Tidal and seasonal controls in the formation of Late Miocene inclined heterolithic stratification deposits, western Amazonian foreland basin

Upper Miocene strata in the Acre sub‐basin, Brazil, consist dominantly of various types of inclined heterolithic stratification and pedogenic horizons. These strata were sedimentologically and ichnologically described to: (i) study different temporal controls responsible for inclined heterolithic stratification generation and their variation in a distal–proximal trend; and (ii) delineate the depositional setting. For this purpose, nine representative outcrops were sedimentologically and ichnologically studied, and their facies associations described. Thickness variations of the heterolithic strata of various orders (lamina, lamina bundles and beds) were analysed by statistical methods (Fourier transform). The deposits were interpreted as tidally and seasonally influenced estuarine or delta‐related and continental strata. The inclined heterolithic stratification deposits represented vastly different settings ranging from tidally dominated, brackish‐water ichnofossils‐bearing channels to seasonally controlled, articulated Purussaurus (a freshwater alligator) fossil‐bearing channels. Several time cycles were distinguished in the strata, including semi‐diurnal, fortnightly and seasonal. Tidal imprint was best observed in low‐energy brackish‐water settings, whereas seasonal rhythmicity was distinguishable throughout the depositional system. However, the latter was most apparent in riverine channels proximal to the inferred fluvio‐tidal transition. The different temporal controls commonly had distinguishable impact on sedimentological and ichnological properties in the studied sediments. The differing properties included: (i) the degree and nature of lateral variability with respect to lithology and bedforms in inclined heterolithic stratification; (ii) the lateral continuity of inclined heterolithic stratification; (iii) the nature of sedimentary contacts between the inclined heterolithic stratification members; (iv) thickness variation of inclined heterolithic stratification members within a set; (v) the cyclicities observed in inclined heterolithic stratification series; (vi) the degree of bioturbation; (vii) the types of trace fossils observed; and (viii) the distribution of bioturbation in adjacent inclined heterolithic stratification members.     

Limestone–marl alternations as environmental archives and the role of early diagenesis: a critical review

Limestone–marl alternations and other micritic calcareous rhythmites have long appealed to sedimentologists, as they appeared to directly reflect high-frequency environmental change. In particular, when orbital forcing gained popularity amongst sedimentologists and paleoclimatologists in 1980s, such rhythmites seemed to offer an ideal tool for high-resolution chronostratigraphy and environmental reconstruction. However, in spite of the fact that orbital forcing has become a routine interpretation of calcareous rhythmites, and that the processes of formation of calcareous rhythmites are considered well understood, research in the past 10 years again has questioned their primary origin and their direct interpretability. Detailed petrographic, paleontological, and geochemical data from numerous successions through geological time provided the basis for testing whether or not the regular alternation of limestone beds and marl or shale interlayers represents bimodally fluctuating environmental conditions in a direct way. In particular, these data, supplemented by box model simulations, imply that post-depositional alteration (diagenesis) has the potential to not only seriously distort primary environmental signals, but also to mimic primary signals. This questions the use of micritic calcareous rhythmites for high-resolution chronostratigraphy and for environmental interpretations where independent data of diagenetically inert parameters are not available. Diagenetic changes appear to have a yet widely underestimated influence on the appearance of limestone–marl alternations and other calcareous rhythmites. The aim of the present review is to summarize new approaches and give an overview of our research results in this field of the past decade. This review also aims at pointing to still enigmatic aspects that need to be addressed before the interpretation of micritic calcareous rhythmites can be considered a reliable tool for high-resolution chronostratigraphy and paleoenvironmental interpretation. “This difference [between shale and limestone] does not find definite expression in the chemical composition but appeals to the eye.” Gilbert (1895)     

浙江桐庐晚奥陶世晚期沉积层序和沉积环境分析

文昌组上段顶部是一套潮汐层理非常发育的泥质砂岩或砂质泥岩,存在双向交错层理,层面有雨痕,应为潮坪沉积。潮坪沉积由小型层序构成,小型层序又是由砂、泥质单层组成。砂质单层底部通常为岩性突变面或侵蚀面,砂质纹层较厚,其中可见对称波痕或泥砾;向上砂质纹层变薄,过渡到泥质单层。砂质单层形成于暴风浪时期,泥质单层是风浪衰减后恢复正常的潮汐沉积。因此,小型层序从成因上说是一风暴层序。碎屑成份、砾石成份分析表明沉积物均来自华夏古陆的沉积岩和变质岩基底。物源一致,岩层产状变化不大,反映文昌组沉积环境稳定。岩性、粒度分析表明文昌组是一向上变细、由浅海高能环境向近岸低能环境过渡的沉积层序。文昌组下段为浅海砂岩沉积,上段顶部为潮坪沉积。二者之间是一套夹砾岩透镜体的泥质粉细砂岩,其沉积环境应介于浅海和滨岸之间,为水下岸坡沉积。砾岩层只是大的沉积旋回中出现的事件性水下冲积物。     

周期性潮积岩及其研究意义

回顾了最近十余年来国外对周期性潮汐沉积物，特别是潮汐韵律层的研究进展，系统介绍了几种从古代沉积物中识别出来的潮汐周期，包括基本潮汐（半日潮，全日潮和混合潮），大一小潮周期以及一些长周期波动等。最后，对潮汐韵律层在推测地史时期地－月系的演化历史及计算短期沉积速率中的意义作了评述。     

Statistical analysis of the temporal and spatial controls on tidal signal preservation in late-Holocene tidal rhythmites, Romney Marsh, Southeast England

A hierarchical series of tidal periodicities are preserved within laminated tidal flat deposits at the barrier/back-barrier interface of Romney Marsh and the Dungeness Foreland in southeast England. The sedimentary record of the tidal signature, extracted from variations in sand layer thickness, was found to be severely truncated with neap-spring periods typically represented by five or less sand layers and possibly only alternate neap-spring periods present. Despite the low number of sand layers deposited in these higher frequency tidal cycles, semi-annual periods are clearly preserved but tend to contain less than the expected 6 months of sedimentation. Annual accumulation rates of around 0.2–0.3 m/year are indicated. Local emplacement of storm beaches is considered to have created the protected conditions suitable for tidal rhythmite preservation. Ongoing foreland progradation and infilling eventually restricted tidal inundation to the point where distinct sand laminae were no longer deposited. Here, in contrast with other systems, accommodation space was not limiting and tidal flat elevation is reflected as a more subtle control on spatial changes in the resolution of the tidal signal.     

潮汐韵律层的研究进展及其天文地质意义

潮汐沉积物记录着一系列的潮汐周期。本文简要介绍了几种主要的现代潮汐周期，在此基础上回顾了最近十余年来国外对周期性潮汐沉积物，特别是潮汐韵律层的研究进展，系统介绍了几种从古代沉积物中识别出来的潮汐周期，包括基本潮汐（半日潮、全日潮和混合潮），大－小潮周期以及一些长期周波动等。最后对潮汐韵律层在推测地史时期地－月系的演化历史中的意义作了评述。     

Holocene environmental change in South Georgia: Evidence from lake sediments

The Holocene environmental history of South Georgia is important because of the island's location in the Southern Westerlies in an oceanic zone of the world devoid of high resolution terrestrial records. This is the first attempt to interpret a palaeoenvironmental record from lake sediments in South Georgia. It is based on a wide variety of analyses undertaken on cores from two lakes. Both are in the same, unglaciated, drainage basin, but one is at 80 m above sea-level and near the altitudinal limit for vegetation growth, whereas the other is at 25 m and within the zone of continuous vegetation cover. Results from both lakes indicate shifts of vegetation boundaries, which, together with evidence for changing biotic productivity within the lakes themselves, are interpreted as indicating climatic changes. Radiocarbon dates on the main changes identify a climatic optimum, beginning before 5620 ± 290 ¹⁴C yr BP, and ending at around 4815 ± 330 ¹⁴C yr BP, when conditions in the upper part of the catchment were more conducive to plant growth than they are today. The record obtained from the lower lake was shorter, but indicates two periods of harsher climate relative to the present since 4000 yr BP. This interpretation of the lake evidence agrees with other dated evidence of environmental change from peat sections, glacial stratigraphy and geomorphology in South Georgia. Together the work allows an overall reconstruction of environmental change in the Holocene.     

Late Tertiary paleoclimatic interpretation from lacustrine rhythmites in the Gray Fossil Site,northeastern Tennessee,USA

The Gray Fossil Site (GFS) includes a small (<2 ha) paleosinkhole lake fill with an exceptionally well-preserved record of sedimentation and fossils from the latest Miocene to earliest Pliocene. The uppermost lacustrine stratigraphy is characterized by rhythmites that regularly alternate between coarse-grained and organic-rich (A) laminae and fine-grained, silty clay (B) laminae. Both the A and B components are almost exclusively comprised of exogenic sediment (including organic matter). Periodicities of 24 and 4.4 are recorded within a continuous 96 interpreted year sequence of rhythmite sediment. In a small lake with a poorly oxygenated bottom, the presence of laterally continuous laminated sediment that includes well-known periodicities in rhythmite thickness is interpreted as representing annually generated varves that correspond to seasonal variations in sedimentation. The distinctly larger fraction of medium sand-size quartz grains present within the A laminae, as well as the abrupt transitions between A and B components suggest that the rhythmites represent deposition during alternating high-energy and lower-energy seasons, which is consistent with a monsoonal precipitation pattern. The seasonal climate may relate to changes in the ocean circulation pattern prior to 4.6 Ma that resulted in an increased temperature and atmospheric pressure gradient between the east coast of North America and the Atlantic Ocean, but this climate phase seems to be only a temporary condition, as underlying and overlying sediment are both consistent with drier conditions. The periodicity at 24 interpreted years is consistent with the well-known Hale solar cycle. The 4.4 interpreted-year periodicity occurs within the ENSO frequency band, and if this documentation of ENSO-like interannual climate change is correct, then it suggests that ENSO operated at times during the warm Earth conditions characterizing the late Tertiary.     

Depositional Record of Tidal-Flat Sedimentation in the Permian Coal Measures of Central India: Barakar Formation, Mohpani Coalfield, Satpura Gondwana Basin

The Permian Barakar Formation in the Mohpani coalfield, Satpura Gondwana basin, is composed of three broad lithologies that occur repetitively and are iterdigitated: (1) several metres thick coarse- to medium-grained sandstone bodies with scoured bases, (2) 5-20 m thick medium- to fine-grained sandstone bodies and (3) 5-20 m thick mudstone-dominated packages with variable proportions of centimetre- to decimetre-scale, fine- to medium-grained sandstone, carbonaceous shale and coal. The Barakar strata were previously interpreted as deposits of braided rivers and associated inter-channel flood basin in a continental setting. However, this study recognizes signatures of tidal current from the mudstone-dominated packages implying marine influence during Barakar sedimentation.

The mudstone-dominated sediment bodies are the focus of this paper and comprise of three lithofacies that bear imprints of tidal processes during Barakar sedimentation: (1) heterolith, (2) sandstone, and (3) coal-carbonaceous shale, which alternate with one another within individual bodies. The heterolithic facies show interlayering of sandstone and claystone resembling flaser, wavy and lenticular bedding, as well as pinstripe stratification. Successive sandstone-mudstone couplets indicate periodic waxing and waning of flows. Within individual heterolithic packages, the sandstone:claystone ratio along with the bedding style, varies cyclically upwards giving rise to alternate sandstone-dominated and claystone-dominated intervals suggesting tidal velocity fluctuation reflective of spring-neap lunar cycle. Thickness plots of successive sand-mud couplets also reveal cyclic variation with a conspicuous periodicity of around 12 couplets per cycle, which corroborates the spring-neap-spring (or neap-spring-neap) lunar cycle. Presence of abundant desiccation cracks indicates periodic emergence and points towards an intertidal setting. The sandstone facies is characterized by a variety of wave-generated features such as bundled and chevron upbuilding of lamina, bi-directional foreset orientations, offshooting and draping laminae, scour-and-drape feature, swollen lens-like geometries suggesting their emplacement under storm-induced combined-flow on the tidal-flat. The coal-carbonaceous shale facies represent supratidal marsh environment.     

Sedimentological and palaeohydrological responses to tectonics and climate in a small, closed, lacustrine system: Oligocene As Pontes Basin (Spain)

ABSTRACT A small, closed, lacustrine system developed during the restraining overstep stages of the Oligocene As Pontes strike‐slip basin (Spain). The increase in basin accommodation and the headward spread of the drainage, which increased the water input, triggered a change from shallow, holomictic to deeper, meromictic conditions. The lower, shallow, lacustrine assemblage consists of mudstone–carbonate cycles recording lacustrine–palustrine ramp deposition in a saline lake. High Sr content in some early diagenetic calcites suggests that aragonite and calcite made up the primary carbonate muds. Early dolomitization took place together with widespread pedogenic activity. The upper, deep, freshwater, lacustrine assemblage includes bundles of carbonate–clay rhythmites and fine‐grained turbidite beds. Primary calcite and diagenetic siderite make up the carbonate laminae. The Mg content of the primary carbonates records variations in Mg/Ca ratios in lacustrine waters. δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C covariance trends in calcite reinforce closed drainage conditions. δ¹⁸O data indicate that the lake system changed rapidly from short‐lived isotopically light periods (i.e. from seasonal to pluriannual) to longer steady‐state periods of heavier δ¹⁸O (i.e. from pluriannual to millennial). The small δ¹³C changes in the covariant trends were caused by dilute inflow, changing the contributions of dissolved organic carbon in the system and/or internal variations in lacustrine organic productivity and recycling. In both shallow and deep carbonate facies, sulphate reduction and methanogenesis may account, respectively, for the larger negative and positive δ¹³C shifts recorded in the early diagenetic carbonates (calcite, dolomite and siderite). The lacustrine system was very susceptible to high‐frequency, climatically forced water balance variations. These climatic oscillations interfered with the low‐frequency tectonic and morphological changes in the basin catchment. This resulted in the superposition of high‐order depositional, mineralogical and geochemical cycles and rhythms on the lower order lacustrine infill sequence.