    openalex = "W4403405211",
    references = "doi101111sed12890"
}

In this work, 47 isolated small theropod teeth from different microsites of “El Gallo” Formation, Baja California, Mexico are studied. Isolated theropod teeth constitute important evidence to analyse theropod diversity, since they are quite common in the fossil record. For their identification, we conducted morphological comparisons using multivariate and cladistic analyses comparing them with previously described small theropod teeth from Upper Cretaceous North America Formations. This dental material can be assigned mainly to two families: Dromaeosauridae, Troodontidae; and one subfamily: Saurornitholestinae. Also, some of the teeth were assigned to Richardoestesia and two specimens were indeterminate. Dromaeosaurids represent the most abundant group of theropods in “El Gallo” followed by the Richardoestesia dental Morphotype. This diversity pattern is similar to the one reported in the Aguja Formation of Texas for the same period of time. The use of multivariate statistical techniques and cladistic analyses allowed us to evaluate the similarity between specimens, however, taxonomical assignments are difficult due to the lack of knowledge of intraspecific morphological and/or ontogenetic variation that can lead to misinterpretations. Even so, the sample of 47 specimens yields valuable information that allows suggesting the presence of certain taxa and providing knowledge of the diversity of the continental Cretaceous fauna in Mexico.

@article{doi101016jcretres2025106292,
    author = "García-Gil, Vanessa Alexandra and Torices, Angélica and Lòpez-Miguel, Mirella and Montellano-Ballesteros, Marisol",
    title = "Isolated teeth of small theropods from the El Gallo Formation, Baja California, Mexico",
    year = "2025",
    journal = "Cretaceous Research",
    abstract = "In this work, 47 isolated small theropod teeth from different microsites of “El Gallo” Formation, Baja California, Mexico are studied. Isolated theropod teeth constitute important evidence to analyse theropod diversity, since they are quite common in the fossil record. For their identification, we conducted morphological comparisons using multivariate and cladistic analyses comparing them with previously described small theropod teeth from Upper Cretaceous North America Formations. This dental material can be assigned mainly to two families: Dromaeosauridae, Troodontidae; and one subfamily: Saurornitholestinae. Also, some of the teeth were assigned to Richardoestesia and two specimens were indeterminate. Dromaeosaurids represent the most abundant group of theropods in “El Gallo” followed by the Richardoestesia dental Morphotype. This diversity pattern is similar to the one reported in the Aguja Formation of Texas for the same period of time. The use of multivariate statistical techniques and cladistic analyses allowed us to evaluate the similarity between specimens, however, taxonomical assignments are difficult due to the lack of knowledge of intraspecific morphological and/or ontogenetic variation that can lead to misinterpretations. Even so, the sample of 47 specimens yields valuable information that allows suggesting the presence of certain taxa and providing knowledge of the diversity of the continental Cretaceous fauna in Mexico.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2025.106292",
    doi = "10.1016/j.cretres.2025.106292",
    openalex = "W4417264544",
    references = "doi101016jjsames201810005"
}

ABSTRACT The heterogeneity of a deep marine slope channel complex is investigated through the acquisition of fifty sedimentary logs across three high-quality exposures of the late Tortonian Tachrift Complex 5, which constitutes part of the Neogene sedimentary infill of the Taza–Guercif Basin, NE Morocco. Various metrics extracted from log data (net-to-gross, amalgamation ratio, facies proportions, etc.) are processed to assess heterogeneity trends across the studied deposits. Sedimentological and stratigraphic analyses indicate that the exposures constitute upstream and downstream parts of a large-scale, left-turning channel bend. Sedimentary facies comprise different types of amalgamated sandstones, heterolithic and mud-rich sediments, grouped in channel-fill and overbank facies associations. Architectural elements recognized in channel-fill deposits are mainly lateral-accretion packages (LAPs), with additional elements recognized and recorded for the first time, representing different depositional settings across the channel bend, such as outer-bank bars and inner- to outer-bank transition bars. Analysis of heterogeneity metrics indicates the occurrence of two main types of LAP, which vary depending on their upstream or downstream position across the bend, each with different internal heterogeneity (e.g., mean and lateral trends of net-to-gross, facies proportions, etc.) when compared with other elements deposited across the channel. The range and spatial arrangement of heterogeneity metrics observed could serve as an analog for assessing heterogeneity across channel bends of similar slope channel fills in the subsurface.

@article{doi102110jsr2024068,
    author = "Pantopoulos, George and Marini, Mattia and Invernizzi, Daniele and Kati, Imad El and McArthur, Adam D. and Felletti, F.",
    title = "Quantification of internal heterogeneity across a submarine channel bend: a unique example from the late Tortonian Tachrift Channel Complex 5 (Taza–Guercif Basin, NE Morocco)",
    year = "2025",
    journal = "Journal of Sedimentary Research",
    abstract = "ABSTRACT The heterogeneity of a deep marine slope channel complex is investigated through the acquisition of fifty sedimentary logs across three high-quality exposures of the late Tortonian Tachrift Complex 5, which constitutes part of the Neogene sedimentary infill of the Taza–Guercif Basin, NE Morocco. Various metrics extracted from log data (net-to-gross, amalgamation ratio, facies proportions, etc.) are processed to assess heterogeneity trends across the studied deposits. Sedimentological and stratigraphic analyses indicate that the exposures constitute upstream and downstream parts of a large-scale, left-turning channel bend. Sedimentary facies comprise different types of amalgamated sandstones, heterolithic and mud-rich sediments, grouped in channel-fill and overbank facies associations. Architectural elements recognized in channel-fill deposits are mainly lateral-accretion packages (LAPs), with additional elements recognized and recorded for the first time, representing different depositional settings across the channel bend, such as outer-bank bars and inner- to outer-bank transition bars. Analysis of heterogeneity metrics indicates the occurrence of two main types of LAP, which vary depending on their upstream or downstream position across the bend, each with different internal heterogeneity (e.g., mean and lateral trends of net-to-gross, facies proportions, etc.) when compared with other elements deposited across the channel. The range and spatial arrangement of heterogeneity metrics observed could serve as an analog for assessing heterogeneity across channel bends of similar slope channel fills in the subsurface.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.2110/jsr.2024.068",
    doi = "10.2110/jsr.2024.068",
    openalex = "W4407615686",
    references = "doi101002dep2169, doi102110jsr2020144"
}

@article{doi1010800272463420262641109,
    author = "Mantilla, Gregory P. Wilson and Newbins, Isiah R. and Fastovsky, David E. and Zhang, Yue and Montellano-Ballesteros, Marisol and Alcántara, Dalia García and Chen, Meng",
    title = "Cranial and postcranial remains of a new species of Cimolodon (Mammalia, Multituberculata, Cimolodontidae) from the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) El Gallo Formation of Baja California, México",
    year = "2026",
    journal = "Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2026.2641109",
    doi = "10.1080/02724634.2026.2641109",
    openalex = "W7155188968",
    references = "doi101111pala12692, doi1021701bolgeomin1261001"
}