Edgecliff reefs - Devonian temperate water carbonate deposition

Conference · Fri Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1991 · AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States)

OSTI ID:7012924

Wolosz, T H ^[1]

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1. State Univ. of New York, Plattsburgh (United States)

The Middle Devonian Edgecliff Member of the Onondaga Formation in New York and Ontario, Canada, is a coral-rich, reefy,' crinoidal grainstone/packstone. The reefs contain only rare stromatoporoids and are devoid of algae, having been constructed by a fauna of mound and thicket-forming branching colonial rugosans, and large sheet favositids that populated grainstone/packstone flank beds and banks. Despite the restricted fauna, the reefs display a variety of growth patterns. Rugosan mounds range in size from 2-3 m diameter by 1 m thick, up to 230 m diameter by 15 m thick. Composite structures consist of interbedded rugosan buildups and packstone/grainstone flanks, ranging from shield-shaped reefs (240 m diameter by 6 m thick) in which the rugosans occur only as thickets, to pinnacle reefs (up to 3 km diameter by 60 m thick) in which rugosan mounds are interbedded with crinoidal flanks. Geographic distribution of these reef types and analysis of surrounding facies suggests that reef growth pattern was controlled by water depth and local rate of subsidence. Despite superfacial resemblance to modern deep water ahermatypic coral mounds and thickets, abundant coral breakage and overturning, and erosion of at least one reef core during an intermediate stage of reef growth supports a shallow water origin of these reefs. It is suggested that the Edgecliff and its reefs represent an example of Devonian cool water carbonate deposition, a hypothesis supported by a trend of increasing stromatoporoid abundance westwards across New York (in the direction of the paleo-equator).

• OSTI ID: 7012924
• 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

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
580000* -- Geosciences
AGE ESTIMATION
ANIMALS
AQUATIC ORGANISMS
BENTHOS
CANADA
CARBONATE ROCKS
CLIMATE MODELS
CNIDARIA
COELENTERATA
CORALS
DEPOSITION
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
DEVONIAN PERIOD
ECHINODERMS
FOSSILS
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
GEOLOGIC MODELS
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
INVERTEBRATES
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NEW YORK
NORTH AMERICA
ONTARIO
PALEOCLIMATOLOGY
PALEONTOLOGY
PALEOZOIC ERA
REEFS
ROCKS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
USA