Mario Lira

Research

Sequence stratigraphy and detrital zircon geochronology of the Eureka Quartzite Formation, western Utah and eastern Nevada

The Middle-Late Ordovician Eureka Quartzite is a supermature quartz arenite that was deposited along the Early Paleozoic passive margin of western Laurentia. The Eureka Quartzite and its equivalents are unique in that they are the only significant mature siliciclastic within carbonate-dominated Cambrian-Devonian deposits along the Cordilleran margin. The quartz arenites are either absent or relatively thin across a broad area in Utah and Nevada called the Tooele Arch, a western oriented topographic high. This formation thins from Lakeside, Utah to Ruby, Nevada where the Tooele Arch subdivides the western Utah Middle Ordovician rocks into the west-central Utah Ibex basin and the northern Utah basin The primary objective of this study is to determine if the Tooele Arch contributed sediment to the Eureka Quartzite by using detrital zircon geochronology to constrain the age of the sands and determine provenance. A sequence stratigraphic study of these locations will provide an insight into depositional settings and relative sediment distribution patterns between study locations.

Awards

GSA Research Grant, April 2013

Department of Geology & Geophysics Scholarship, Fall 2012

Foundation Excellence Award, Fall 2008-Spring 2012

Texas A&M University Regents' Scholarship, Fall 2008-Spring 2012

Memberships

American Association of Petroleum Geologists

Geological Society of America