Southwestern Utah has an essentially complete Cenomanian- Turonian stratigraphic record of the transgressive-regressive cycle along the western margin of the Greenhorn Sea which also records the early history of the Sevier orogenic foreland basin. This project will develop lithostratigraphic, biostratigraphic, and radiometric means of correlation across the entire sequence. As the marine part of the cycle has already been studied in some detail and correlated regionally, research will concentrate on marginal marine and terrestrial deposits and faunas. Correlation of these strata is critical for interpretation of the evolution of the Sevier orogenic foreland basin. Detailed measured sections will be taken and brackish water faunas and terrestrial faunas will be examined throughout the sequence. Radiometric dates will be employed to constrain and test correlations. This record of marginal marine and terrestrial taxa will be the most extensive of this age in the world and will allow for evaluation of extinction and evolutionary patterns of marine through terrestrial communities during a single transgressvie-regressive marine cycle.
