Coincident exposure/drowning surfaces within Middle Cambrian Grand Cycles, East Tennessee: A model for abrupt limestone/shale transitions/sequence boundaries
- Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States). Dept. of Geological Science
Vertical transition from limestones to shales mark the boundaries of Cambrian Grand Cycles in Passive Margin Sequences over a wide geographic area. Field, petrographic, and geochemical evidence from near platform-edge mudstones and boundstones and platform-edge boundstones at the tops of the Craig Limestone and Maryville Limestone of the Conasauga Group in the southern Appalachians indicate platform death by subaerial exposure, followed by platform drowning and subsequent onlap of siliciclastic deposits. Physical evidence, in the form of scalloped truncation surfaces, as well as petrographic evidence consisting of wholesale and fabric-selective dissolution, internal brecciation, and vadose silt deposition indicate meteoric diagenesis following exposure. Depleted stable oxygen isotope compositions of inter- and intragranular blocky clear calcite spar of the Maryville Limestone have a mean delta O-18 composition of [minus]9.3[per thousand] (PDB) and a mean delta C-13 composition of +0.01[per thousand](PDB). Preliminary data from the Craig Limestone indicate similar delta C-13 values, but more depleted. Thus, the authors propose a common origin for the limestone-shale transitions at the top of these two units. Subaerial exposure during a sea-level fall at the top of these carbonate units terminated carbonate deposition. During exposure, a meteoric-water lens developed in the platform sediments leading to early diagenetic alteration. A rapid relative sea-level rise then drowned the platform, followed by subsidence and deepening during the lag-time before the onset of carbonate deposition. The deepening suppressed carbonate production and allowed fine siliciclastics characteristic of the adjacent basin to onlap the drowned platform.
- OSTI ID:
- 5806390
- 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
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Related Subjects
APPALACHIAN BASIN
STRATIGRAPHY
TENNESSEE
BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
CAMBRIAN PERIOD
DIAGENESIS
EROSION
FLUCTUATIONS
GEOCHEMISTRY
GROUND SUBSIDENCE
LIMESTONE
PETROGRAPHY
SEA LEVEL
SHALES
CARBONATE ROCKS
CHEMISTRY
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GEOLOGY
LEVELS
NORTH AMERICA
PALEOZOIC ERA
ROCKS
SEDIMENTARY BASINS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
USA
VARIATIONS
580000* - Geosciences