Publication Date

7-1-2022

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Bulletin of the Geological Society of America

Volume

134

Issue

7-8

DOI

10.1130/B36426.1

First Page

2172

Last Page

2176

Abstract

We welcome the comment by Evans (2022) and the opportunity to further discuss our study of the Chumstick Formation. The correlation of fault-bound nonmarine sedimentary units in central and western Washington has been a topic of interest, and debate, for many years (Frizzell, 1979; Taylor et al., 1988; Gresens et al., 1981; Gresens, 1983; Evans and Johnson, 1989; Evans, 1994; Cheney and Hayman, 2009). However, many questions about the regional correlation of these units were resolved with the publication of a suite of internally consistent high-precision 206Pb/238U zircon dates from volcanic interbeds throughout the early to middle Eocene stratigraphy (Eddy et al., 2016). This data set confirmed the timing of sediment deposition of the different members within the Chumstick Formation. Donaghy et al. (2021) provides a detailed study of the Chumstick Formation, which builds on earlier research by Gresens et al. (1981, 1983), McClincy (1986), and Evans (1994) by incorporating new geochronologic information and additional clast counts, detrital zircon geochronology, and facies mapping. We interpret large parts of the Chumstick Formation to represent a spatially and temporally distinct sedimentary system between the Leavenworth and Entiat fault zones that likely formed as a pull-apart basin. Evans (2022) objects to several of the interpretations presented in Donaghy et al. (2021) regarding the relationship between different members of the Chumstick Formation and surrounding sedimentary units, the timing of strike-slip faulting, and the regional tectonic setting of these rocks. We discuss each of these points in the following sections.

Funding Number

EAR-1119063

Funding Sponsor

National Science Foundation

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Geology

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