Significance of carbonate-clastic shoaling cycles in Mississippian of northern Arkansas
Conference
·
· Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States)
OSTI ID:6444549
Shoaling-upward carbonate shelf cycles are known to occur in many parts of the world and throughout the geologic record. Upper Mississippian (Chesterian) strata in northern Arkansas consist of alternating limestones and shales that include a set of shoaling-upward cycles. These cycles, occurring within the dominantly carbonate Pitkin Formation, differ from the pattern described above in that they contain a significant terrigenous component. At the beginning of a cycle, the shoreline was distinct from the deeply submerged shelf and lime and terrigenous mud accumulated in a quiet-water setting. Thickness and facies analysis of the Pitkin indicate an east-west trending shelf with a shoreline located in southern Missouri, perhaps curving south around the Ozark uplift. Eastward increase in shale percentage in the Pitkin suggests transport of fine clastics around the southeast flank of this uplift. The Illinois basin was an active Chesterian depocenter and during periods of maximum transgression fine clastics may have passed through a seaway southwest into northern Arkansas. As shoaling proceeded, the shoreline regressed south with the advancing carbonate sand sheet, cutting off the avenue of fine clastics. Quartz sand, probably derived from a thick sequence of lower Paleozoic sandstones exposed along the uplift by the retreating sea, became admixed with oolite across the newly built platform. These shoaling cycles are the product of slow, steady, subsidence along a northern Arkansas shelf punctuated by episodes of relatively rapid carbonate sand sedimentation and clastic influx. A similar tectonic and depositional setting must have given rise to other such deposits that occur in the geologic record.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Arkansas, Fayetteville
- OSTI ID:
- 6444549
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8304200-
- Conference Information:
- Journal Name: Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States) Journal Volume: 67:3
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Mississippian clastic-to-carbonate transition in the northeastern Brooks Range, Alaska: Depositional cycles of the Endicott and Lisburne Groups
Pennsylvanian tectonic and depositional history, southern Ozark dome, Arkansas and Missouri
Sequence stratigraphy of the Lower Mississippian in central Tennessee
Conference
·
Tue May 01 00:00:00 EDT 1990
· AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (USA)
·
OSTI ID:6699799
Pennsylvanian tectonic and depositional history, southern Ozark dome, Arkansas and Missouri
Conference
·
Sun Feb 28 23:00:00 EST 1993
· Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States)
·
OSTI ID:7069838
Sequence stratigraphy of the Lower Mississippian in central Tennessee
Conference
·
Sun Feb 28 23:00:00 EST 1993
· Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States)
·
OSTI ID:7271784