Description

GSA Special Paper 533

William R. Dickinson (1931–2015) formally retired in 1991, but he didn’t stop working, researching, and writing. His work with University of Arizona professor George Gehrels on identifying sandstone provenance using detrital-zircon U-Pb geochronology led to the determination that much of the Pennsylvanian to Jurassic sandstone of the Colorado Plateau was derived from the orogenic belt now associated with the Appalachian Mountains. Further detrital-zircon studies led to Dickinson preparing this publication in order to identify key aspects of the sedimentary and tectonic history of Mesozoic strata of the Colorado Plateau and directly adjacent areas. Dickinson divided the strata into seven depositional systems, but completed writing on only the lower five (Moenkopi, Chinle, Glen Canyon, San Rafael, Morrison) before his death in July 2015. The manuscript, however, was comprehensive in its treatment of upper Paleozoic strata and the lower five Mesozoic “deposystems,” and an abstract and concluding text by Jon Spencer helped to complete the work.