Hawk, J.M., 1986, Lithospheric flexure, overthrust timing, and stratigraphic modeling of the central Brooks Range and Colville Foredeep (Alaska): Houston, Texas, Rice University, M.A. thesis, 179 p., illust., maps.
The Colville Foredeep in Northern Alaska formed contemporaneously with the overthrusts of the Mesozoic Brooks Range orogeny. A balanced cross section and palinspastic restoration through the central Brooks Range foothills provides the data base used to model the development of the Colville Foredeep. Quantitative modeling of the stratigraphic record of the foredeep is used to constrain the properties of the underlying lithosphere and the timing, size, and distribution of the Brooks Range overthrusts. I think temperature-dependent viscoelastic lithosphere best approximates the stratigraphy of the Colville Foredeep. Two-dimensional modeling of the overthrusts shows the allochthons initially to be emplaced onto a pre-existing continental margin. The total thickness of the stacked overthrusts varies from 4.5 mi (7.2 km) to 19 mi (30.5 km) with the greatest thickness in the southern Brooks Range and Yukon-Koyukuk basin provinces.
Theses and Dissertations
