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Abstract The high Drakensberg of southern Africa has received considerable geomorphological interest during recent decades. In particular, there has been an ongoing debate concerning the accuracy of landform interpretations which propagate past glaciation and permafrost. This research examines the macro and micro-sedimentology of various deposits found in eastern Lesotho and compares them with possible geomorphological process origins such as debris flows, debris avalanches, mudflows, mudslides, landslides, solifluction deposits, rock glaciers, pronival ramparts, glacial moraines and fluvial deposits. The results support the contention that four of the deposits are moraines, formed by small glaciers, and one is a debris flow which was initiated by a small glacier. However, two further deposits indicate that localities in close proximity to the linear deposits experienced mass wasting, associated with past periglacial conditions. With the assistance of applying glacier reconstruction methods, modelling hillshade, the provision of new palaeoclimatic extrapolations, and correlation of deposits with contemporary snow patch distribution, it is demonstrated that the valley slope deposits are determined by a past climate that was within the glacial/periglacial equilibrium zone, and was influenced by specific topographic and associated micro-climatic thresholds. It is shown that macro-topographic factors (e.g. slope gradient, aspect etc) and summit altitude are critical factors determining whether slopes were influenced by periglacial (mass wasting) or glacial processes (small niche/cirque glaciers) in adjacent valleys.

Os sambaquis do litoral sul brasileiro são marcos paisagísticos, com valor histórico e científico. Constituem-se, predominantemente, de conchas de moluscos e sedimentos com marcante presença de matéria orgânica, empilhados em conformações estratigráficas variadas. Neste trabalho, elegeram-se como objetos de estudo três sambaquis da costa centro-sul de Santa Catarina, com dois tipos de conformações distintas: de um lado, os sambaquis Carniça III e Encantadas III, e, de outro, o Jabuticabeira II, maior e estratigraficamente mais complexo. A proposta é auxiliar na reconstrução dos hábitos e costumes dos povos que viveram nesta área litorânea durante grande parte do Holoceno pré-descobrimento, e inferir suas relações com a evolução do ambiente geológico que os cercava. Para isso, foca-se em duas metas ou objetivos maiores: a aplicação de análise de fácies e de arquitetura deposicional nos sambaquis selecionados; e a investigação do uso de sedimentos paleolagunares como seu material construtivo. Para buscar estes objetivos, utilizou-se uma abordagem multi-analítica, que compreendeu: análise de fácies; determinação dos teores de matéria orgânica e carbonatos mais fosfatos; caracterização da fração grossa por lupa; granulometria; mineralogia de grãos pesados; estudo petrográfico e micromorfológico em seção delgada; microscopia eletrônica de varredura; e geoquímica e isotopia de carbono e nitrogênio. A estratigrafia dos sambaquis Carniça III e Encantada III é composta por um núcleo arenoso sobreposto por camada preta orgânica rica em conchas e artefatos antrópicos (terra preta, codificada como fácies LA). Em contraste, o sambaqui Jabuticabeira II caracteriza-se pela intercalação entre camadas conchíferas e lâminas pretas contendo sepultamentos (fácies funerária, codificada como Lc), capeada por camada de terra preta, rica em artefatos e sepultamentos. Por meio da análise de fácies, foi possível distinguir neste sambaqui três associações, da base para o topo: cascalho-lamosa, areno-lamosa e cascalho-arenosa. A sucessão vertical destas associações reflete o assoreamento progressivo do sistema lagunar e configura assim a relação do sambaqui com o ambiente deposicional do entorno. As associações de fácies, de qualquer hierarquia, são delimitadas pelas lâminas da fácies Lc. As análises do material construtivo utilizado nos sambaquis indicaram proveniência a partir das feições deposicionais mais próximas aos sítios, representadas por fundo, margem e brejo lagunar, nos casos dos sambaquis Jabuticabeira II e Encantada III, e por cordões litorâneos lagunares e dunas eólicas superimpostas, no caso do sítio Carniça III. Os parâmetros granulométricos e os índices de minerais pesados revelaram controle sobretudo geográfico em sua distribuição. A análise de componentes fosfáticos aliados aos sinais isotópicos do carbono e nitrogênio indicam grande processamento antrópico no material constituinte das lâminas funerárias e da terra preta do sambaqui Jabuticabeira II, com características de matéria orgânica putrefata, provável refugo do processamento cotidiano dos sambaquieiros. Já para o Carniça III e Encantada III, este processamento teria sido muito menor. / The sambaquis (also known as shell mounds or shell middens) in the Brazilian southern coast are landscape references and bear historical and scientific value. They are predominantly constituted of mollusk shells and sediments and also hold a sound presence of organic matter, piled up in different stratigraphic configurations. In this work, three sambaquis in the central-southern coast of the Santa Catarina state have been chosen as objects of study. They present two distinct configuration types: on one hand, the Carniça III and the Encantadas III, and, on the other hand, the Jabuticabeira II, which is larger and stratigraphically more complex. The proposal is to assist on the reconstruction of habits and traditions of the people who lived in this coastal area during a great part of the Holocene period (before the Portuguese navigators arrived in Brazil in 1500), and to infer their relations with the evolution of the surrounding geological environment. Two main goals have been set for this purpose: the application of facies analysis and depositional architecture in the selected sambaquis; and the investigation of the use of sediments from paleo-lagoons as their construction material. In order to achieve these goals, a multi-analytical approach has been used comprising: facies analysis; quantity evaluation of organic matter and carbonates associated with phosphates; characterization of the thick fraction in stereomicroscope; granulometry; heavy grains mineralogy; petrographic and micromorphological study of the thin section; scanning electron microscopy (SEM); and both carbon and nitrogen geochemistry and isotopy. The stratigraphy of the Carniça III and Encantada III sambaquis is composed of a sandy nucleus covered with a black organic layer full of shells and anthropic artifacts (black soil, represented as LA facies). In contrast, the Jabuticabeira II sambaqui is characterized by an assorted sequence of shell layers and thin black layers containing burial remains (funerary facies, represented as Lc) covered by black soil, and full of artifacts and burials. According to the facies analysis results, three associations have been found in this sambaqui, from bottom to top: muddy-gravel, muddy-sand and sandy-gravel. The vertical sequence of these associations reflects the progressive aggradation of the lagoon system and it establishes, thus, the relation between the sambaqui and the surrounding depositional environment. The facies associations, in any hierarchy, are limited by the thin layers in the Lc facies. The analysis of the construction materials used in the sambaquis has set their provenance in the nearest depositional features to the sites, represented by the lagoon bottom, margin and swamp for the Jabuticabeira II and Encantada III sambaquis, and by coastal lagoon barriers and superimposed wind dunes for the Carniça III site. The granulometric parameters and the heavy minerals indexes have showed control, mainly geographic, in their distribution. The analysis of phosphate components associated with the carbon and nitrogen isotopic signals shows great anthropic processing in the material which constitutes the funerary and the black soil layers found in the Jabuticabeira II sambaqui, with putrid organic matter characteristics, a probable waste from the day-by-day processing of the people who built the sambaquis. On the contrary, this kind of processing is supposed to have been much lower in the Carniça III and the Encantada III sambaquis.

The tectono-sedimentary evolution of the enigmatic Old Red Sandstone terrane of the Northwest Dingle Domain perplexed generations of geologists. The Domain remained largely misinterpreted, unappraised or simply disregarded. Its fundamental impact on regional basin dynamics was grossly overlooked. This integrated sedimentological, stratigraphical and structural research unravels the complexities of this unique red-bed collage. The Northwest Dingle Domain is largely structurally-constrained between two ENE- trending Caledonian structures: the North Kerry Lineament and the Fohemamanagh Fault. It comprises four unconformity-bounded Groups: the Lower Devonian Smerwick Group; the Middle Devonian Pointagare Group; and the Late Devonian Carrigduff and Ballyroe Groups. Their fluvial-aeolian, and locally tidal, sedimentation patterns profile Late Caledonian transpression to Middle-Late Devonian extension. The inherent primary structural control on basin location, development, geometry, sedimentary-fill and preservation is manifest in the Northwest Domain. A hierarchical cyclicity to fluvial-aeolian basin-fill architecture is established in order to differentiate between climatic, tectonic and eustatically-controlled 'sequence stratigraphy' in active strike-slip and extensional syn-rifi basin settings. The Acadian emplacement of the Smerwick Group Terrane set the foundations of the Northwest Dingle Domain. The Smerwick Group documents sandy and gravelliferous ephemeral-fluvial and erg-margin aeolian processes on an ancient terminal fan. The Pointagare Group is cogenetic with the Caherbla Group of south Dingle. Together they record the renewed influx of coarse-grained sediment in the form of transverse alluvial fans and axial braidplains in response to increased tectonism followed by overstep of an erg complex. The Pointagare-Caherbla basin model highlights the fundamental structural control on basin topography, palaeodrainage patterns, provenance, palaeowind directions and sedimentation style in tectonically-active extensional basins. The Ballyroe and Carrigduff Groups record syn-rift basin-margin fluvial and precursive tidally-influenced sedimentation on the active northern margin of the Munster Basin half-graben. These coarse clastic wedges represent feeder zone deposition proximal to the finer-grained distributary zone terminal fan deposits which infilled the Munster Basin to the south.

The Arctic is climatically sensitive to global change and therefore climate records from this region are of key importance. Little, however, is known of the state of the Arctic in the traditionally “greenhouse” period of the Cretaceous. Climate conditions are often assumed to have been warm-temperate as evidenced by the presence of conifers and dinosaur trackways on Svalbard and other Arctic localities. However, isotopic evidence for cooling episodes, sequence stratigraphic evidence for interpreted glacio-eustatic sea-level falls, and the presence of more enigmatic deposits such as dropstones and glendonites has led to a re-evaluation of the question of climatic dynamism during the Cretaceous. This project evaluates the climatic and environmental character of Arctic Svalbard during the Early Cretaceous (palaeo-latitude of c. 65 °N), via a multiproxy sedimentological, geochemical, sequence- and chemo- stratigraphic study of Berriasian–Albian strata from the Central Basin of Svalbard. The “outsized clasts” recorded on Spitsbergen do not show evidence that they were rafted by glacial ice (e.g. surface striations), although could have been rafted by seasonal sea-ice. The results show that regionally widespread cold water conditions were the most likely control on ikaite formation and glendonite preservation. This counters recent studies that suggest a methane-seep driver for Mesozoic glendonites, and supports the global extent of Valanginian to Hauterivian and Late Aptian global cooling. Surface temperatures during cool episodes of < 14 °C, as implied by the presence of glendonites at the seafloor, are consistent with Polar (90 °N) temperatures being below freezing (even given reduced pole-to-equator temperature gradients). This study therefore supports the hypothesis that small polar ice-caps developed during the Valanginian – Hauterivian and Late Aptian cooling events.

At the Castle Creek study area in east-central British Columbia a well-exposed section about 450 m wide and 30 m thick in the (Neoproterozoic) Isaac Formation was analyzed to document vertical and lateral changes in a succession of distinctively heterolithic strata. Strata are interpreted to have been deposited on a deep-marine levee that was sandwiched between its genetically related channel on one side and an erosional escarpment sculpted by an older (underlying) channel on the other. Flows that overspilled the channel (incident flow) eventually encountered the escarpment, which then set up a return flow oriented more or less opposite to the incident (from the channel) flow. This created an area of complex flow that became manifested in the sedimentary record as a highly tabular succession of intricately interstratified sand and mud overlain by an anomalously thick, plane-parallel interlaminated sand-mud unit capped finally by a claystone.

Middle-Upper Eocene successions were studied in the Fayum Depression in order to establish depositional and paleoenvironmental models that link the ichnological and sedimentologic data to relative sea-level changes in a sequence stratigraphic framework. Five facies associations (FA1- FA5) are identified. The facies depositional models show overall progradation from quiescent open-marine bay (FA1-2: Gehannam and Birket Qarun formations) to lagoon/distributary channel/estuary sedimentary environments (FA3-5: Qasr El-Sagha Formation). The facies successions and their stratigraphic evolution are controlled by a regional, second-order cycle associated with the northward regression of the Tethys, which is overprinted by subordinate third- and higher-order cycles. Whale-bearing FA1 and FA2 are subdivided into five sedimentary facies. Seventeen ichnospecies belonging to thirteen ichnogenera, as well as rhizoliths are observed within these facies. Facies Association 1 accumulated in a low-energy fullymarine bay, whereas FA 2 represents a bay margin / supratidal paleoenvironments. Clastic point-sources are dominantly hypopycnal although eolian sand may represent an important source locally. The quiescent marine bay is a typical environment and biome for the Eocene whales. Preservation of these fossil whales must occur in association with rapid sedimentation rates, but sufficiently that bioturbation eradicates the physical sedimentary structures. Unusual, large-sized sedimentary structures are examined along the parasequence-bounding surfaces of the Birket Qarun Sandstone. Ichnological data, petrography and stable-isotope analysis are integrated to propose a bio-sedimentologic/diagenetic model, interpreting the origin of these structures as concretion growths around ichnofossils. The marine pore-water carbon was influenced by organic carbon and mixing of meteoric groundwater under eodiagenetic conditions. These conditions led to the precipitation of pervasive authigenic calcite-dominated cement in and around the burrows. More than twenty-five Glossifungites Ichnofaciesdemarcated discontinuities are examined in the study area. These surfaces are grouped into those of autocyclic and those of allocyclic origin. Occurrences of the allocyclically significant Glossifungites Ichnofacies can be classified into sequence-bounding, systems tract-bounding and parasequence-bounding surfaces. Sequence-bounding Glossifungites Ichnofacies-demarcated surfaces divide the studied successions into four third-order sequences. Systems tract-bounding and parasequence-bounding Glossifungites Ichnofacies-demarcated surfaces display higher-order cycles, overprinting the third-order cycles.

<p>The architecture, distribution and facies of sandstone bodies in the Gog Group of the southern Rocky Mountains of western Canada record the dynamics of sand movement on the broad continental shelf of West Laurentia during the Early Cambrian phase of worldwide transgression. This study focuses on the stratigraphy, sedimentology and ichnology in the Bow Valley region, specifically the sector from Mount Assiniboine northwest to the North Saskatchewan River. The objectives of this project were several-fold: (1) revise the existing stratigraphic nomenclature; (2) document the sedimentary facies; (3) identify facies assemblages and interpret them in terms of sedimentary processes and environments; (4) characterize sandstone body geometries; (5) develop a sequence-stratigraphic framework; (6) document trace-fossil occurrences; and (7) characterize different trace-fossil assemblages in terms of colonization trends and prevailing paleoenvironmental conditions.</p> <p>The Gog Group in this area has historically comprised four units, the Fort Mountain, Lake Louise, St. Piran and Peyto formations. North of Bow Pass an additional unit, the Jasper Formation, occurs below the Fort Mountain Formation and is related to accommodation created by active rift-faulting during the latest Neoproterozoic. In the Lake Louise and Lake O'Hara area, four new formal subdivisions within the St. Piran Formation are proposed: Lake O'Hara, Lake Oesa, Lake Moraine and Wiwaxy Peaks members.</p> <p>The sequence stratigraphy of tide-dominated setting has yet not been fully explored. The stratal architecture of the Lake O'Hara and Lake Oesa members reveals a new mechanism for the formation of the regressive surface of marine erosion landward of the lever point of balance between sedimentation and erosion in the subtidal environment. As the shoreline is forced to regress with falling sea level, the laterally continuous tidal flats advance and the preexisting shallow-subtidal compound dunes are scoured by strong tidal currents that carve gradually a new equilibrium profile. We argue that the accretion of intertidal flats on top of subtidal sands is an overlooked yet predictable component of falling-stage systems tracts in tide-dominated settings.</p> <p>The Gog Group also offers an opportunity to explore animal-sediment relationships in a high-energy setting, during the early phase of Phanerozoic diversification. The presence of constrasting ichnofabrics within a single Early Cambrian sand-sheet complex illuminates how the colonisation trends of suspension and detritus feeders were controlled by factors specific to the various subenvironments.<p> <p>The variety of sandbody types in the Gog Group reflects varying sediment supply and location on the inner continental shelf. Five types of compound cross-stratified sandstone are distinguished based on foreset geometry, sedimentary structures and internal heterogeneity. These represent five broad categories of subtidal sandbodies: (1) compound-dune fields; (2) sand sheets; (3) sand ridges; and (4) patchy dunes. Trace-fossil distribution in these tide-dominated sand bodies and adjacent sediments is mostly controlled by an interplay of substrate mobility, grain size, turbidity, water-column productivity, and sediment organic matter. Salinity is a critical factor in marginal-marine locations but played no role in this region of the shelf.</p>

<p>The architecture, distribution and facies of sandstone bodies in the Gog Group of the southern Rocky Mountains of western Canada record the dynamics of sand movement on the broad continental shelf of West Laurentia during the Early Cambrian phase of worldwide transgression. This study focuses on the stratigraphy, sedimentology and ichnology in the Bow Valley region, specifically the sector from Mount Assiniboine northwest to the North Saskatchewan River. The objectives of this project were several-fold: (1) revise the existing stratigraphic nomenclature; (2) document the sedimentary facies; (3) identify facies assemblages and interpret them in terms of sedimentary processes and environments; (4) characterize sandstone body geometries; (5) develop a sequence-stratigraphic framework; (6) document trace-fossil occurrences; and (7) characterize different trace-fossil assemblages in terms of colonization trends and prevailing paleoenvironmental conditions.</p> <p>The Gog Group in this area has historically comprised four units, the Fort Mountain, Lake Louise, St. Piran and Peyto formations. North of Bow Pass an additional unit, the Jasper Formation, occurs below the Fort Mountain Formation and is related to accommodation created by active rift-faulting during the latest Neoproterozoic. In the Lake Louise and Lake O'Hara area, four new formal subdivisions within the St. Piran Formation are proposed: Lake O'Hara, Lake Oesa, Lake Moraine and Wiwaxy Peaks members.</p> <p>The sequence stratigraphy of tide-dominated setting has yet not been fully explored. The stratal architecture of the Lake O'Hara and Lake Oesa members reveals a new mechanism for the formation of the regressive surface of marine erosion landward of the lever point of balance between sedimentation and erosion in the subtidal environment. As the shoreline is forced to regress with falling sea level, the laterally continuous tidal flats advance and the preexisting shallow-subtidal compound dunes are scoured by strong tidal currents that carve gradually a new equilibrium profile. We argue that the accretion of intertidal flats on top of subtidal sands is an overlooked yet predictable component of falling-stage systems tracts in tide-dominated settings.</p> <p>The Gog Group also offers an opportunity to explore animal-sediment relationships in a high-energy setting, during the early phase of Phanerozoic diversification. The presence of constrasting ichnofabrics within a single Early Cambrian sand-sheet complex illuminates how the colonisation trends of suspension and detritus feeders were controlled by factors specific to the various subenvironments.<p> <p>The variety of sandbody types in the Gog Group reflects varying sediment supply and location on the inner continental shelf. Five types of compound cross-stratified sandstone are distinguished based on foreset geometry, sedimentary structures and internal heterogeneity. These represent five broad categories of subtidal sandbodies: (1) compound-dune fields; (2) sand sheets; (3) sand ridges; and (4) patchy dunes. Trace-fossil distribution in these tide-dominated sand bodies and adjacent sediments is mostly controlled by an interplay of substrate mobility, grain size, turbidity, water-column productivity, and sediment organic matter. Salinity is a critical factor in marginal-marine locations but played no role in this region of the shelf.</p>