High-Latitude Depositional Systems, Provenance, and Basinal Setting of the Late Cretaceous Cantwell Basin, Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska: A Stratigraphic Framework for Paleontological and Paleoclimatic Studies

The Cantwell Formation of the central Alaska Range provides a robust archive high-latitude, Late Cretaceous depositional systems and paleo-floral/faunal assemblages. Our stratigraphic analysis defines two mappable members. lower member (1500–2000 m thick) represents vegetated alluvial fan braided fluvial that transition up-section to fluvial–estuarine drained into an inland continental seaway. upper (~2000 estuarine–marginal marine lacustrine systems. Previous paleontological studies demonstrate basin was populated by various dinosaurs, fishes, bivalves, birds, marginal micro-organisms. Integration new published geologic mapping allows for reconstruction at scale additional paleogeographic context. northern margin defined previously unrecognized south-verging thrust belt, whereas southern north-verging belt inboard active magmatic arc. Sediment sources interpreted from U-Pb detrital zircon geochronology included coeval arc older plutons, Proterozoic–Mesozoic strata exhumed along margins. Results our study provide depositional, stratigraphic, structural framework may serve as guide future paleoclimatic investigations Arctic environments basin.