A tectono-stratigraphic study of a sequence of Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous continental sediments in the Cordilleran Foreland Basin in Wyoming and Montana is proposed. The objective of the study is to determine the local and regional sedimentary responses within the foreland both to external structural events and internal basin partitioning by ancestral Laramide basement uplifts. Fission-track and magnetostratigraphic dating techniques will be used to temporarily relate sedimentary responses to specific tectonic events. Results of the study will form the basis for an integrative sedimentary-tectonic model for the early phase of evolution of the Cordilleran Foreland Basin. The model likely will provide important new constraints on theoretical attempts to predict foreland lithosphere response to external tectonic events.
