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Trampas Group
The Trampas Group is a group of geologic formations that crops out in the Picuris Mountains of northern New Mexico. Detrital zircon geochronology yields a maximum age of 1475 million years, corresponding to the Calymmian period. Description The Trampas Group consists of metasedimentary formations deposited in the reactivated Pilar Basin during the Picuris orogeny. Detrital zircon geochronology yields a maximum age of 1475 Mya, considerably younger than the underlying Hondo Group. The formations included in the Trampas Group are the Pilar Formation, a carbonaceous phyllite, and the Piedra Lumbre Formation, which is primarily feldspathic schist with some quartzite and phyllite. The Trampas Group likely was deposited in a basin formed during the breakup of the supercontinent of Columbia. History of investigation The formations of the Trampas Group were originally included by Bauer and Williams in the Hondo Group as part of their sweeping revision of northern New Mexico P ...
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Picuris Mountains
The Picuris Mountains are a mountain range in northern New Mexico. They are considered a subrange of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Geography The mountains are located to the east of Dixon and surround Picuris Pueblo to the west, north, and east. The range resembles a triangle with its base to the east, along the valley of the Rio Grande del Rancho. The northwest face lies along the valley of the Rio Grande and the southern face lies along Rio Pueblo and Embudo Creek. History The area was first visited by Europeans on July 13, 1598, when Juan de Oñate visited Picuris Pueblo. Geology The range is underlain by Precambrian rock beds of the Hondo Group and Vadito Group. It is the namesake for the Picuris orogeny. Economy Mining has been historically important in the Picuris Mountains. The Harding Pegmatite Mine was operated off and on from about 1900 to 1958, when it was donated to the University of New Mexico as an outdoor geological laboratory. At one time, the mine made ...
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Period (geology)
The geologic time scale, or geological time scale, (GTS) is a representation of time based on the rock record of Earth. It is a system of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the process of relating strata to time) and geochronology (scientific branch of geology that aims to determine the age of rocks). It is used primarily by Earth scientists (including geologists, paleontologists, geophysicists, geochemists, and paleoclimatologists) to describe the timing and relationships of events in geologic history. The time scale has been developed through the study of rock layers and the observation of their relationships and identifying features such as lithologies, paleomagnetic properties, and fossils. The definition of standardized international units of geologic time is the responsibility of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), a constituent body of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), whose primary objective is to precisely define ...
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Statherian
The Statherian Period (; grc, σταθερός, statherós, meaning "stable, firm") is the final geologic period in the Paleoproterozoic Era and lasted from Mya to Mya (million years ago). Instead of being based on stratigraphy, these dates are defined chronometrically. The period was characterized on most continents by either new platforms or final cratonization of fold belts. Oxygen levels were 10% to 20% of current values. ''Rafatazmia'', controversially claimed to be present in Statherian beds in India, may be the oldest known confirmably eukaryotic fossil organism. By the beginning of the Statherian, the supercontinent Columbia had assembled. At roughly 1.7 billion years before present a series of natural nuclear fission reactors was operational in what is now Oklo Oklo is a region near the town of Franceville, in the Haut-Ogooué province of the Central African country of Gabon. Several natural nuclear fission reactors were discovered in the uranium mines in th ...
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Rinconada Formation
The Rinconada Formation is a geologic formation that crops out in the Picuris Mountains of northern New Mexico. Detrital zircon geochronology establishes a maximum age for the Rinconada Formation of about 1723 Mya, placing it in the Statherian period of the Precambrian. Description The formation consists of gray to buff quartz-muscovite schist with some inberbedded quartzite and metaconglomerate. which fills an inverted syncline in the northern Picuris Mountains. It is missing from the Hondo Group in the Tusas Mountains. Detrital zircon geochronology establishes a minimum age for the Rinconada Formation of 1762 Mya. However, this reflects the crystallization age of the source rocks, and the true age is likely closer to 1723 Mya based on zircon ages in the underlying Ortega Formation. This indicates a shift in source region between the Ortega Formation and the Rinconada Formation. The formation is divided into three informal members. The first is composed of staurolite g ...
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Precambrian
The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of the Phanerozoic Eon, which is named after Cambria, the Latinised name for Wales, where rocks from this age were first studied. The Precambrian accounts for 88% of the Earth's geologic time. The Precambrian is an informal unit of geologic time, subdivided into three eons ( Hadean, Archean, Proterozoic) of the geologic time scale. It spans from the formation of Earth about 4.6 billion years ago ( Ga) to the beginning of the Cambrian Period, about million years ago ( Ma), when hard-shelled creatures first appeared in abundance. Overview Relatively little is known about the Precambrian, despite it making up roughly seven-eighths of the Earth's history, and what is known has largely been discovered from the 1960s onwards. The Precambrian fossil ...
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Columbia (supercontinent)
Columbia, also known as Nuna or Hudsonland, was one of Earth's ancient supercontinents. It was first proposed by John J.W. Rogers and M. Santosh in 2002 and is thought to have existed approximately , in the Paleoproterozoic Era. The assembly of the supercontinent was likely completed during global-scale collisional events from 2100 to 1800 million years ago. Columbia consisted of proto-cratons that made up the cores of the continents of Laurentia, Baltica, Ukrainian Shield, Amazonian Shield, Australia, and possibly Siberia, North China, and Kalaharia as well. The evidence of Columbia's existence is provided by geological and paleomagnetic data.; Size and location Columbia is estimated to have been approximately from north to south at its broadest part. The eastern coast of India was attached to western North America, with southern Australia against western Canada. In this era most of South America was rotated such that the western edge of modern-day Brazil lined up wi ...
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Supercontinent
In geology, a supercontinent is the assembly of most or all of Earth's continent, continental blocks or cratons to form a single large landmass. However, some geologists use a different definition, "a grouping of formerly dispersed continents", which leaves room for interpretation and is easier to apply to Precambrian times. To separate supercontinents from other groupings, a limit has been proposed in which a continent must include at least about 75% of the continental crust then in existence in order to qualify as a supercontinent. Supercontinents have assembled and dispersed multiple times in the geologic past (see table). According to modern definitions, a supercontinent does not exist today; the closest in existence to a supercontinent is the current Afro-Eurasian landmass, which covers approx. 57% of Earth's total land area. The last time the continental landmasses were near to one another was 336 to 175 million years ago as the supercontinent, Pangaea. The positions of con ...
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Quartzite
Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts. Pure quartzite is usually white to grey, though quartzites often occur in various shades of pink and red due to varying amounts of hematite. Other colors, such as yellow, green, blue and orange, are due to other minerals. The term ''quartzite'' is also sometimes used for very hard but unmetamorphosed sandstones that are composed of quartz grains thoroughly cemented with additional quartz. Such sedimentary rock has come to be described as orthoquartzite to distinguish it from metamorphic quartzite, which is sometimes called metaquartzite to emphasize its metamorphic origins. Quartzite is very resistant to chemical weathering and often forms ridges and resistant hilltops. The nearly pure silica conte ...
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Schist
Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock showing pronounced schistosity. This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a low-power hand lens, oriented in such a way that the rock is easily split into thin flakes or plates. This texture (geology), texture reflects a high content of platy minerals, such as micas, talc, chlorite group, chlorite, or graphite. These are often interleaved with more granular minerals, such as feldspar or quartz. Schist typically forms during regional metamorphism accompanying the process of mountain building (orogeny) and usually reflects a medium Metamorphism#Metamorphic grades, grade of metamorphism. Schist can form from many different kinds of rocks, including sedimentary rocks such as mudstones and igneous rocks such as tuffs. Schist metamorphosed from mudstone is particularly common and is often very rich in mica (a ''mica schist''). Where the type of the original rock (the protolith) is discernible, the schist is us ...
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Feldspathic
Feldspars are a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagioclase'' (sodium-calcium) feldspars and the ''alkali'' (potassium-sodium) feldspars. Feldspars make up about 60% of the Earth's crust, and 41% of the Earth's continental crust by weight. Feldspars crystalize from magma as both intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks and are also present in many types of metamorphic rock. Rock formed almost entirely of calcic plagioclase feldspar is known as anorthosite. Feldspars are also found in many types of sedimentary rocks. Compositions The feldspar group of minerals consists of tectosilicates, silicate minerals in which silicon ions are linked by shared oxygen ions to form a three-dimensional network. Compositions of major elements in common feldspars can be expressed in terms of three endmembers: * potassium feldspar (K-spar) en ...
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Hondo Group
The Hondo Group is a group of geologic formations that crops out in most of the Precambrian-cored uplifts of northern New Mexico. Detrital zircon geochronology gives a maximum age for the lower Hondo Group of 1765 to 1704 million years ( Mya), corresponding to the Statherian period. Geology The Hondo Group consists of a lower very clean quartzite (the Ortega Formation) and upper schists, quartzites, and slates. The total thickness is about .Montgomery 1953 The upper section is absent in the Tusas Mountains, where the Hondo Group is essentially synonymous with the Ortega Formation. The upper section is assigned to the Rinconada Formation in the Picuris Mountains. The most complete section is in the northern Picuris Mountains, where the Hondo Group fills an overturned syncline. Detrital zircon geochronology establishes an age for the lower Hondo Group of 1765 to 1704 Mya.Jones ''et al.'' 2011 The Pilar and Piedra Lumbre Formations were originally included in the Hondo Group. H ...
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Mya (unit)
Mya may refer to: Brands and product names * Mya (program), an intelligent personal assistant created by Motorola * Mya (TV channel), an Italian Television channel * Midwest Young Artists, a comprehensive youth music program Codes * Burmese language, ISO 639-3 code is * Moruya Airport's IATA code * The IOC, license plate, and UNDP country code for Myanmar ("MYA") People * Mya (given name) * Mya (singer) (Mya Marie Harrison, born 1979), an American R&B singer-songwriter and actress * Bo Mya (1927–2006), nom de guerre of a Myanmar rebel leader, chief rapist of the Karen National Union Other uses * ''Mýa'' (album), a 1998 album by Mýa * ''Mya'' (bivalve), a genus of soft-shell clams * MYA (unit) for "million years ago", a science-related unit of time used in astronomy, geology and biology See also * A (motor yacht) (M/Y A), a superyacht * Maia (other) * Maya (other) Maya may refer to: Civilizations * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and norther ...
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