Part 7

The enormous section of Tertiary sedimentary rocks in the Jackson Hole area (table 5) is one of the most impressive in North America. If the maximum thicknesses of all formations were added, they would total more than 6 miles, but nowhere did this amount of rock accumulate in a single unbroken sequence. No other region in the United States contains a thicker or more complete nonmarine Tertiary record; many areas have little or none. The accumulation in Jackson Hole reflects active uplifts of nearby mountains that supplied abundant rock debris, concurrent sinking of nearby basins in which the sediments could be preserved, and proximity to the great Yellowstone-Absaroka volcanic area, one of the most active continental volcanic fields in the United States. The volume and composition of the Tertiary strata are, therefore, clear evidence of crustal and subcrustal instability.

The many thick layers of conglomerate are evidence of rapid erosion of nearby highlands. The Pinyon Conglomerate (fig. 45), for example, contains zones as much as 2,500 feet thick of remarkably well-rounded pebbles, cobbles, and boulders, chiefly of quartzite identical with that in the underlying Harebell Formation and derived from the same source, the Targhee uplift. Like the Harebell the matrix contains small amounts of gold and mercury. Rock fragments increase in size northwestward toward the source area (fig. 46) and most show percussion scars, evidence of ferocious pounding that occurred during transport by powerful, swift rivers and steep gradients.

Conglomerates such as the Pinyon are not the only clue to the time of mountain building. Another type of evidence—faults—is demonstrated in figure 16. The youngest rocks cut by a fault are always older than the fault. Many faults and the rocks on each side are covered by still younger unbroken sediments. These must, therefore, have been deposited after fault movement ceased. By dating both the faulted and the overlying unbroken sediments, the time of fault movement can be bracketed.

Observations of this type in western Wyoming indicate that the Laramide Revolution reached a climax during earliest Eocene time, 50 to 55 million years ago. Mountain-producing upwarps formed during this episode were commonly bounded on one side by either reverse or thrust faults (fig. 16B and 16C) and intervening blocks were downfolded into large, very deep basins. The amount of movement of the mountain blocks over the basins ranged from tens of miles in the Snake River, Salt River, Wyoming, and Hoback Ranges directly south of the Tetons to less than 5 miles on the east margin of Jackson Hole (the west flank of the Washakie Range shown in figure 1). The ancestral Teton-Gros Ventre uplift continued to rise but remained one of the less conspicuous mountain ranges in the region (fig. 47).

The Buck Mountain fault, the great reverse fault which lies just west of the highest Teton peaks (see geologic map and cross section), was formed either at this time or during a later episode of movement that also involved the southwest margin of the Gros Ventre Mountains. The Buck Mountain fault is of special importance because it raised a segment of Precambrian rocks several thousand feet. Later, when the entire range as we now know it was uplifted by movement along the Teton fault, the hard basement rocks in this previously upfaulted segment continued to stand much higher than those in adjacent parts of the range. All of the major peaks in the Tetons are carved from this doubly uplifted block.

The brightly colored sandstone, mudstone, and claystone in the Indian Meadows and Wind River Formations (lower Eocene) in the eastern part of Jackson Hole were derived from variegated Triassic, Jurassic, and Lower Cretaceous rocks exposed on the adjacent mountain flanks. Fossils in these Eocene Formations show that it took less than 10 million years for the uplifts to be deeply eroded and partially buried in their own debris.

The Laramide Revolution in the area of Grand Teton National Park ended during Eocene time between 45 and 50 million years ago, and as the mountains and basins became stabilized a new element was added. Volcanoes broke through to the surface in many parts of the Yellowstone-Absaroka area and the constantly increasing volume of their eruptive debris was a major factor in the speed of filling of basins and burial of mountains throughout Wyoming. This entire process only took about 20 million years, and along the east margin of Jackson Hole it was largely completed during Oligocene time (fig. 48). However, east and northeast of Jackson Lake a Miocene downwarp subsequently formed and in it accumulated at least 7,000 feet of locally derived sediments of volcanic origin.

The First Big Lake

_Teewinot Lake_ (fig. 49), the first big freshwater lake in Jackson Hole, was formed during Pliocene time, about 10 million years ago, and in it the Teewinot Formation was deposited. These lake strata consist of more than 5,000 feet of white limestone, thin-bedded claystone, and _tuff_ (solidified ash made up of tiny fragments of volcanic rock and splinters of volcanic glass). The claystones contain fossil snails, clams, beaver bones and teeth, aquatic mice, suckers, and other fossils that indicate deposition in a shallow freshwater lake environment. These beds underlie Jackson Lake Lodge, the National Elk Refuge, part of Blacktail Butte, and are conspicuously exposed in white outcrops that look like snowbanks on the upper slopes along the east margin of the park across the valley from the Grand Teton.

Teewinot Lake was formed on a down-faulted block and was dammed behind (north of) a fault that trends east across the floor of Jackson Hole at the south boundary of the park. Lakes are among the most short-lived of earth features because the forces of nature soon conspire to fill them up or empty them. This lake existed for perhaps 5 million years during middle Pliocene time; it was shallow, and remained so despite the pouring in of a mile-thick layer of sediment. This indicates that downdropping of the lake floor just about kept pace with deposition.

_Uintatherium_ 6-horned, saber-toothed plant eater _Stylinodon_ gnawing-toothed mammal _Palaeosyops_ early titanothere _Helaletes_ primitive tapir _Sciuravus_ squirrel-like rodent _Smilodectes_ lemurlike monkey _Trogosus_ gnawing-toothed mammal _Hyrachyus_ fleet-footed rhinoceros _Ischyrotomus_ marmotlike rodent _Homacodon_ even-toed hoofed animal _Orohippus_ ancestral horse _Patriofelis_ large flesh eater _Mesonyx_ hyenalike mammal _Helohyus_ even-toed hoofed mammal _Metacheiromys_ armadillolike edentate _Machaeroides_ saber-toothed mammal _Hyopsodus_ clawed, plant-eating mammal _Saniwa_ monitorlike lizard _Crocodilus_ crocodile _Echmatemys_ turtle

Other lakes formed in response to similar crustal movements in nearby places. One such lake, _Grand Valley Lake_ (fig. 49), formed about 25 miles southwest of Teewinot Lake; both contained sediments with nearly the same thickness, composition, appearance, age, and fossils. Although these two lakes are on opposite sides of the Snake River Range, the ancestral Snake River apparently flowed through a canyon previously cut across the range and provided a direct connection between them.

Development of mammals

The Cenozoic Era is known as the “Age of Mammals.” Small mammals had already existed, though quite inconspicuously, in Wyoming for about 90 million years before Paleocene time. Then about 65 million years ago their proliferation began as a result of the extinction of dinosaurs, obliteration of seaways that were barriers to distribution, and the development of new and varied types of environment. These new environments included savannah plains, low hills and high mountains, freshwater lakes and swamps, and extensive river systems. The mammals increased in size and, for the first time, became abundant in numbers of both species and individuals. The development and widespread distribution of grasses and other forage on which many of the animals depended were highly significant. Successful adaptation of _herbivores_ (vegetation-eating animals) led, in turn, to increased varieties and numbers of predatory _carnivores_ (meat-eating animals).

During early Eocene time, coal swamps formed in eastern Jackson Hole and persisted for thousands of years, as is shown by 60 feet of coal in a single bed at one locality. Continuing on into middle Eocene time, the climate was subtropical and humid, and the terrain was near sea level. Tropical breadfruits, figs, and magnolias flourished along with a more temperate flora of redwood, hickory, maple, and oak. Horses the size of a dog and many other small mammals were abundant. Primates, thriving in an ideal forest habitat, were numerous. Streams contained gar fish and crocodiles (fig. 50).

_Trigonias_ early rhinoceros _Perchoerus_ early peccary _Mesohippus_ 3-toed horse _Aepinacodon_ remote relative of hippopotamus _Archaeotherium_ giant piglike mammal _Protoceras_ bizarre horned ruminant _Hesperocyon_ ancestral dog _Hyracodon_ small fleet-footed rhinoceros _Poëbrotherium_ ancestral camel _Hypisodus_ very small chevrotainlike ruminant _Ictops_ small insect-eating mammal _Brontotherium_ titanothere _Protapirus_ ancestral tapir _Glyptosaurus_ extinct lizard _Hoplophoneus_ saber-toothed cat _Subhyracodon_ early rhinoceros _Merycoidodon_ sheeplike grazing mammal _Hyaenodon_ archaic hyenalike mammal _Hypertragulus_ chevrotainlike ruminant

Early in the Oligocene Epoch, between 30 and 35 million years ago, the climate in Jackson Hole became cooler and drier, and the subtropical plants gave way to the warm temperate flora of oak, beech, maple, alder, and ash. The general land surface rose higher above sea level, perhaps by accumulation of several thousand feet of Oligocene volcanic rocks (fig. 52) rather than by continental uplift. _Titanotheres_ (large four-legged mammals with the general size and shape of a rhinoceros) flourished in great numbers for a few million years and then abruptly vanished. Horses by now were about the size of a very small modern colt. Rabbits, rodents, carnivores, tiny camels, and other mammals were abundant in Jackson Hole, and the fauna, surprisingly, was essentially the same as that 500 miles to the east, at a much lower elevation, on the plains of Nebraska and South Dakota (fig. 51).

The Miocene Epoch (15 to 25 million years ago) was the time of such intense volcanic activity in the Teton region that animals must have found survival very difficult. A few skeletons and fragmentary parts of camels about the size of a small horse and other piglike animals called _oreodonts_ comprise our only record of mammals; nothing is known of the plants. Farther east the climate fluctuated from subtropical to warm temperate, gradually becoming cooler toward the end of the epoch.

Fossils in the Pliocene lake deposits (8 to 10 million years old; see description of Teewinot Formation) include shallow-water types of snails, clams, diatoms, and ostracodes, as well as beavers, mice, suckers, and frogs. Pollen in these beds show that adjacent upland areas supported fir, spruce, pine, juniper, sage, and other trees and shrubs common to the area today. Therefore, the climate must have been much cooler than in Miocene time. No large mammals of Pliocene age have been found in Jackson Hole. The record of life during Quaternary time is discussed later.

Volcanoes

Volcanoes are one of the most interesting parts of the geologic story of the Teton region. Although ash from distant volcanoes had settled in northwestern Wyoming at least as far back in time as Jurassic, the first nearby active volcanoes (since the Precambrian) erupted in the Yellowstone-Absaroka region during the early Eocene, about 50 million years ago. From then on, the volcanic area grew in size and the violence of eruptions and volume of debris increased until Pliocene time. This debris had a profound influence on the color and composition of the sediments and on the environment and types of plants and animals.

The color of the volcanic rocks and the sediments derived from them varies significantly from one epoch to another. For example, the middle Eocene rocks are white to light-green, red, and purple, upper Eocene are dark-green, Oligocene are light-gray, white, and brown, Miocene are dark-green, brown, and gray, and Pliocene are white to red-brown.

As mentioned earlier, it is probable that the vast outpouring of volcanic rocks during late Tertiary time in the Teton region and to the north and northeast is directly related to the subsidence of Jackson Hole and the rise of the Tetons.

The spectacular banded cliffs of the Wiggins Formation on both sides of Togwotee Pass (fig. 52) and farther north in the Absaroka Range are remnants of Oligocene volcanic conglomerate and tuff that once spread as a blanket several thousand feet thick across eastern Jackson Hole and partially or completely buried the nearby older folded mountain ranges.

About 25 million years ago, with the start of the Miocene Epoch, volcanic vents opened up within, and along the borders of, Grand Teton National Park. Major centers of eruption were at the north end of the Teton Range, east of Jackson Lake, and south of Spread Creek. They emitted a prodigious amount of volcanic ash and fragments of congealed lava. For example, adjacent to one vent a mile in diameter, about 4 miles north-northeast of Jackson Lake Lodge, is a continuous section, 7,000 feet thick, of waterlaid strata derived in large part from this volcanic source. These sedimentary rocks comprise the Colter Formation which is darker colored and contains more iron and magnesium than the Wiggins Formation. The site of deposition at this locality was a north-trending trough that represented an early stage in the downwarping of Jackson Hole.

Pliocene volcanoes erupted in southern and central Yellowstone Park. The volcanoes emitted viscous, frothy, pinkish-gray and brown lava called _rhyolite_. This is an extrusive igneous rock that has the same composition as granite, but is much finer grained. In several places, lava apparently flowed into the north end of Teewinot Lake, chilled suddenly, and solidified into a black volcanic glass called _obsidian_. Because it chips easily into thin flakes having a smooth surface, obsidian was prized by the Indians, who used it for spear and arrow points (fig. 54). Some of this obsidian has a potassium-argon date of 9 million years.

After Teewinot Lake was filled with sediment, the floor of Jackson Hole became a flat boulder-covered surface. Nearby vents erupted heavy fiery clouds of gaseous molten rock that rolled across this plain and then congealed into hard layers with the general appearance of lava flows. Under a microscope, however, the rock is seen to be made up of compressed fragments of glass that matted down and solidified when the clouds stopped moving. This kind of rock is called a _welded tuff_. One of these forms the conspicuous ledge in the Bivouac Formation on the north and east sides of Signal Mountain (fig. 55), and is especially important because it has a potassium-argon date of 2.5 million years. More of this _welded tuff_ flowed southward from Yellowstone National Park, engulfed the north end of the Teton Range (fig. 53), and continued southward along the west side of the mountains for 35 miles and along the east side for 25 miles.

THE LAST HUNDREDTHS ABSOLUTE TIME IMPORTANT EVENTS OF AN INCH OF THE (Years ago) YARDSTICK 0 0 Last glaciation followed by faulting ¹/₁₀₀₀ 50000 Second glaciation ²/₁₀₀₀ 100000 ?—First glaciation ⁶/₁₀₀₀ 700000 ?—Second Quaternary lake ⁸/₁₀₀₀ 1 million ?—Tilting and faulting of southern part of Jackson Hole ¹¹/₁₀₀₀ 1.3 million ?—First Quaternary lake ¹²/₁₀₀₀ 1.5 million } Complex series of volcanic eruptions in southern Jackson Hole ¹⁵/₁₀₀₀ 1.9 million } ¹⁶/₁₀₀₀ 2 million ?—Development of Hoback normal fault ²/₁₀₀ 2.5 million Eruption of welded tuff in Bivouac Formation ²⁴/₁₀₀₀ 3 million

QUATERNARY—TIME OF ICE, MORE LAKES, AND CONTINUED CRUSTAL DISTURBANCE

The Quaternary Period is represented by less than 15-thousandths of the last inch on our yardstick of time (fig. 56) and the entire Ice Age takes up less than 2-thousandths of an inch (less than the thickness of this page). Nevertheless, the spectacular effects of various forces of nature on the Teton landscape during this short interval of time are of such significance that they warrant a separate discussion. The role of glaciers in carving the rugged Teton peaks and shaping the adjacent valleys was mentioned in the first part of this booklet, but is discussed in more detail here. The magnitude and complexity of crustal movements increased during the final 2 million years of time—so much so that the beginning of Quaternary time has not yet been identified with any single event. Figure 56 shows the major events described below.

Hoback normal fault

The _Hoback normal fault_, 30 miles long, with a mile or more displacement, developed in the southernmost part of Jackson Hole about 2 million years ago. This fault is on the east side of the valley. Thus, the valley block was downdropped between this fault and the Teton fault that borders the west side.

Volcanic activity

During or shortly after major movement on the Hoback fault, and perhaps related to it, there was a complex series of volcanic eruptions west and north of the town of Jackson, along the south boundary of the park. In rapid succession, lavas of many types, with a combined thickness of more than 1,000 feet, were extruded and volcanic plugs intruded into the near-surface sedimentary rocks. These volcanic rocks can be seen on the East and West Gros Ventre Buttes.

There are no active volcanoes in the Teton region today and no postglacial lava flows or cinder cones. Five miles north of Grand Teton National Park are boiling springs (Flagg Ranch hot springs) that are associated with the youngest (late Quaternary) lavas in southern Yellowstone Park. Elsewhere in Jackson Hole are a number of lukewarm springs but their relation to volcanic rocks has not been determined.

What happened to the vast thicknesses of volcanic debris? We know they existed because sections of them have been measured on the eroded edges of uptilted folds and fault blocks. Many cubic miles of these rocks are now buried beneath the floor of Jackson Hole, but a much greater volume was carried completely out of the region by water, ice, and wind during the final chapter of geologic history.

Preglacial lakes