SELECTED ARTICLES
SELECTED ARTICLES
*former Ph.D. student;
†postdoctoral research scientist or fellow.
1. Deformation and Basin Formation along Strike-slip Faults
This paper, which is my most highly cited, was an outgrowth of lectures prepared for Exxon schools in structural analysis and basin tectonics in the early 1980s, and my six years in southern California. It still represents one of the best available summaries of the geological attributes of strike-slip basins. Kevin Biddle, who joined Exxon just two years before I did, remained with the corporation, and is currently ExxonMobil’s vice-president for Africa.
Christie-Blick, N., and Biddle, K.T., 1985, Deformation and basin formation along strike-slip faults, in Biddle, K.T., and Christie-Blick, N., eds., Strike-Slip Deformation, Basin Formation, and Sedimentation: Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists Special Publication No. 37, p. 1-34.
2. Sequence stratigraphy in Proterozoic successions [download PDF 532 KB]
This paper and two Geological Society of America abstracts published in 1985 represent the first application of sequence stratigraphic principles in Proterozoic rocks.
Christie-Blick, N., †Grotzinger, J.P., and von der Borch, C.C., 1988, Sequence stratigraphy in Proterozoic successions: Geology, v. 16, p. 100-104.
3. Pre-Mesozoic palinspastic reconstruction of the eastern Great Basin (western United States) [download PDF 2.4 MB]
In putting together a pre-Mesozoic palinspastic reconstruction for the eastern Great Basin, we made two simplifying assumptions. One was to accept the recently published pre-Miocene reconstruction of Wernicke et al. (1988) for the transect between the Sierra Nevada and Colorado Plateau at the latitude of Las Vegas. The other was to assume on the basis of available paleomagnetic data that the Sierra Nevada had experienced little or no net rotation. Initially presented as a poster at the Denver Centennial meeting of the Geological Society of America in 1988, the reconstruction attracted a lot of attention. Given what we have learned over the past few years in the central Basin and Range Province (e.g., Anders et al., 2006, Journal of Geology, v. 114, p. 645-664; Renik et al., 2008, Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 78, p.199-219), I suspect that the magnitude of late Cenozoic crustal extension is rather less than we assumed.
*Levy, M., and Christie-Blick, N., 1989, Pre-Mesozoic palinspastic reconstruction of the eastern Great Basin (western United States): Science, v. 245, p. 1454-1462.
4. Working hypotheses for the origin of the Wonoka canyons (Neoproterozoic) [download PDF 12 MB]
This paper focuses on a series of intriguing kilometer-deep incised valleys of late Neoproterozoic age in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia. It’s significance is in working through the full range of explanations permitted by available evidence at that time. Field work completed in the 1990s, but not yet properly published, reinforced the view that the canyons were cut subaerially, most likely as a result of the desiccation of a marine embayment temporarily cut off from the open ocean.
Christie-Blick, N., von der Borch, C.C., DiBona, P.A., 1990, Working hypotheses for the origin of the Wonoka canyons (Neoproterozoic), South Australia: American Journal of Science, v. 290-A (Cloud volume), p. 295-332.
5. Onlap, offlap, and the origin of unconformity-bounded depositional sequences [download PDF 2.4 MB]
This paper is an extension of my 1990 National Academy of Sciences article on the seismic stratigraphic record of sea-level change, and a second attempt to communicate a conclusion that had struck me as self-evident since around 1984, but that is still not widely appreciated or accepted. Unconformities or sequence boundaries develop over a finite interval of geological time, not instantaneously, and they don’t necessarily have anything to do with sea-level change.
Christie-Blick, N., 1991, Onlap, offlap, and the origin of unconformity-bounded depositional sequences: Marine Geology, v. 97, p. 35-56.
6. Tectonic subsidence of the early Paleozoic passive continental margin in eastern California and southern Nevada [download PDF 1.8 MB]
The significance of this paper is that we investigated the subsidence history of a Cambro-Ordovician passive continental margin in a region in which post-rift thermal subsidence can be compared directly with evidence for crustal extension in underlying Proterozoic rocks. The mismatch that emerged, and that later work indicates is common at younger passive margins, is best explained by inhomogeneous extension of the continental lithosphere. The paper is notable also for quantifying early Paleozoic eustatic change. Most of what passes for sea-level change in the Paleozoic literature is a local assessment of changes in paleowater depth (a different term in the backstripping equation). Subsequent revision of the Cambrian timescale only amplifies the basic conclusions, though details could be usefully revisited.
*Levy, M., and Christie-Blick, N., 1991, Tectonic subsidence of the early Paleozoic passive continental margin in eastern California and southern Nevada: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 103, p. 1590-1606.
7. Is the Sevier Desert reflection of west-central Utah a normal fault?
The abundance of healed and partially healed microfractures in quartz particles recovered from cuttings from two wells in the Sevier Desert is invariant with depth, contrary to what might be expected above a detachment fault with several tens of kilometers of displacement. This paper was very controversial at the time because the existence of a regional-scale low-angle normal fault had been generally accepted since the mid-1970s, based upon the interpretation of seismic reflection data. Not much changed in that regard over the next decade or so, in spite of a series of papers extending the initial conclusions (e.g., Anders et al., 2001, Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 113, p. 895-907; Wills et al., 2005, American Journal of Science, v. 305, p. 42-100; Christie-Blick et al., 2007, Geological Society of London Special Publication No. 282, p. 419-439). However, strong community support has emerged for scientific drilling and making in situ measurements in the Sevier Desert basin, under the auspices of the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program, to test the detachment hypothesis and to determine the conditions under which the fault may have slipped.
Anders, M.H., and Christie-Blick, N., 1994, Is the Sevier Desert reflection of west-central Utah a normal fault?: Geology, v. 22, p. 771-774.
8. Sequence stratigraphy [download PDF 2 MB]
This paper tends to be cited more frequently than it is read. The intent was to balance the generally accepted essence of sequence stratigraphy with an evaluation of practical shortcomings – foremost of which are the subjective interpretation of systems tracts, and a tendency to ignore the role of tectonic phenomena, even in sedimentary basins in which stratal geometry is clearly influenced by deformation. I credit Rex Cole of Unocal (and now Mesa State College) for drawing my attention to the absence of detached lowstand sandstones in the late Cretaceous foreland of eastern Utah and western Colorado – unintentionally providing critical support for the idea that in most sedimentary basins, incised valleys are fundamentally highstand rather than lowstand features.
Christie-Blick, N., and *Driscoll, N.W., 1995, Sequence stratigraphy: Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, v. 23, p. 451-478.
9. Sequence stratigraphy and the interpretation of Neoproterozoic earth history [download PDF 2.3 MB]
This paper deals with practical issues for the sequence stratigraphic interpretation of Proterozoic successions, with examples drawn from the Flinders Ranges of South Australia. It also makes a specific recommendation for the location of what became the base-Ediacaran Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) from the perspective of sequence stratigraphy.
Christie-Blick, N., Dyson, I.A., and von der Borch, C.C., 1995, Sequence stratigraphy and the interpretation of Neoproterozoic earth history, in Knoll, A.H., and Walter, M., eds., Neoproterozoic Stratigraphy and Earth History: Precambrian Research, v. 73 (special volume), p. 3-26.
10. Paleomagnetic polarity reversals in Marinoan (ca. 600 Ma) glacial deposits of Australia: Implications for the duration of low-latitude glaciation in Neoproterozoic time [download PDF 1.8 MB]
More than 40 years after Brian Harland first floated the idea of Proterozoic equatorial glaciation, Linda Sohl’s paper provided definitive evidence for the near-depositional age of the low-inclination C component of magnetization in the glaciogenic Elatina Formation (a positive regional fold test, and evidence for multiple polarity reversals). Initial data were first presented to a packed room at the 1995 annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, and they materially influenced the development of the snowall Earth hypothesis (P.F. Hoffman et al., 1998, Science, v. 281, p. 1342-1346). Linda deserves credit for collecting a set of pilot samples during her first field season in Australia (1993), in spite of my lukewarm support for tackling a problem that had long stymied those with considerably more experience in paleomagnetics. That things worked out was due to a combination of good luck, and dogged processing of a huge number of samples. Ironically, while the snowball Earth contributed to a sea change in opinion, from general doubt about the viability of equatorial glaciation to widespread support for the idea that the Earth may have remained totally ice-covered for millions of years under what were effectively super-greenhouse conditions, the hypothesis failed more or less immediately to withstand scrutiny (e.g., Christie-Blick et al., 1999, Science, v. 284, p. 1087; Kennedy et al., 2001, Geology, v. 29, p. 1135-1138).
*†Sohl, L.E., Christie-Blick, N., and Kent, D.V., 1999, Paleomagnetic polarity reversals in Marinoan (ca. 600 Ma) glacial deposits of Australia: Implications for the duration of low-latitude glaciation in Neoproterozoic time: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 111, p. 1120-1139.
11. Are Proterozoic cap carbonates and isotopic excursions a record of gas hydrate destabilization following Earth's coldest intervals? [download PDF 220 KB]
This is the first of a series of papers promoting an alternative to the snowball Earth. Martin Kennedy and I had spent a field season in Australia in 1995 looking at weird fabrics that he had first noted are widely developed in cap carbonates (Kennedy, 1996, Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 66, p. 1050-1064), and I had become intrigued by Gerry Dickens’s explanation for the late Paleocene carbon isotope excursion in terms of the degradation of methane hydrates. We reasoned that methane hydrates ought to have been extraordinarily abundant on a planet sufficiently cold to support low-latitude glaciation. So we suggested methane release as a way to account for diverse evidence for syn-depositional disruption of the carbonates and, at a global scale, for the marked negative carbon isotope anomaly with which they are commonly associated.
†Kennedy, M.J., Christie-Blick, N., and *†Sohl, L.E., 2001, Are Proterozoic cap carbonates and isotopic excursions a record of gas hydrate destabilization following Earth's coldest intervals?: Geology, v. 29, p. 443-446.
12. Evaluating the stratigraphic response to eustasy from Oligocene strata in New Jersey [download PDF 312 KB]
Sequence boundaries in the New Jersey Oligocene correspond with eustatic lows, and condensed sections (intervals of sediment starvation) with eustatic highs. The conclusion is significant because according to standard concepts in sequence stratigraphy, for an up-dip location at an old passive continental margin, where rates of glacially modulated sea-level change ought to have been as much as an order of magnitude greater than the rate of subsidence, sequence boundaries would be expected to form early, as sea level began to fall. The unexpected phase lag corresponds with almost half a cycle.
†Pekar, S.F., Christie-Blick, N., Kominz, M.A., and Miller, K.G., 2001, Evaluating the stratigraphic response to eustasy from Oligocene strata in New Jersey: Geology, v. 29, p. 55-58.
13. Sequence stratigraphy of the Neoproterozoic Infra Krol Formation and Krol Group, Lesser Himalaya, India [download PDF 1.7 MB]
This is a particularly nice example of sequence stratigraphic analysis in a Neoproterozoic succession, with intriguing implications for chemostratigraphy in old rocks. The paper also departs markedly from previously published interpretations of Lesser Himalayan stratigraphy and sedimentology. Regional stratigraphic discontinuities were traced over a distance of nearly 300 km in an oblique cross-section through the Krol platform. Three of the surfaces are interpreted as sequence boundaries on the basis of locally developed incised valleys and breccia-filled paleokarstic depressions. Inconsistencies in the stratigraphic location of carbon isotopic minima with respect to unconformities raise doubts about the interpretation of such data in isolated sections elsewhere. That it took an additional four years to publish the details of the geochemical data (Kaufman et al., 2006, Precambrian Research, v. 147, p. 156-185), with minimal conclusions, reflects a continuing lack of agreement among the authors with respect to the significance of those data. A companion paper (Jiang et al., Sedimentology, v. 50, p. 921-952) deals with details of the sedimentology and sedimentary cyclicity.
*Jiang Ganqing, Christie-Blick, N., Kaufman, A.J., Banerjee, D.M., and Rai, V., 2002, Sequence stratigraphy of the Neoproterozoic Infra Krol Formation and Krol Group, Lesser Himalaya, India: Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 72, p. 524-543.
14. Calibration between eustatic estimates from backstripping and oxygen isotopic records for the Oligocene [download PDF 480 KB]
A long-standing goal in the quantification of ancient sea-level change was to merge constraints from passive continental margins with deep-sea oxygen isotope data. This paper is notable for accomplishing that goal for the first time, and for deriving the first pre-Pleistocene calibration between sea-level change and δ18O (0.10‰-0.13‰/10 m for Oligocene time). The paper also draws attention to the important difference between eustasy and what we term apparent sea-level change. In the case of eustasy, the reference frame is the center of the Earth, or at least a continental interior acting as a proxy for stability.). As sea level rises and falls eustatically, flooded portions of the crust undergo water loading or unloading, so that observed fluctuations in water depth (apparent sea-level change) exceed the eustatic changes that were responsible by a factor of ~1.48. The oxygen isotope calibration refers to this larger figure.
†Pekar, S.F., Christie-Blick, N., Kominz, M.A., and Miller, K.G., 2002, Calibration between eustatic estimates from backstripping and oxygen isotopic records for the Oligocene: Geology, v. 30, p. 903-906.
15. Quantitative constraints on the origin of stratigraphic architecture at passive continental margins: Oligocene sedimentation in New Jersey, U.S.A.
This article is the last of a series that Steve Pekar and I put together as an extension of his Ph.D. research at Rutgers University. The unifying idea for the paper was to evaluate all of the factors governing Oligocene sedimentation and sequence development at the New Jersey margin. Among key conclusions: The unexpected correspondence of sequence boundaries with eustatic minima and the absence of lowstand deposits in this example relates to an active wave climate that permitted the efficient transfer of sediment across the shallow shelf, and prevented the development of point sources. The paper was selected as the outstanding contribution in the Journal of Sedimentary Research for 2003. Ironically, given the general significance of the conclusions, the paper had yet to garner a single literature citation at the time the award was made two years after publication.
†Pekar, S.F., Christie-Blick, N., Miller, K.G., and Kominz, M.A., 2003, Quantitative constraints on the origin of stratigraphic architecture at passive continental margins: Oligocene sedimentation in New Jersey, U.S.A.: Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 73, p. 227-243.
16. Stable isotopic evidence for methane seeps in Neoproterozoic postglacial cap carbonates [download PDF 564 KB]
An obvious criticism of the methane hydrate hypothesis (Kennedy et al., 2001, Geology, v. 29, p. 443-446) was the apparent absence of the large local variations in carbon isotopic composition that might be expected in the vicinity of cold seeps. Analyses of limestone peloids, clots and fringing cements in marine tepee-like structures in the Doushantuo cap carbonate of South China reveal δ13C values ranging from +5‰ to –41‰. Comparable data have now been obtained at other locations. Among implications: dolomitization of the cap in many places may have resulted in partial re-equilibration of isotopic values, as we had long suspected.
*Jiang Ganqing, †Kennedy, M.J., and Christie-Blick, N., 2003, Stable isotopic evidence for methane seeps in Neoproterozoic postglacial cap carbonates: Nature, v. 426, p. 822-826.
17. Water shortages, development, and drought in Rockland County, New York [download PDF 11.6 MB]
An examination of climate data over the past century reveals that the severity of recent droughts in Rockland County in the suburbs of New York City is well within the range of past variability. Rather than climate alone, shortfalls in the domestic water supply, beginning in the 1990s, are due to an increasing mismatch between supply and demand as the population of the county increased over several decades. The situation is not likely to improve so long as planning and zoning in the State of New York remain effectively decoupled from decision-making with respect to water resources.
Lyon, B., Christie-Blick, N., and Gluzberg, Y., 2005, Water shortages, development, and drought in Rockland County, New York: Journal of American Water Resources Association, December, p. 1457-1469.
18. Observations from the Basin and Range Province (western United States) pertinent to the interpretation of regional detachment faults [download PDF 1.1 MB]
Studies over several years in three areas of the Basin and Range Province cast doubt on the interpretation of specific regional detachment faults and the large extensional strains with which such faults are commonly associated. The Sevier Desert detachment of west-central Utah is reinterpreted as an unconformity aligned down dip in some profiles with a Mesozoic thrust fault, though that view has not been generally accepted by the structural geological community (see above). The Mormon Peak detachment of southeastern Nevada is reinterpreted as the basal contact of a series of Miocene slide blocks (see Anders et al., 2006, Journal of Geology, v. 114, p. 645-664). That conclusion is also strongly disputed by those responsible for the rooted fault interpretation. Re-evaluation of middle Miocene deposits in eastern California shows that they cannot be used as a piercing point to constrain large-scale extension and displacement on detachment faults across the Death Valley region (Renik et al., 2008, Journal of Sedimentary Research, in press). The lead author of the original published study (N.A. Niemi) joined us as a co-author.
Christie-Blick, N., Anders, M.H., Wills, S., Walker, C.D., and *Renik, B., 2007, Observations from the Basin and Range Province (western United States) pertinent to the interpretation of regional detachment faults, in Karner, G.D., Manatschal, G., and Pinheiro, L.M., eds., Imaging, Mapping and Modelling Continental Lithosphere Extension and Breakup: Geological Society of London Special Publication No. 282, p. 419-439.
19. Is there a role for sequence stratigraphy in chronostratigraphy?
Sequence stratigraphy provides a useful framework for local or regional stratigraphic interpretation. However, a lack of consensus on criteria for recognizing, mapping and hence dating sequence boundaries, interpretations of uneven quality, and doubts about the universal eustatic origin and synchrony of unconformity-related sequences limit the usefulness of sequence stratigraphy in chronostratigraphy.
Christie-Blick, N., †Pekar, S.F., and *Madof, A.S., 2007, Is there a role for sequence stratigraphy in chronostratigraphy?: Stratigraphy, v. 4, No. 2/3, p. 131-143.
20. Re-evaluation of the middle Miocene Eagle Mountain Formation, and its significance as a piercing point for the interpretation of extreme extension across the Death Valley region, California [download PDF 13.5 MB]
A sedimentological and stratigraphic re-evaluation of the middle Miocene Eagle Mountain Formation at Eagle Mountain, California, indicates that deposition took place in a fluvial-lacustrine setting. The result is important because the presence of distinctive clasts as large as boulders derived from the Hunter Mountain batholith of the Cottonwood Mountains, combined with an alluvial fan interpretation for the conglomerate in which the clasts are found, has been regarded as providing definitive, independent support for long-hypothesized, large-scale crustal extension across the Death Valley region.
*Renik, B., Christie-Blick, N., Troxel, B.W., Wright, L.A., and Niemi, N.A., 2008, Re-evaluation of the middle Miocene Eagle Mountain Formation and its significance as a piercing point for the interpretation of extreme extension across the Death Valley region, California, U.S.A.: Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 78, p. 199-219.