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Weathering, erosion, and sediment transport in modern landscapes may be investigated via direct observation of attributes such as elevation, relief, bedrock lithology, climate, drainage organization, watershed extent, and others. Studies of ancient landscape evolution lack this synoptic perspective, however, and instead must rely more heavily on downstream records of fluvial deposits. Provenance analysis based on detrital grain ages has greatly enhanced the utility of such records but has often focused broadly on regional to continental scales. This approach may overlook important details of localized watersheds, which could lead to significant misinterpretation of past sediment dispersal patterns. The present study, therefore, explores the impact of geographic and stratigraphic sampling density on detrital zircon provenance, based on a high-density investigation of U-Pb ages (N = 23, n = 4905) obtained from a narrow chronostratigraphic range (~2 m.y.) within a relatively small (~25,000 km²) area of an Eocene nonmarine sedimentary basin. Based on multidimensional scaling and DZmix modeling, these strata comprise seven distinct, approximately isochronous detrital zircon (DZ) chronofacies, defined as ". . . a group of sedimentary rocks that contains a specified suite of detrital zircon age populations" (Lawton et al., 2010). Four of these DZ chronofacies reflect long-distance transport from extrabasinal source areas. DZ chronofacies CO-1 and CO-2 are interpreted to derive from a primary sediment source in central Colorado (USA), corroborating previously proposed long-distance sediment transport via the Aspen paleoriver. DZ chronofacies ID-1 and ID-2 are interpreted to have been delivered to the basin from central Idaho by the Idaho paleoriver. In contrast, DZ chronofacies UT-1 and UT-2 are interpreted to reflect local drainage from the Uinta Uplift south of the basin, and DZ chronofacies WY-1 is interpreted to have been sourced from the Rawlins, Granite, and Sierra Madre uplifts to the north and east via the Toya Puki paleoriver. Lateral transitions between different DZ chronofacies in some cases occur over distances as little as 5 km, implying that depositional systems carrying sand from disparate watersheds directly competed to fill available basin accommodation. The results of this study reveal a high degree of complexity of Eocene rivers that converged on the Greater Green River Basin, indicating that their deposits contain a rich record of finescale landscape evolution across much of the Laramide foreland and Cordilleran orogen. These results illustrate the need for adequate sample density when assessing basin-scale provenance and offer a cautionary consideration for researchers using sandstone (and incorporated authigenic cement) in other nonmarine basins as the basis for paleoaltimetry or detrital thermochronology studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern and ancient lacustrine carbonate build‐ups provide uniquely sensitive sedimentary and geochemical records for understanding the interaction between tectonics, past climates, and local and regional scale basin hydrology. Large (metre to decametre), well‐developed carbonate mounds in the Green River Formation have long been recognized along the margins of an Eocene lake, known as Lake Gosiute. However, their mode of origin and significance with respect to palaeohydrology remain controversial. Here, new sedimentological, Sr isotope data and structural evidence show that significant spring discharge led to the formation of a decametre size complex of shoreline carbonate mounds in the upper Wilkins Peak Member of the Green River Formation at Little Mesa and adjacent areas in the Bridger Basin, Wyoming, USA. Sedimentological evidence indicates that spring discharge was predominantly subaqueous but was, at times, also subaerial, which produced tufa cascades and micro‐rimstone dam structures. The 87Sr/86Sr ratios measured from these subaerial spring deposits are less radiogenic (87Sr/86Sr = 0.71040 to 0.71101) than contemporaneous palaeolake carbonates (87Sr/86Sr = 0.71195 to 0.71561) because their parent groundwaters likely interacted with less‐radiogenic Palaeozoic carbonate. Calcite‐cemented sandstone cones and spires (87Sr/86Sr = 0.71037 to 0.71057) in the Wasatch Formation directly below the spring deposits suggest that groundwaters derived from Palaeozoic carbonates preferentially flowed along thrust faults. These results imply that high spring discharge coincided with lake high stands of the upper Wilkins Peak Member, suggesting that recharge at the north‐west margin of the Bridger Basin contributed to Lake Gosiute's water budget and lowered the salinity of an underfilled, evaporative lake basin. The findings of this study provide criteria for the recognition of groundwater discharge in palaeolake systems which may lead to the discovery of palaeospring systems in other ancient lake deposits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Eocene Huitrera Formation of northwestern Patagonia, Argentina, is renowned for its diverse, informative, and outstandingly preserved fossil biotas. In northwest Chubut Province, at the Laguna del Hunco locality, this unit includes one of the most diverse fossil floras known from the Eocene, as well as significant fossil insects and vertebrates. It also includes rich fossil vertebrate faunas at the Laguna Fría and La Barda localities. Previous studies of these important occurrences have provided relatively little sedimentological detail, and radioisotopic age constraints are relatively sparse and in some cases obsolete. Here, we describe five fossiliferous lithofacies deposited in four terrestrial depositional environments: lacustrine basin floor, subaerial pyroclastic plain, vegetated, waterlogged pyroclastic lake margin, and extracaldera incised valley. We also report several new 40Ar/39Ar age determinations. Among these, the uppermost unit of the caldera-forming Ignimbrita Barda Colorada yielded a 40Ar/39Ar age of 52.54 ± 0.17 Ma, ~6 m.y. younger than previous estimates, which demonstrates that deposition of overlying fossiliferous lacustrine strata (previously constrained to older than 52.22 ± 0.22 Ma) must have begun almost immediately on the subsiding ignimbrite surface. A minimum age for Laguna del Hunco fossils is established by an overlying ignimbrite with an age of 49.19 ± 0.24 Ma, confirming that deposition took place during the early Eocene climatic optimum. The Laguna Fría mammalian fauna is younger, constrained between a valley-filling ignimbrite and a capping basalt with 40Ar/39Ar ages of 49.26 ± 0.30 Ma and 43.50 ± 1.14 Ma, respectively. The latter age is ~4 m.y. younger than previously reported. These new ages more precisely define the age range of the Laguna Fría and La Barda faunas, allowing greatly improved understanding of their positions with respect to South American mammal evolution, climate change, and geographic isolation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Repeated global reorganizations of carbon cycling and biotic, oceanic and terrestrial processes occurred during the Early Eocene, and appear to have been paced by cyclic variations in the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit. The phase relationship(s) between insolation variation, terrestrial paleoclimate, and atmospheric p CO 2 during these events remains enigmatic however, due to their poorly constrained timing relative to specific orbital configurations. Here we use tiered interpolation between radioisotopic ages and paleomagnetic polarity chrons to compare high-resolution δ 13 C and lithofacies records from the Wilkins Peak Member of the Green River Formation of western North America to a Fe-intensity XRF record from the western Atlantic Ocean, and to numerical solutions for Earth's orbital configuration. Wilkins Peak Member lithofacies stacking patterns record cyclic geomorphic responses to insolation and climate fluctuations, spanning an interval of 1.8 Ma. Previous macrostratigraphic analyses using 40 Ar/ 39 Ar and U–Pb ash bed ages indicate that these cycles reflect long and short eccentricity modulation of precession. Hydrologic variance appears to have occurred inversely with intervals of maximum sediment advection, with carbonate- and evaporite-dominated lacustrine modes during eccentricity maxima, and siliciclastic-dominated alluvial modes during eccentricity minima. Stable carbon isotope analyses of 126 meters of Wilkins Peak Member strata reveal a regular ∼5 per mil oscillation between high-δ 13 C lacustrine modes and low-δ 13 C alluvial modes. Tiered interpolation between paleomagnetically characterized terrestrial ash beds facilitates the integration of 11 radioisotopic ages with the geomagnetic polarity timescale, resulting in significant expansion of chron C23 and shortening of chron C22 relative to timescales based on seafloor magnetic anomaly profiles. The new proposed timescale permits direct comparison of terrestrial and marine climate proxy records from the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum at ca. ± 250 kyr resolution, and reveals prominent 100 kyr- and 405 kyr-scale oscillations within both records. Wilkins Peak Member δ 13 C minima, which occurred during low eccentricity alluvial modes, likely coincided with global δ 13 C minima (Scenario 1), but may alternatively reflect productivity-driven local effects within Lake Gosiute (Scenario 2). If Scenario 1 proves accurate, Early Eocene negative δ 13 C “hyperthermal” excursions occurred during eccentricity minima rather than maxima as formerly believed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Green River Formation (GRF) provides one of the premier paleoclimate archives of the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (∼50 Ma), representing the apex of the early Cenozoic greenhouse climate. Rhythmic lake-level variability expressed in the GRF has inspired numerous hypotheses for the behavior of the Eocene hydrologic cycle, including its linkage to astronomical forcing, solar variability, and the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). However, the lack of sufficient proxy data to document atmospheric water-mass transport and the geographic pattern of evaporation/precipitation/runoff has made it difficult to discriminate between different models for astronomical forcing. Variable 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios of bedrock that encompass the GRF provide an opportunity to reconstruct the spatial expression of the Eocene hydrologic cycle and its linkage to lake level. Here Sr isotope data from the Wilkins Peak Member, a rhythmic succession that has been demonstrated to record Milankovitch forcing of lake levels, indicate that high lake levels reflect an increased proportion of runoff from less radiogenic rocks west of the basin, eliminating a number of the existing astronomical-forcing hypotheses. The 87 Sr/ 86 Sr variability is consistent with a change in mean ENSO state, which is predicted by climate models to be linked to orbital-insolation. Thus, the 87 Sr/ 86 Sr data reveal a coupling of high frequency (ENSO) and low frequency (astronomical) climate variability, and also predict the existence of sizable astronomically-forced alpine snowpack during the last greenhouse climate. More broadly, this study demonstrates the utility of 87 Sr/ 86 Sr as a powerful tool for reconstructing the deep-time hydrologic cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]