Regional contemporaneity of eustatic, subsidence, and tectonic events in the Middle-Upper Ordovician of the Appalachians and Ouachita orogens and the southern Oklahoma aulacogen

Conference · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1985 · Geol. Soc. Am., Abstr. Programs; (United States)

OSTI ID:6652733

Finney, S C; Bergstroem, S M

On-going graptolite and conodont studies in the Southern Appalachians, the Ouachitas, and the Arbuckle Mountains have revealed contemporaneity of important geological events of regional significance. Reassessment of previous graptolite biostratigraphy has resulted in a revised zonation that has solved some correlation problems and is tied to the Midcontinent and North Atlantic conodont zonations. These zonations are used to date significant geological events in geographically separate regions during two time intervals in the Middle-Upper Ordovician. The base of the graptolite shale succession (Athens) in the Southern Appalachians (Alabama-Tennessee) belongs to the G. teretiusculus Zone, or locally (Georgia) possibly a slightly older unit, and marks the initial shelf-basin development and uplift of source areas to the east reflecting a phase of the Taconic Orogeny. The bases of the Womble and Woods Hollow shales in the Ouachita Orogen represent about the same level. Slightly younger N. gracilis Zone strata tend to be transgressive throughout the world and appear to represent a global eustatic event. In the Arbuckle Mountains this event is reflected by the Tulip Creek Shale. A major subsidence event in the Oklahoma aulacogen, contemporaneous with the regression, produced a transgressive lithofacies sequence represented by the lower Viola Springs Formation in the Arbuckle Mountains. The regressive and subsidence events appear to have been coeval with the emplacement of the Taconic allochthon and Hamburg Klippe in the Northern Appalachians.

• Research Organization: Oklahoma State Univ., Stillwater (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6652733
• Report Number(s): CONF-8510489-
• Journal Information: Geol. Soc. Am., Abstr. Programs; (United States), Vol. 17; Conference: 98. annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, Orlando, FL, USA, 28 Oct 1985
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS
SEDIMENTARY BASINS
OKLAHOMA
STRATIGRAPHY
TECTONICS
CORRELATIONS
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
ORDOVICIAN PERIOD
OROGENESIS
FEDERAL REGION VI
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GEOLOGY
MOUNTAINS
NORTH AMERICA
PALEOZOIC ERA
USA
580100* - Geology & Hydrology- (-1989)
580201 - Geophysics- Seismology & Tectonics- (1980-1989)