Paleoenvironmental setting of Paleozoic mud mounds
- Univ. of Miami, Coral Gables, FL (United States). Dept. Geological Sciences
- Indiana Univ., Indianapolis, IN (United States)
Paleozoic carbonate mud mounds formed above storm wave base, which in many settings was in moderate to extremely shallow water. This is concluded by a comparative analysis of sedimentary structures, fabrics and small scale sequences occurring in Mississippian and Pennsylvanian mounds and in modern mud mounds and Halimeda bioherms. Most small mounds studied contain a shallowing sequence that represents shallowing into the zone of daily agitation. The bulk of each mound sequence is detrital deposition of layered mudstones to wackestones in the mound core and packstones to grainstones on the flanks and shoal cap. If macroskeletal fauna and flora are present, an autochthonous skeletal packstone may occur in the upper portion of the shallowing sequence beneath the detrital grainstone cap. Burrow excavations and grainy tubular tempestite infillings partially to completely modify the primary depositional fabric of all of these facies. Larger mounds studied are a composite of several to numerous smaller mound depositional sequences. High vertical relief of some larger mounds may be more the result of continued accommodation space provided by subsidence/downfaulting than be deposition in extremely deep water. Although the biotic components of carbonate mounds vary greatly through the Paleozoic, the contained sedimentary structures, fabrics and fundamental depositional sequences remain very similar. This suggests a general similarity in the mechanism and depositional setting of mound formation.
- OSTI ID:
- 5771036
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-921058-; CODEN: GAAPBC
- Journal Information:
- Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Vol. 24:7; Conference: 1992 annual meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA), Cincinnati, OH (United States), 26-29 Oct 1992; ISSN 0016-7592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Late Mississippian lime mud mounds, Pitkin Formation, northern Arkansas
Storm deposits (tempestites) in Ordovician cratonic carbonates (Arbuckle Group, south-central Oklahoma)