Genetic sequences and unconformities in shallow marine to fluvial depositional systems, Mesaverde Group, north-central Wyoming
Conference
·
· AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States)
OSTI ID:5529064
- Univ. Bonn (West Germany)
- Iowa State Univ., Ames (United States)
Continuous exposures of the Mesaverde Group (Campanian) in the Bighorn basin area, Wyoming, were utilized to establish regional facies architecture and to test sequence stratigraphic concepts along and perpendicular to the general trend of the shoreline of the Western Interior Cretaceous Seaway. Sections along the west flank of the basin begin with stacked seaward stepping, wave dominated beach sandstones that are fed by widely spaced river systems. These sandstones grade eastward into storm influenced intercalated shale/sandstone beds of the lower shoreface-shelf transitional zone. Bioturbated lower and upper shoreface deposits are often truncated by a laterally continuous erosion surface and overlain by coastal swamp and channel deposits, suggesting a regional regressive unconformity. The overlying fluvial units exhibit a distinct transition in architecture from single and multistoried, lens-shaped, avulsion-controlled, low sinuosity channel bodies to single-storied sheets of high sinuosity channels that consist exclusively of gently dipping, heterolithic lateral accretion units. The uppermost depositional sequence of the Mesaverde is the Teapot Sandstone, a conspicuous multistoried sheet sandstone that consists of laterally amalgamated, vertically stacked low to high sinuosity channels. Floodplain sediments are only represented by shale rip-up clasts in channel lags. Laterally persistent ferricrete horizons, containing plant impressions, are time significant surfaces within the Teapot and indicate a rhythmic pattern of sedimentation, nondeposition, and pedogenesis. The base of the Teapot unconformably overlies weathered lower shoreface sandstone along the east flank of the Bighorn basin and thus represents a regional sequence boundary.
- OSTI ID:
- 5529064
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-910403--
- Conference Information:
- Journal Name: AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States) Journal Volume: 75:3
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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