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The research presented here is an effort to characterize changes in marine oxygen availability across a portion of the later Cambrian noted for unique evolutionary dynamics and which includes a significant global oceanographic event known as the SPICE event (Steptoean Positive Carbon Isotope Excursion). Previous studies have revealed the SPICE caused large changes to the global cycles of carbon, sulfur, uranium, molybdenum and the overall trace metal content of seawater. Furthermore, the initiation of these changes appears to have been temporally coupled with marine extinctions across several paleocontinents raising the possibility of a common causal linkage between all these features. In particular, expanding marine anoxia has been invoked as the most parsimonious explanation for these co-occurring features. The research presented here tests this hypothesis directly across a range of spatial scales using the iron speciation paleoredox proxy to characterize redox conditions within individual basins and to facilitate comparison of conditions between basins. In addition to these analyses, we apply a new proxy, thallium stable isotopes to this interval to assess potential global changes in deoxygenation across the event. These iron speciation analyses showed shallow environments deoxygenated coincident with the initiation of the SPICE and extinction horizons, and these conditions were dominantly ferruginous. Importantly, this work also shows deeper-water environments were deoxygenated prior to and remained so across the event and these environments were also largely. Last we looked at changes in thallium isotopes during this same interval to see if this deoxygenation would be recorded as a positive shift across the interval if expanded anoxia were to impact the areal extent of manganese-oxide sedimentation and burial. We found it did record these changes, but with a different expression than during other more recent events explored using the isotope system. We attribute these differences to the unique chemical structure of the oceans during the Cambrian, which as documented herein were widely oxygen-deficient in their deeper depths. Given this recognition we suggest that thallium isotope studies in deep time should account for this redox structure of ancient oceans likely common under the less-oxygenated atmospheres of the ancient Earth. / Doctor of Philosophy / The research presented here is a story about oxygen in the oceans during an ancient portion of Earth history within the Cambrian Period (around 500 million years ago), soon after animal life first appears in the geologic record. The emerging biosphere of this time seems to have been particularly prone to extinctions, leading to the idea that environmental conditions, such as oxygen availability at the seafloor created difficult circumstances for animals in these ancient seas. This work seeks to quantify the levels of marine oxygenation at this time, however this remains a fundamental challenge because they cannot be directly measured from the rocks we study. Therefore, we rely on how the presence or absence of oxygen changed the chemistry of these rocks at the time they were sediments deposited on the seafloor. Here we use the behavior of two different elements, iron (Fe) and thallium (Tl), to understand changes in oxygen in the oceans around a large, globally-recorded extinction event called the SPICE event. Studying how much iron is concentrated in certain minerals in the rocks formed during this event allowed us to track how changes in oxygen may relate to these notable extinctions. We found that shallow coastal areas changed from oxygenated to deoxygenated at the same time of the extinctions, suggesting a direct role for this environmental shift in the biological crisis. Furthermore, we compared other locations from around the world using more new iron measurements in conjunction with previously published ones compiled by a collaborative geochemistry database project. This work revealed the deeper oceans were deoxygenated prior to and across the SPICE event and that the decline in oxygen in shallower environments was where most environmental change occurred during this time. Last we looked at changes in thallium isotopes during this same interval to see if this deoxygenation changed its global cycle. We found it did record global changes, but they were expressed differently than during other more recent events that have been studied. We attribute these differences to the unique chemical structure of the oceans during the Cambrian, which were widely oxygen-deficient in their deeper depths.

The Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary is arguably the most critical transition in Earth history. This boundary is currently defined by the GSSP (Global Stratotype Section and Point) at Fortune Head (Newfoundland, Canada) at a point that was once regarded as the first appearance of the branching trace fossil Treptichnus pedum. However, T. pedum has been subsequently found below the GSSP, and its distribution is largely restricted to sandstone facies where chemostratigraphic correlation tools are difficult to apply. Thus, the stratigraphic value of the Fortune Head GSSP has come under scrutiny, and there is a need to search for an alternative definition of this boundary using other biostratigraphic criteria. Investigations of acanthomorphic acritarchs in basal Cambrian strata of South China suggest that these microfossils may provide an appropriate biostratigraphic marker for the Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary, because of their wide distribution in chert-phosphorite layers intercalated with carbonates and shales, thus allowing their biostratigraphic occurrences to be calibrated with small shelly fossil (SSF) biostratigraphy and carbon isotope chemostratigraphy. Acanthomorphic acritarchs of the Asteridium-Heliosphaeridium-Comasphaeridium (AHC) assemblage zone have been identified at 11 localities in chert-phosphorite layers in the basal Cambrian Yanjiahe, Liuchapo, and Niutitang formations. These localities span a 300 km transect in South China, with depositional environments varying from a shallow carbonate shelf, to an outer shelf-slope transition and an open ocean slope-basin. The Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary can be bracketed between basal Cambrian AHC assemblage and the upper Ediacaran fossils, Horodyskia minor and Palaeopascichnus jiumenensis (HmPj assemblage zone), which occur in the lower Liuchapo Formation. There is no stratigraphic overlap between the AHC and HmPj assemblage zones. Available data show that the AHC assemblage zone is in close stratigraphic proximity with the basal Cambrian SSFs and a negative "13C excursion near the Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary. Thus, in South China, the first occurrences of AHC assemblage microfossils and last occurrences of HmPj fossils can effectively "bookend" the Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary to fine-scale resolution (down to 0.5 m in present study) in the Yanjiahe and Liuchapo formations. We propose that the AHC assemblage can be used to redefine the Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary and this proposal should be tested with detailed acanthomorph biostratigraphy beyond South China. / Master of Science

Fossils recovered from limestones of the lower Cambrian (Stage 2-3) Yanjiahe Formation in Hubei Province, South China, recovered using acetic acid maceration, fracturing, and thin sectioning techniques were examined using a combination of analytical techniques, including energy dispersive spectroscopic (EDS) elemental mapping and micro-focus X-ray computed tomography (micro-CT). One important fossil recovered and analyzed with these techniques is a fossilized embryo. Fossilized animal embryos from lower Cambrian rocks provide a rare opportunity to study the ontogeny and developmental biology of early animals during the Cambrian explosion. The fossil embryos in this study exhibit a phosphatized outer envelope (interpreted as the chorion) that encloses a multicelled blastula-like embryo or a calcitized embryo marked by sets of grooves on its surface. The arrangement of these grooves resembles annulations found on the surface of the Cambrian-Ordovician fossil embryo Markuelia. Previously described late-stage Markuelia embryos exhibit annulations and an introvert ornamented by scalids, suggesting a scalidophoran affinity. In the Yanjiahe fossils illustrated herein, however, the phosphatized chorions and blastulas are not taxonomically or phylogenetically diagnostic, and the late-stage embryo is secondarily calcitized and thus poorly preserved, with only vague grooves indicative of Markuelia-type annulations. Consequently, their taxonomic assignment to the genus Markuelia is uncertain. If they indeed belong to the genus Markuelia, they are the oldest known Markuelia fossils from China, and represent both a new occurrence and possibly a new species. / Master of Science

The purpose of the author is to present a geological survey of the Backbone Ridge area in Burnet and Llano counties, Texas. During the summer of 1947 while enrolled in a geologic field course in McCullough County, it was noted that a new classification of the Cambrian and Ordovician formations In central Texas had been presented In the literature. It was noted at the same time that the Paleozoic rocks of the Llano uplift are more highly faulted than had been shown on previous geologic maps of the region. The writer concluded from field observations that the Backbone Ridge area was more complexly faulted then had been previously shown, and it was decided to test this conclusion by making a detailed geologic map of the area using the stratigraphic subdivisions recently established by Bridge, Barnes, and Cloud. A detailed study was made of these subdivisions and a large number of the type sections were visited. It was necessary to study the complete geologic history of the region in order that the events which involved the complex structural pattern and the present physiographic forms might be properly understood. The material contained in this report consists of data obtained from the literature and from field observations which were made in the area during the months of June and July of 1948. / text

Master of Science / Department of Geology / Matthew Brueseke / The Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen (SOA) produced more than 250,000 km[superscript]3 of Cambrian mafic to silicic magmatism, associated with the opening of the Iapetus Ocean. In the Arbuckle Mountains, oil and gas exploration showed mafic to intermediate volcanic rock interbedded with rhyolite lavas. The first description of these lavas was a result of the 1982 drilling of the Hamilton Brothers Turner Falls well. Cuttings have been collected from this well and five others, and whole rock major and trace element analysis, Sr and Nd isotope analysis, and rare earth element analysis has been completed on these samples. These samples plot primarily as tholeiitic to transitional basalts to andesites. Trace element ratios show Zr/Nb values ranging from 8-10, K/Nb values ranging from 300-600, and Ba/Nb values ranging from 10-20, which overlap with known EM1 OIB values. Applying a conservative age of 535 Ma for these rocks yields [superscript]87Sr/[superscript]86Sr[subscript]i values of 0.703970 to 0.706403 and epsilon Nd values of 1.67 to 3.22, which also fall within the accepted range of EMI values. [superscript]87Sr/[superscript]86Sr[subscript]i increases with wt. % SiO[subscript]2 and K/P, consistent with the generation of evolved compositions via open-system processes. The sample with the least radiogenic Sr isotope ratio, combined with its trace element ratios is most consistent with an EM1-type source. These results, coupled with existing isotope and trace element constraints from regionally exposed dikes and plutonic rocks that crop out in the Wichita Mts., give better insight into understanding what tectonic model (lower-mantle derived hotspot or extension of the lithosphere) drove the magmatic production of the SOA. The results are more consistent with a lower-mantle origin for SOA mafic-intermediate magmatism, and indicate the potential for flood basalt volcanism.

Análises de proveniência sedimentar são tradicionalmente utilizadas com o objetivo de reconstruir a relação entre depósitos sedimentares e suas respectivas áreas fonte, de forma a permitir a composição do contexto tectônico regional. Uma aplicação menos explorada dos métodos de análise de proveniência sedimentar é a avaliação detalhada das variações de áreas fonte ao longo da história de preenchimento de uma bacia sedimentar e das variações locais de proveniência em intervalos estratigráficos específicos. Tais estudos podem trazer importantes inferências sobre a configuração dos alto estruturais vizinhos à bacia sedimentar, assim como informações a respeito de eventos tectônicos capazes de mudar o padrão das drenagens que alimentam a bacia sedimentar. Na Bacia Camaquã (Ediacarano-Cambriano, RS) o Grupo Santa Bárbara e o Grupo Guaritas registram eventos de atividade de altos estruturais durante a sedimentação, responsáveis pela segmentação da bacia em sub-bacias. O Grupo Santa Bárbara compreende sucessões siliciclásticas distribuídas em três sub-bacias separadas pelos altos de Caçapava do Sul e da Serra das Encantadas. Na sub-bacia ocidental esse grupo apresenta depósitos de arenitos e conglomerados aluviais, depósitos siltoarenosos de ambientes fluviais distais e lacustres e depósitos conglomeráticos de leques aluviais, que compõem um ciclo retrogradacional inicial, seguido por dois ciclos progradacionais separados por uma superfície brusca. O Grupo Santa Bárbara na sub-bacia central, por sua vez, apresenta uma sucessão siltoarenosa com base conglomerática, que se estende até a porção média da sucessão sedimentar, quando dá lugar a depósitos conglomeráticos de leques aluviais que são depois sucedidos por nova sucessão siltoarenosa no topo da unidade. O Grupo Guaritas apresenta depósitos de rios entrelaçados na base e no topo da unidade, com interdigitação de sistemas deposicionais eólicos, de rios entrelaçados e de leques aluviais na porção intermediária da sucessão. Os depósitos do Grupo Santa Bárbara na sub-bacia ocidental foram investigados em detalhe por meio de levantamentos sistemáticos de dados de proveniência em escala de afloramento, em lâmina delgada e por meio de análises isotópicas em zircões detríticos. Os resultados mostram áreas fonte distintas entre os depósitos aluviais da base e do topo da unidade, sendo que em ambos a proveniência é local. Os depósitos da base têm áreas fonte a oeste e sudoeste da bacia, enquanto os depósitos do topo da unidade têm áreas fonte a leste da bacia, no alto de Caçapava da Sul, sugerindo uma mudança na configuração das áreas fonte que teria início correspondente ao primeiro nível conglomerático da sucessão aluvial intermediária da unidade. Adicionalmente os dados de proveniência indicam ausência de deslocamento entre áreas fonte e depósitos sedimentares indicando que o rejeito das falhas de borda é normal, como esperado para bacias do tipo rift. As sucessões sedimentares do Grupo Santa Bárbara na sub-bacia central foram investigadas de maneira preliminar por meio de análise de proveniência macroscópica. Os dados indicam pouca variação de áreas fonte na história da bacia, com áreas fonte predominantemente no Alto da Serra das Encantadas, que estaria então soerguido. Nos depósitos conglomeráticos superiores há uma contribuição de litoclastos atribuídos ao Alto de Caçapava do Sul. O Grupo Guaritas teve depósitos sedimentares do topo de sua sucessão estudados por meio de análise de proveniência macroscópica em depósitos de leques aluviais e em depósitos fluviais, que cobrem os anteriores em contato erosivo. Os dados apontam para proveniência estritamente local, do Alto da Serra das Encantadas nos depósitos de leques aluviais, enquanto que os depósitos fluviais contam com áreas fonte mais distantes, sugerindo que o Alto da Serra das Encantadas sofreu subsidência e foi recoberto nesse intervalo de tempo. Os dados indicam que o soerguimento do Alto de Caçapava do Sul, que se deu durante a deposição do Grupo Santa Bárbara e individualizou a sub-bacia ocidental, teria provocado uma progradação instantânea dos depósitos sedimentares, ao contrário do previsto em modelos tectônicos disponíveis, em consequência do aumento do aporte sedimentar pela erosão de sedimentos pouco litificados depositados sobre o Alto de Caçapava do Sul e de uma queda na taxa de subsidência das bacias provocado por um amplo domeamento antes da nucleação da falha de borda. Tal progradação está registrada nas sucessões aluviais intermediárias do Grupo Santa Bárbara nas sub-bacias ocidental e central. Após o estabelecimento da falha normal na borda leste do alto estrutural há uma passagem brusca para depósitos mais distais, na sub-bacia ocidental seguida de progradação de cunhas clásticas no topo da unidade, enquanto que na sub-bacia central há uma retrogradação sugerindo que o soerguimento do Alto de Caçapava do Sul tenha resultado na captura de um sistema de drenagem que alimentava toda a bacia para o graben da bacia ocidental, diminuindo assim o aporte sedimentar na sub-bacia central. O Grupo Guaritas indica, por sua vez, uma situação inversa, com mudança nos sistemas deposicionais provocada pela subsidência do Alto da Serra das Encantadas, que teria permitido a captura de sistemas de drenagem para dentro da bacia, promovendo o aumento do aporte sedimentar e a substituição dos sistemas eólicos e de leques aluviais por sistemas fluviais entrelaçados. / Sedimentary provenance is generally used aiming the reconstruction of the relations between sedimentary deposits and their source areas, in order to interpret the regional tectonic setting. An application that is less frequent in sedimentary provenance analysis is the detailed assessment of the changes in the source areas during the infilling history of a sedimentary basin and of the local variation of the provenance data in specific stratigraphic intervals. Such studies can result in important inferences concerning the configuration of adjacent structural highs, as well as information about tectonic events that are capable of changing the drainage network feeding the sedimentary basin. In the Camaquã Basin (RS) the Santa Bárbara and Guaritas groups register events of syn-sedimentary movement of structural highs, which caused the segmentation of the basin into sub-basins. The Santa Bárbara Group comprises siliciclastic successions distributed in three sub-basins separated by the Caçapava do Sul and Serra das Encantadas structural highs. The western sub-basin contains alluvial sandstones and conglomerates, siltstones and sandstones of fluvial and lacustrine environments, and alluvial fan conglomerates, disposed in a initial retrogradatinoal cycle, and two overlying progradational cycles, which are separated by a abrupt flooding surface. In the central sub-basin, the Santa Bárbara Group comprises a siltstone and sandstone succession with conglomerates at its base, followed by alluvial fan conglomeratic deposits in the middle part of the sedimentary succession, which in turn is succeeded by another succession of siltstones and sandstones at the top of the group. The Guaritas Group shows braided river deposits both at the base and the top of the unit, with interfingering of eolian, braided river and alluvial fan systems in the intermediate part of the succession. The deposits of the Santa Bárbara Group in the western sub-basin were investigated in detail through systematic studies of provenance both at the outcrop scale and in thin sections and by detrital zircon isotope analysis. The results show distinct source areas for the alluvial deposits of the base and the top of the unit, with a local sources for both of them. The lower deposits had source areas to the west and southwest of the basin, while the upper ones had source areas to the east of the basin, on the Caçapava do Sul High, suggesting a change in the configuration of the source areas, with its onset corresponding to the first conglomeratic level of the intermediate alluvial succession of the Santa Bárbara Group. The provenance data also shows that there is no significant lateral displacement deposits relative to their source areas, suggesting that the main displacement of the border faults was normal, as expected for rift basins. The sedimentary successions of the Santa Bárbara Group in the central sub-basin were preliminarily investigated through macroscopic provenance analysis. The data implies only in small changes of the source areas through the history of the basin, with source areas in the Serra das Encantadas High, which was then uplifted. In the upper conglomeratic deposits there is some contribution of lithoclasts from the Caçapava do Sul High. The sedimentary deposits of the top of the Guaritas Group were studied through macroscopic provenance analysis in alluvial fan and fluvial deposits, the latter covering the alluvial fans in erosive contact. The data points to strictly local provenance, from the Serra das Encantadas High in the alluvial fan deposits, while the fluvial deposits had also more distant source areas. This suggests that the Serra das Encantadas High subsided during this period, and was covered by the younger fluvial deposits. The collected data suggests that the Caçapava do Sul High uplift, which took place during the deposition of the Santa Bárbara Group and individualized the western sub-basin, triggered a progradation of the sedimentary deposits. This is not in accordance with the existing models, and could be explained as a result of both of an increase in the sedimentary input by erosion of unlithified sediments deposited on the Caçapava do Sul High and of the fall in the subsidence rates of the sedimentary basins due to a wide doming before the nucleation of the main border fault. Such progradation is registered in the alluvial successions of the Santa Bárbara Group in the western and central sub-basins. After the definition of the normal faulting in the eastern border of the structural high, an abrupt passage to distal facies took place in the occidental sub-basin, which was in turn was followed by progradation of clastic wedges on the top of the unit, while in the central sub-basin there is a retrogradation, suggesting that the uplift of the Caçapava do Sul High would have resulted in the capture of a main drainage system, that fed the entire basin, to the western basin graben, and so decreasing the sedimentary input to the central sub-basin. The Guaritas Group in its turn indicates a change in the depositional systems caused by the subsidence of the Serra das Encantadas High, which allowed the capture of drainage systems to the basin, thus increasing the sedimentary input and the substitution of the eolian and alluvial fan systems by braided fluvial systems.