Facies stratigraphy and relative sea-level history - Upper Cretaceous Eutaw formation, central and eastern Alabama

King, Jr, D T

Title: Facies stratigraphy and relative sea-level history - Upper Cretaceous Eutaw formation, central and eastern Alabama

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Abstract

The Upper Cretaceous (late Santonian-early Campanian) Eutaw Formation crops out in an east west-striking belt in the inner Coastal Plain of Alabama. Facies arrangement within the Eutaw indicates a regional paleoshoreline having depositional strike approximately parallel to and coincident with the present outcrop belt. The Eutaw Formation (40 to 120 m thick) rests disconformably on incised valleys (a type 1 unconformity) occurring at the top of the underlying Cenomanian-early Turonian nonmarine Tuscaloosa Formation. The Eutaw is topped by an erosional discontinuity that has slight relief and a discontinuous conglomeratic lag. In the outcrop and shallow subsurface, the Eutaw Formation has four main paralic and nearshore facies that are arranged in two discontinuity-bounded genetic packages of facies (or parasequences) both of which developed in a single eustatic cycle. The Eutaw facies are: carbonaceous and ostried-rich clayey silts (= back barrier); planar, trough, and low-angle cross-bedded medium-fine sands (= barrier island); fossiliferous bioturbated fine sands (= lower shoreface); and calcareous clays, silts, and sands (= inner shelf). The lower genetic package of the Eutaw Formation is bounded below by the tuscaloosa disconformity (a flooding surface) and is bounded above by a low-relief intraformational facies discontinuity. The intraformational facies discontinuity is likely amore »« less

Authors:

King, Jr, D T ^[1]

Auburn Univ., AL (USA)

Publication Date:: Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1990

OSTI Identifier:: 6130229

Report Number(s):: CONF-9010204-
Journal ID: ISSN 0149-1423; CODEN: AABUD

Resource Type:: Conference

Journal Name:: AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (USA)

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 74:9; Conference: Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies and Gulf Coast Section of SEPM (Society of Economics, Paleontologists, and Mineralogist) meeting, Lafayette, LA (USA), 17-19 Oct 1990; Journal ID: ISSN 0149-1423

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 02 PETROLEUM; 58 GEOSCIENCES; ALABAMA; PETROLEUM DEPOSITS; RESERVOIR ROCK; CRETACEOUS PERIOD; DEPOSITION; DIAGENESIS; GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS; GEOLOGIC HISTORY; SEA LEVEL; FEDERAL REGION IV; GEOLOGIC AGES; GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS; LEVELS; MESOZOIC ERA; MINERAL RESOURCES; NORTH AMERICA; RESOURCES; USA; 020200* - Petroleum- Reserves, Geology, & Exploration; 580000 - Geosciences

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                    King, Jr, D T. Facies stratigraphy and relative sea-level history - Upper Cretaceous Eutaw formation, central and eastern Alabama.  United States: N. p., 1990. 
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                    King, Jr, D T. Facies stratigraphy and relative sea-level history - Upper Cretaceous Eutaw formation, central and eastern Alabama.  United States.

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                    King, Jr, D T. 1990.  
        "Facies stratigraphy and relative sea-level history - Upper Cretaceous Eutaw formation, central and eastern Alabama".  United States.

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@article{osti_6130229,

  title        = {Facies stratigraphy and relative sea-level history - Upper Cretaceous Eutaw formation, central and eastern Alabama},

  author       = {King, Jr, D T},

  abstractNote = {The Upper Cretaceous (late Santonian-early Campanian) Eutaw Formation crops out in an east west-striking belt in the inner Coastal Plain of Alabama. Facies arrangement within the Eutaw indicates a regional paleoshoreline having depositional strike approximately parallel to and coincident with the present outcrop belt. The Eutaw Formation (40 to 120 m thick) rests disconformably on incised valleys (a type 1 unconformity) occurring at the top of the underlying Cenomanian-early Turonian nonmarine Tuscaloosa Formation. The Eutaw is topped by an erosional discontinuity that has slight relief and a discontinuous conglomeratic lag. In the outcrop and shallow subsurface, the Eutaw Formation has four main paralic and nearshore facies that are arranged in two discontinuity-bounded genetic packages of facies (or parasequences) both of which developed in a single eustatic cycle. The Eutaw facies are: carbonaceous and ostried-rich clayey silts (= back barrier); planar, trough, and low-angle cross-bedded medium-fine sands (= barrier island); fossiliferous bioturbated fine sands (= lower shoreface); and calcareous clays, silts, and sands (= inner shelf). The lower genetic package of the Eutaw Formation is bounded below by the tuscaloosa disconformity (a flooding surface) and is bounded above by a low-relief intraformational facies discontinuity. The intraformational facies discontinuity is likely a parasequence boundary developed at maximum eustatic high-stand in latest Santonian. The lower genetic package is mainly a transgressive sequence of back-barrier, barrier-island, lower-shoreface, and inner-shelf facies. The upper genetic package is mainly a progradational sequence encompassing the same set of facies as the lower genetic package.},

  doi          = {},

  url          = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/6130229},
  journal      = {AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (USA)},

  issn         = {0149-1423},

  number       = ,

  volume       = 74:9,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1990},

  month        = {Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1990}

}

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