Facies and stratigraphy of the Pennsylvanian Warren Point Sandstone, central Cumberland Plateau, Tennessee
- Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville, TN (United States). Earth Sciences Dept.
The Warren Point Sandstone is a fine-grained, quartz arenite composed primarily of the following three facies: planar bedded 2-D cross beds, low angle cross beds, and broad, shallow channel-fills. Ripple cross lamination, horizontal lamination, and laminated shale facies are also observed. These facies units are grouped into four of Miall's major architectural elements: sandy bedforms, channels, laminated sand sheets, and overbank fines. Paleocurrent measurements made on the 2-D cross beds indicate southwest transport. Throughout this region the Warren Point occurs as a nearly continuous and essentially homogeneous, 7--12 m-thick, sandstone sheet. The authors interpret a sandy braid plain depositional environment for the Warren Point. Initial sand composition data suggest a foreland uplift provenance that along with the southwest transport indicate the Alleghenian orogen as the probable source. The Warren Point disconformably overlies each of it's two stratigraphically subjacent units: the Pennsylvanian Raccoon Mountain (0--5 m-thick) and the upper limestone member of the Mississippian Pennington formations. The Sewanee Conglomerate disconformably overlies the Warren Point and, near Spencer, TN, rests directly on the Pennington limestone member that was a topographic high during Warren Point deposition. The absence of underlying shelfal and marginal marine Pennsylvanian siliciclastics in conjunction with the Warren Point's basal disconformity suggests a sea-level fall that resulted in a basinward facies shift.
- OSTI ID:
- 6819212
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9404221--
- Journal Information:
- Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Journal Name: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States) Vol. 26:4; ISSN GAAPBC; ISSN 0016-7592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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