The Eastern Shelf was a constructional platform developed on the margin of the sediment-starved Midland Basin during Late Pennsylvanian and Early Permian time. A mixed terrigenous-carbonate sedimentary province characterized the shelf during most of its history. Sediments were derived from highlands to the east and northeast. Along the outcrop in Eastland, Stephens, Young, and Jack counties, uppermost Pennsylvanian beds compose the Harpersville Formation, a boundary-defined rock stratigraphic unit within the Cisco Group. Harpersville facies extend westward into the subsurface 50 to 60 miles, where they grade into equivalent shelf margin carbonate and slope terrigenous facies. Preserved relief between the shelf margin and basin floor ranges from 600 to 1100 feet with dips of up to five degrees. Three depositional systems are recognized on the basis of gross lithologic composition and position relative to the shelf edges. They are the Cisco fluvial-deltaic system, the Sylvester shelf edge bank systern, and the Sweetwater slope system. The Cisco fluvial-deltaic system is composed of dip-fed fluvial-deltaic facies and associated strike-fed interdeltaic embayment facies. Eight deltaic lobe complexes have been mapped. The Sylvester slope system is composed of several slope wedges or fans each of which includes shelf margin, slope trough, and distal slope sandstone facies, as well as slope mudstone facies. Terrigenous sediments were transported across the shelf by prograding fluvial-deltaic channels, which locally extended through the shelf edge bank system and onto the slope where submarine fans were constructed into the basin. The Eastern Shelf prograded into the Midland Basin by local upbuilding through fluvial, deltaic, and shelf edge bank deposition contemporaneous with outbuilding by slope fan deposition. Sites of shelf construction shifted through time in response to sedimentary and structurally controlled abandonment of delta lobes. Extrabasinal controls such as eustatic sea level changes were of secondary importance in developing the depositional fabric of the shelf. / text

Not available / text

The primary factors that influence stratigraphy are tectonic subsidence, eustasy, and sediment supply. Change in any of these factors potentially produces a similar response in the form of a change in accommodation space. Accordingly, distinguishing the origin of a stratigraphic response is difficult, but theoretically possible by analysis of temporal and spatial extents of the accommodation signal. Correlation is critical for distinguishing eustasy from tectonism. Upper Pennsylvanian strata of the Pedregosa and Orogrande basins (southern Ancestral Rocky Mountains) were deposited during a time of continental collision and extensive continental glaciation, and contain a composite record of changing tectonism, eustasy, climate, and sediment supply. High-frequency stratigraphic cyclicity expressed as repetitive stacks of lithofacies at the scale of 10¹ m pervades all sections and displays features that collectively imply a primary glacioeustatic origin, notably: (1) abrupt juxtaposition of dissimilar lithofacies, signaling a rapid rate of baselevel change, (2) apparent intrabasinal, interbasinal and, provisionally, interregional correlation of high-frequency cycles across and between contrasting tectonic environments, and (3) cycle frequencies that approach the 413 ka periodicity of orbital eccentricity, the probable forcing mechanism for Pennsylvanian glaciations. Glacial-interglacial climate change expressed as precipitation and circulation fluctuations in the equatorial Pedregosa and Orogrande basins accompanied Pennsylvanian glacioeustasy. Intensified aridity and wind strength during peak glacials led to decreased fluvio-deltaic sedimentation and increased eolian activity where siliciclastics were available. Conversely, increased precipitation during interglacials reactivated and/or intensified fluvio-deltaic sediment yield. Eustasy dictated fluvial aggradation versus degradation and coastal sediment trapping versus bypassing. Coupled glacioeustatic-glacioclimatic change was sufficiently severe to reconfigure environments between climatic extremes, which implies that Pennsylvanian stratigraphic cycles should be viewed in at least partially non-Waltherian terms. Each cycle potentially recorded contrasting facies mosaics that were to some degree temporally exclusive. Multiple-cycle trends in facies and/or thickness also occur to define low-frequency stratigraphic patterns at the scale of 10² m. Qualitative analysis of these trends implicates distinct eustatic and tectonic processes as contributing influences. The eustatic component may derive from low-frequency glacioeustasy as well as tectonoeustasy related to evolving continental paleogeography. The tectonic component probably reflects late Paleozoic Marathon-Ouachita collisional orogenesis.

No description available.

The Red Mountain formation (Lower Pennsylvanian?) of the Chilliwack group (Carboniferous) was mapped in five areas of northwestern Washington. Except for a few outcrops of Devonian strata, the formation represents the oldest known sedimentary rocks in this region. It consists primarily of argillite, graywacke, chert, tuff and limestone, and is overlain by conglomerate of the Black Mountain formation (Lower Permian). The base of the formation is nowhere exposed. Correlation of the Red Mountain formation is dependent essentially on the presence of large crinoid stems, foraminifera, and similarity of stratigraphic relationships. Limestones of the upper portion of the formation represent deposition under conditions of marked tectonic stability, whereas enclosing strata are indicative of deposition in an unstable, subsiding realm. / Science, Faculty of / Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of / Graduate

The lower Rocky Mountain Supergroup of Pennsylvanian age contains five formations which in ascending order are: Todhunter, Tyrwhitt, Storelk, Tobermory and Kananaskis. All except the Kananaskis are new formations that are equivalent to the Tunnel Mountain Formation. The Todhunter, Tyrwhitt and Tobermory consist mainly of brown weathering, dolomitic and quartzitic, very fine- to fine-grained, pure, quartz-chert sandstones with some interbedded, locally f ossiliferous, sandy dolomite. The Storelk is quartzitic, very fine- to medium-grained, very massive, cross-bedded, white wheathering quartzi-chert sandstone. All these formations contain varying amounts of scattered medium and coarse sand. The Kananaskis consists of sandy and cherty, dense, microcrystalline, grey dolomite. The Todhunter, Tyrwhitt and Storelk Formations are interpreted as being Early Pennsylvanian (Morrowan) in age, and the Tobermory and Kananaskis Formation, which regionally may be facies equivalents, as early Middle Pennsylvanian (Atokan) in age. The contact between the lower Rocky Mountain and the underlying Etherington Formation (Late Mississippian Chesterian) is conformable and locally gradational. Contacts between the Todhunter and Tyrwhitt, and between the Storelk and Tobernory are unconformable, whereas that between the Tyrwhitt and Storelk may be conformable or unconformable. The lower Rocky Mountain is unconformably overlain by Permian, Triassic or Jurassic strata. The lower Rocky Mountain sediments were deposited in a structural basin which may have been partially isolated from adjacent basins to the north, west and south by low barrier arches. Individual formations in the succession thin in a northwesterly and southwesterly direction towards the basin flanks, where as little as 160 feet of the five formations was deposited and remains, whereas at least 1,175 feet of equivalent strata is preserved in the central part. The quartz sand was probably transported by rivers and longshore marine currents from a source lying to the east within the continental interior. Chert and phosphorite fragments ranging up to pebble size were probably locally derived. The strata of Chesterian and Morrowan age represent a regressive sequence. After Morrowan time, gentle warping, emergence, and erosion caused truncation of Lower PennsyIvanian and Upper Mississippian strata towards the east. Angular truncation, and local conglomerates composed of chert, phosphorite, sandstone and dolmite granules and pebbles mark this unconformity. Strata of Atokan age thicken westward and represent a transgressive, sequence which onlaps and truncates the underlying strata. The Pennsylvanian sandstones are a potential source of pure silica sand. / Science, Faculty of / Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

No description available.

The Canyon Group (Missourian Series) is a sequence of westward-dipping, genetically related carbonate and terrigenous clastic facies that crop out in a northeast-southwest belt across North-Central Texas. The section includes stratigraphic units between the base of the Palo Pinto Limestone and the top of the Home Creek Limestone. Surface and subsurface studies within thirteen counties indicate that terrigenous clastic rocks are principally component facies of high-constructive delta systems. The Perrin delta system repeatedly prograded westward and northwestward from source areas in the Ouachita Fold Belt. Algal-crinoid banks flanked the Perrin delta system on the northeast and southwest. A typical vertical deltaic sequence includes (upward) (a) organic rich, prodelta mudstone, devoid of invertebrate fossils; (b) thin, distal delta-front sandstone and mudstone, displaying graded beds, sole marks, and flow rolls; (c) thicker proximal delta-front sandstone, exhibiting contorted beds, flow rolls, and contemporaneous faults; (d) locally contorted distributary-mouth bar sandstone; and (e) distributary channel sandstone, containing abundant trough cross stratification and local clay-chip conglomerate. Thin, coal-bearing delta-plain deposits occur locally on top of deltaic sequences. All delta facies are rich in plant debris. During delta abandonment and destruction, shallow bay-lagoon environments developed. Destructional facies include bioturbated sandy mudstone, burrowed sandstone and thin, platy argillaceous limestone with abundant invertebrate fossils. Fossiliferous mudstone units grade upward into transgressive shelf carbonate units commonly composed of phylloid algal-crinoid biomicrudite and local intraclastic biosparite shoal facies. Shelf carbonate includes onlapping sheetlike deposits; thick elongate bank deposits, which stood above the sea floor with slight bathymetric relief; massive platform carbonate; and shelf edge reef-bank accumulations. The Henrietta fan-delta system, occurring exclusively in the subsurface of Montague, Clay, Wichita, Archer and Baylor counties, is composed of thick wedges of feldspathic sandstone and conglomerate that were deposited by high-gradient fluvial systems, which built southwestward into northern Texas from source areas in the Wichita-Arbuckle Mountains of southern Oklahoma. / text

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1986 B57 / Master of Science / Geology