Carboniferous stratigraphy of the Appalachians
Carboniferous rocks in the Appalachian fold-thrust belt and foreland basins include parts of four clastic wedges. Distribution, composition, and ages of the clastic wedges record diachronous orogenic uplifts along the Appalachian margin. Lower Mississippian Pocono sandstones form the upper part of the Catskill-Pocono clastic wedge, which includes the Devonian Catskill deltaic facies. Pocono rocks reflect clastic sediments transport toward the northwest and west from an orogenic source east of the Pennsylvania salient. The upper Mississippian-Pennsylvanian Mauch Chunk-Pottsville clastic wedge prograded westward and southwestward from the Pennsylvania salient over Mississippian limestone. The southwestern limit of the Mauch Chunk-Pottsville clastic wedge is overlapped in the Virginia recess by the oppositely directed Pennington-Lee clastic wedge. The Upper Mississippian-Pennsylvanian Pennington-Lee clastic wedge prograded northeastward and northwestward from the Tennessee salient. Southwestward in the Alabama recess, the Pennington clastic facies grades into Mississippian limestone, and Lee-equivalent sandstones extend over the limestone. In the western part of the Alabama recess, Upper Mississippian-Lower Pennsylvanian delta systems prograded northeastward over the Mississippian carbonate facies. These clastic sediments are an eastern shelf-delta part of a thick clastic wedge that consists of turbidites in the Ouachita salient. The eastern fringe of the Ouachita clastic wedge merges with the southwestward-prograding Pennington-Lee clastic wedge above Mississippian carbonate rocks in the Alabama recess.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Alabama, University (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6200790
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8510489-
- Journal Information:
- Geol. Soc. Am., Abstr. Programs; (United States), Journal Name: Geol. Soc. Am., Abstr. Programs; (United States) Vol. 17; ISSN GAAPB
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
580100* -- Geology & Hydrology-- (-1989)
ALABAMA
APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
FEDERAL REGION II
FEDERAL REGION III
FEDERAL REGION IV
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
GEOLOGY
MATERIALS
MOUNTAINS
NEW YORK
NORTH AMERICA
OROGENESIS
PALEOZOIC ERA
ROCKS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
STRATIGRAPHY
TENNESSEE
USA
VIRGINIA