Lower Rotliegend fluvio-lacustrine sequences in the Saar-Nahe Basin

The Rotliegend beds of the middle of the Kusel Group to the middle of the Lebach Group in the Saar-Nahe Basin are characterized by sedimentary sequences which developed in streams, deltas, and lakes. The stream sequences consisting of cross-stratified sandstone units are attributed to braided fluvial environment. The lake-delta sequences usually show gradual transition from lacustrine mudstones to delta-front cross-stratified sandstones and to floodbasin, crevasse and overbank sandstones and mudstones. Loaded high-intensity flows occasionally result in deformation- and erosion-structures. Low-energy lacustrine sedimentation is evident from paper-shales and massive mudstones. The mudstones alternate with cross-laminated sandstones where influenced by terrigenous influx.     

An iron-bearing wave-dominated siliciclastic shelf: Facies analysis and palaeogeographic implications (Silurian-Lower Devonian Sierra Grande Formation,Southern Argentina)

The Sierra Grande Formation (Silurian-Early Devonian) consists of quartz arenites associated with clast supported conglomerates, mudstones, shales and ironstones. Eight sedimentary facies are recognized: cross-stratified and massive sandstone, plane bedded sandstone, ripple laminated sandstone, interstratified sandstone and mudstone, laminated mudstone and shale, oolitic ironstone, massive conglomerate and sheet conglomerate lags. These facies are interpreted as shallow marine deposits, ranging from foreshore to inner platform environments. Facies associations, based on vertical relationships among lithofacies, suggest several depositional zones: (a) beach to upper shoreface, with abundant plane bedded and massive bioturbated sandstones; (b) upper shoreface to breaker zone, characterized by multistorey cross-stratified and massive sandstone bodies interpreted as subtidal longshore-flow induced sand bars; (c) subtidal, nearshore tidal sand bars, consisting of upward fining sandstone sequences; (d) lower shoreface zone, dominated by ripple laminated sandstone, associated with cross-stratified and horizontal laminated sandstone, formed by translatory and oscillatory flows; and (e) transitional nearshore-offshore and inner platform zones, with heterolithic and pelitic successions, and oolitic ironstone horizons. Tidal currents, fair weather waves and storm events interacted during the deposition of the Sierra Grande Formation. However, the relevant features of the siliciclastics suggest that fair weather and storm waves were the most important mechanisms in sediment accumulation. The Silurian-Lower Devonian platform was part of a continental interior sag located between southern South America and southern Africa. The Sierra Grande Formation was deposited during a second order sea level rise, in which a shallow epeiric sea flooded a deeply weathered low relief continent.     

Facies analysis of a Toarcian–Bajocian shallow marine/coastal succession (Bardas Blancas Formation) in northern Neuquén Basin,Mendoza province,Argentina

Strata of the Bardas Blancas Formation (lower Toarcian–lower Bajocian) are exposed in northern Neuquén Basin. Five sections have been studied in this work. Shoreface/delta front to offshore deposits predominate in four of the sections studied exhibiting a high abundance of hummocky cross-stratified, horizontally bedded and massive sandstones, as well as massive and laminated mudstones. Shell beds and trace fossils of the mixed Skolithos-Cruziana ichnofacies appear in sandstone beds, being related with storm event deposition. Gravel deposits are frequent in only one of these sections, with planar cross-stratified, normal graded and massive orthoconglomerates characterizing fan deltas interstratified with shoreface facies. A fifth outcrop exhibiting planar cross-stratified orthoconglomerates, pebbly sandstones with low-angle stratification and laminated mudstones have been interpreted as fluvial channel deposits and overbank facies. The analysis of the vertical distribution of facies and the recognition of stratigraphic surfaces in two sections in Río Potimalal area let recognized four transgressive–regressive sequences. Forced regressive events are recognized in the regressive intervals. Comparison of vertical distribution of facies also shows differences in thickness in the lower interval among the sections studied. This would be related to variations in accommodation space by previous half-graben structures. The succession shows a retrogradational arrangement of facies related with a widespread transgressive period. Lateral variation of facies let recognize the deepening of the basin through the southwest.     

Subaqueous mass flow origin for Lower Permian diamictites and associated facies of the Grant Group, Barbwire Terrace, Canning Basin, Western Australia

The intracratonic Canning Basin is Western Australia's largest sedimentary basin (>400 000 km²) and has experienced repeated episodes of Phanerozoic extension and subsidence, resulting in deposition of a number of first-order 'megasequences'. A major phase of basin extension and sedimentation (Grant Group) occurred in the Late Carboniferous/Early Permian when Australia lay at high palaeolatitudes. Facies analysis of 5000 m of drill core from 25 continuously cored wells in Grant Group strata on the fault-bounded Barbwire Terrace in the northern Canning Basin identified three facies associations (FAs). These record the predominance of fault-generated, subaqueous mass flow and sediment reworking. The lowest association (FA I; up to 355 m thick) rests unconformably on tilted older strata and consists of coarse-grained, subaqueously deposited, sediment gravity flow facies. These include fault-generated breccias, massive and graded sandstones and conglomerates deposited by turbidity currents and diamictites generated by mixing of different textural populations during downslope remobilization. FA I is overlain abruptly by relatively fine-grained deposits of FA II (up to 140 m thick), which consist of laminated to thin-bedded mudstone and sandstone turbidites, recording an abrupt increase in relative water depths. In turn, these facies coarsen upwards and are transitional into shallow-water, swaley cross-stratified and rippled sandstones of FA III (up to 125 m thick). The overall stratigraphic succession probably records an initial phase of faulting and accommodation of coarse sediment (FA I), a subsequent phase of rapid subsidence, increasing water depths and 'sediment underfilling' (FA II) and, finally, a regressive phase of shoreface progradation. The occurrence of rare striated clasts in FA I suggests reworking of glacial sediment, but no direct glacial influence on sedimentation can be identified.     

Structures and textures in Triassic braided stream conglomerates ('Bunter' Pebble Beds) in the Sherwood Sandstone Group, North Staffordshire, England

ABSTRACT In the northern parts of the Needwood and Stafford/Eccleshall Basins, England, the Pebble Beds of the Sherwood Sandstone Group contain thick successions of texturally mature, fluvial pebble/cobble conglomerates which are organized into either horizontal or cross-stratified sets. The horizontally lying sets, generally coarser grained and more poorly sorted than the cross-bedded sets, are usually disorganized and either matrix- or clast-supported, although thin lenses of well-sorted, occasionally openwork units, interpreted as falling stage phenomena, are often present. The cross-stratified conglomerates have foresets exhibiting remarkable textural organization, with a coarse, bimodal (sometimes matrix-supported) part grading upwards or being abruptly overlain by a finer, well-sorted (occasionally openwork) part and finally capped by sandstone. These rhythmic textural changes are attributed partly to an avalanche process at high stage and partly to falling stage conditions. The most common types of vertical association are thick successions of horizontally bedded conglomerates (up to 20 m) and sequences of an upwards coarsening nature (2-12 m) in which cross-stratified sets are overlain by flat-lying sets. The environment of deposition of the gravels is interpreted as one in which water depths at high stage were greater than depths in most modern braided stream plains (proglacial or alluvial fan) but shallower than depths associated with the Pleistocene catastrophic floods from which texturally mature, giant gravel bars have been recorded. Recent braided streams with relatively confined channels and considerable bar/channel relief are better analogues. In particular, medial or mid-channel bars with a two-tier structure (subaqueous and partly emergent portions) may explain the upward-coarsening sequences in which horizontally lying conglomerates overlie cross-stratified conglomerates. The thicker sequences of horizontally stratified conglomerates represent proximal, longitudinal bar deposits. Sheets of pebbly sandstone and argillaceous sandstone lying between the conglomerates, and commonly occurring towards the top of the succession, largely represent deposition from sandwaves and dunes. Finer, interbedded, argillaceous sandstones, siltstones and mudstones are interpreted as overbank and waning-flood deposits. Basin-forming tectonism of increasing intensity probably caused the initial coarsening upwards of the lower part of the succession, whilst more stable tectonic conditions and decreasing relief on the margins of the basins and in the areas of provenance in the Midlands and the Hercynides, account for the upwards-fining of the upper part of the succession.     

Allogenic controls on the evolution of storm to tidal shelf sequences in the Early Proterozoic Uncompahgre Group, southwest Colorado, USA

Dominantly coarse-grained, shallow-marine, metasedimentary rocks of the Early Proterozoic Uncompahgre Group (UG) record periods of shoaling and drowning on different temporal scales that are attributed to episodic long-term oscillations in relative sea-level with superimposed shorter duration excursions in relative sea-level. Long-term events are probably tectonic whereas short-term events are eustatic. The 2–5 km thick Uncompahgre Group consists of 250–600 m thick, dominantly coarse-grained quartzite units (Q1–Q4) and 200–300 m thick mudstone/pelite units (P1–P5). Five depositional systems comprise the Uncompahgre Group. The outer shelf system (OSS) is composed of Bouma-type beds and intercalated mudstones that are transitional vertically to parallel-laminated to wave-rippled sandstones and hummocky cross-stratified sandstones of the inner shelf system (ISS). Trough cross-stratified sandstones comprise the shoreface system (SHS). The tidal inner shelf/shoreface system (TIS/SHS) consists of a complex interlayering of cross-bedded sandstones, thin-bedded conglomerates, mudstones and rippled sandstones. Trough cross-bedded pebbly sandstones and thin- to thick-bedded conglomerates represent the alluvial system (ALLS). Depositional systems in the UG are associated in transgressive and highstand-systems tracts that make up four sequences (1 to 4). Sequence boundaries do not correspond with lithostratigraphic boundaries but are defined by subtle unconformities. The basal Q1–P1 unit (lower sequence 1) consists of ALLS to TIS/ SHS to ISS comprising a transgressive systems tract. A maximum marine incursion is reflected by deposition of OSS facies in stratigraphic units P1–P2. Shoaling in the transition from P2 to the uppermedial portion of Q2 (OSS—ISS—SHS to a thick TIS/SHS—ALLS) records the highstand systems tract of upper sequence 1. A subtle disconformity/paraconformity delineates a type 2 sequence boundary at the top of the highstand systems tract. The drowning to shoaling pattern is replicated in sequence 2 (upper Q2 to P3 to upper medial Q3); sequence 3 (upper Q3 to P4 to upper-medial Q4); and an incomplete sequence 4 (upper Q4 through P5). Thinner shoaling intervals of OSS—ISS—SHS in P3 and in lower Q2, Q3 and Q4 represent parasequences. Sequences of 10⁷ years duration are attributed to periods of increasing and decreasing subsidence rates due to tectonism marginal to the sedimentary basin. Parasequences record shorter duration temporal controls of c. 10⁴ to 10⁵ years related to eustatic oscillations. As a consequence of shoaling and aggradation/ progradation in the highstand systems tract, TIS/SHS and ALLS overlie and are temporally separated from OSS to ISS to SHS. This transition records filling of the basin to sea-level leading to a shelf geometry that was conducive to tidal amplification. A composite relative sea-level curve integrating long-term pulsatory subsidence and short-term eustasy best explains the stratigraphic evolution of the Uncompahgre Group.     

Tide-dominated offshore sedimentation, Lower Cambrian, north Norway

The Duolbasgaissa Formation, Lower Cambrian, of northern Norway consists of 550 m of mineralogically and texturally mature sandstones with subordinate siltstones, mudstones and conglomerates. Four facies are defined on the basis of grain size, bed thickness and sedimentary structures. Facies 1–3 consist of a variety of erosively-based, cross-stratified and parallel-stratified sandstones interbedded with siltstone and mudstone. Many of these sandstones show evidence of deposition from waning currents. Facies 4 consists of trough cross-bedded sandstones with sets up to 4 m thick. Symmetrical ripples and bioturbation are ubiquitous. Bipolar palaeocurrent distributions are common to all facies and one mode is usually strongly dominant. Lateral facies variations and sedimentary structures suggest that deposition took place in a tide-dominated, offshore, shallow marine environment in which maximum sediment transport probably occurred when storm generated waves enhanced tidal currents. The four facies are thought to represent the deposits of various parts of tidal sediment transport paths such as exist in modern seas around Great Britain. Small scale coarsening upward sequences may represent the superposition of facies independently of changing water depth. Lack of information prevents a detailed palaeogeographic reconstruction. It is suggested that sand body shape is not accurately predictable.     

Late Miocene nonmarine sedimentation and formation of magnesites in the Acıgöl Basin, southwestern Anatolia, Turkey

The Late Miocene lacustrine Acıgöl Basin, SW Turkey, formed as an orogen-top, extensional half-graben, with the subaqueous accommodation controlled by the lake level and the bulk accommodation provided by active subsidence along a WSW-trending normal fault at the basin's southern margin. The basin-fill sedimentary succession consists of terminal alluvial-fan facies overlain by ephemeral lake-margin facies and perennial lake facies, with widespread fluvial facies at the top. The distal alluvial-fan facies include massive to stratified sandstones and massive mudstones with intervening nodular dolostones and incipient pedogenic horizons. The lake-margin facies are micritic magnesites passing laterally into peloidal, irregularly laminated magnesites towards the palaeolake margin and overlain by marlstones and dolostones, all with abundant evidence of episodic subaerial exposure (desiccation cracks, pedogenic features, and tepee structures). The perennial lake facies are micritic magnesites passing upwards into clayey dolostones and dolomitic or clayey marlstones. The fluvial facies capping the succession include planar cross-stratified conglomerates (channel-fill deposits), planar parallel-stratified, planar cross-stratified and rippled cross-laminated sandstones (crevasse-fill and crevasse splay deposits), and assemblages of mudstones intercalated with thin sandstone beds (overbank floodplain deposits).The sedimentological, mineralogical and geochemical data reveal large variations in the basin's hydrological regime, including short-term oscillations and bulk rise of the lake level, periodical changes in the Mg/Ca ratio and terrigenous mud supply, and a negative covariance of δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C fluctuations. The composition of terrigenous sediment and the chemistry of water supplied to the lake were controlled by the weathering, chemical leaching and erosion of the ultramafic–dolomitic bedrock in the catchment area. The bedrock yielded Mg-rich carbonate solutions that caused the deposition of Mg-carbonates in the lake.Despite short-term lake-level fluctuations, the lake's net water budget remained positive. It is suggested that the region's present-day climate and Mg-rich alkaline lakes can serve as an analogue for the climatic and hydrological conditions in the Late Miocene Acıgöl Basin.     

Facies analysis of the Semanggol Formation,South Kedah,Malaysia: A possible Permian–Triassic boundary section

Although the Permian–Triassic Semanggol Formation is widely distributed in northwestern Peninsula Malaysia and is made of various lithofacies, its sedimentology and possible relation with the Permian–Triassic boundary (PTB) were not considered before. In this study, detailed facies analysis was conducted for two sections of the Semanggol Formation at the Bukit Kukus and Baling areas, South Kedah to clarify its sedimentology and relation to the PTB. Four facies from the Permian part of the Semanggol Formation that were identified at the Bukit Kukus section include laminated black mudstone, interbedded mudstone and sandstone, volcanogenic sediments, and bedded chert. In Baling area, the Triassic part of the formation is classified into three members. The lower member comprises of claystone and bedded chert facies, while the middle member is composed of sandstone and claystone interbeds (rhythmite). On the other hand, the upper member is grouped into two main units. The lower unit is mainly claystone and includes two facies: the varve-like laminated silt and clay and massive black claystone. The upper unit is composed of various sandstone lithofacies ranging from hummocky cross stratified (HCS) sandstone to thinly laminated sandstone to burrowed sandstone facies. The HCS sandstones occur as two units of fine-grained poorly sorted sandstone with clay lenses as flaser structure and are separated by a hard iron crust. They also show coarse grains of lag deposits at their bases. The laminated black mudstone at the lowermost part of the Semanggol Formation represents a reducing and quite conditions, which is most probably below the fairweather wave base in offshore environment that changed upwards into a fining upward sequence of tide environment. Abundance of chert beds in the volcanogenic sediments suggests the deposition of tuffs and volcanic ashes in deep marine setting which continues to form the Permian pelagic bedded chert and claystone. The bedded chert in the lower member of the Triassic section suggests its formation in deep marine conditions. The rhythmic sandstone and claystone interbeds of the middle member are suggestive for its formation as a distal fan of a turbidite sequence. Lithology and primary sedimentary structure of the upper member suggest its deposition in environments range from deep marine represented by the varve-like laminated silt and clay to subtidal environment corresponds to the massive black claystone to coastal environment represented by the hummocky sandstone units and reaches the maximum regression at the hiatus surface. Another cycle of transgression can be indicated from the second hummocky unit with transgressive lag deposits that develops to relatively deeper conditions as indicated from the formation of relatively thick laminated sandstone and bioturbated massive sandstone facies that represent tidal and subtidal environment, respectively. Late Permian lithological variation from the radiolarian chert into early Triassic claystone probably resulted from a decrease in productivity of radiolarians and might represent a PTB in the Semanggol Formation. Volcanogenic sediments in the studied section can be used as an evidence for volcanic activities at the end of the Permian, which is probably connected to the nearby volcanic ash layers in the eastern China, the ultimate cause of the PTB in this area. Black mudstone in the Permian part of the studied section may be interrelated to the Latest Permian Anoxia that started to build in the deep ocean well before the event on shallow shelves.     

Facies model for a sandy ephemeral stream and clay playa complex; the Middle Devonian Trentishoe Formation of North Devon, U.K.

Sediments in the Trentishoe Formation of the Middle Devonian Hangman Sandstone Group (North Devon, U.K.) provide the basis of a model for sandy ephemeral stream and clay playa deposition. Three types of sequence are found, representing proximal, medial and distal areas on an extensive alluvial plain. The Proximal sequence consists of cross-cutting channel-fill sandstones which represent the deposits of a network of low sinuosity sand bed streams. The Medial sequence comprises upwards coarsening cyclothems which start with relatively distal, thinly bedded sandstone and siltstone flood sheets cut by complexes of silt draped channel-fill sandstones and single channel fill sandstones. The flood sheets coarsen and thicken upwards to more proximal multistorey sheet sandstones. The Distal sequences consist of laminated mudstone and sandstone, cut by desiccation and water escape features, alternating with wave rippled sandstones, and represent playa lakes occasionally incised by high sinuosity channels with laterally accreting sandstones. The three sequence types represent the downslope progression from a low sinuosity channel network which passed into an ephemeral flood deposit complex which in turn drained into clay playas.     

Architecture of a tide-influenced river delta in the Frontier Formation of central Wyoming, USA

The Frewens sandstone is composed of two elongate tide-influenced sandstone bodies that are positioned directly above and slightly landward of a more wave-influenced lobate sandstone. The 20-km-long, 3-km-wide Frewens sandstone bodies coarsen upwards and fine away from their axes, have gradational bases and margins and have eroded tops abruptly overlain by marine shales. These sandstones are superbly exposed in large cliffs on the banks of the South Fork of the Powder River in central Wyoming, USA. The deposits change upwards from thinly interbedded sandstones and mudstones to metre-thick heterolithic cross-strata and, finally, to metres-thick sandstone-dominated cross-strata. There is abundant evidence for tidal modulation of depositional flows; however, palaeocurrents were strongly ebb-dominated and nearly parallel the trend of sandstone-body elongation. Detailed mapping of stratal geometry and facies across these exposures shows a complex internal architecture. Large-scale bedding units within sandstone bodies are defined by alternations in facies, bed thickness and the abundance of shales. Such bedsets are inclined (5°–15°) in walls oriented parallel to palaeoflow and gradually decrease in dip over hundreds of metres as they extend from the sandstone-dominated deposits higher in a sandstone body to muddier deposits lower in the body. Where viewed perpendicular to palaeoflow, bedsets are 100-metre-wide lenses that shingle off the sandstone-body axis towards its margins. The sandstone bodies are interpreted as sand ridge deposits formed on the shoreface of a tide-influenced river delta. Metres-thick cross-strata in the upper parts of sandstone bodies resemble deposits of bars (sandwaves) formed where tidal currents moved across shallows and the tops of tidal ridges. Heterolithic deposits lower in sandstone bodies record fluctuating currents caused by ebb and flood tides and varying river discharge. Erosion surfaces capping sandstone bodies record tidal ravinement. The tidal ridges were abandoned following transgression and covered with marine mud as waters deepened.     

A meander-belt sandstone of the Lower Cretaceous of Southern England

The meander-belt deposit comprises a sandstone resting on an erosion surface and bounded above and below by massive varicoloured mudstones with rootlet traces. The sandstone unit is composed of six bodies separated from one another, horizontally, by erosion surfaces; together the bodies form a single multilateral sand body. Internally each body is composed of lateral accretion units inclined at up to 6° from the horizontal. Vertical sequences of facies show significant variations but the grain size generally fines upwards. The principal lithofacies within the sandstones are, in common ascending order, intraformational conglomerate, large-scale cross-bedded, horizontal bedded and small-scale cross-laminated sandstone, and alternate sandstones and mudstones. Current directions are normal to the true slope of accretion surfaces and show insignificant scatter within individual bodies but are very diverse overall. Five of the sand bodies are believed to represent individual point bars, and one body an abandoned channel. Together they comprise the meander belt. The river was subject to very variable discharges and carried high suspended loads. Analysis of vertical profiles indicates that grain size segregation along the length of the point bars caused differentiation of the bars into coarse-grained heads and sandy tails.     

Facies and Architecture of a Carboniferous Grounding-line System From the Guandacol Formation, Paganzo Basin, Northwestern Argentina

New outcrops of Middle Carboniferous glacigenic deposits found in the Guandacol Formation (western Paganzo Basin) are described in this paper. The study locality of Los Pozuelos Creek (northwestern Argentina) includes coarse-grained diamictites, rhythmites, laminated pebbly mudstones and shales that represent an expanded column of the Gondwanic glaciation in this region. Thirteen lithofacies recorded at the measured section have been grouped into three facies associations. Facies Association I is composed of coarse-grained massive and stratified diamictites (lithofacies Dmm, Dms, Dmg, Dcs), laminated siltstones with dropstones (Fld) and interstratified sandstones and mudstones (Fl, Sr). These rocks represent both tillites and resedimented diamictites closely associated to small water bodies where laminated siltstones with dropstones and stratified sandstones and mudstones were deposited. Facies Association II comprises couplets of matrix-supported thinly bedded diamictites (Dmld) and laminated mudstones with dropstones (Fld). This facies association results from the combination of three different processes, subaqueous cohesionless debris flows, coeval rainout of ice-rafted debris and settling of fine-grained particles from supension. Finally, Facies Association III is made up of laminated mudstones without dropstones, thin marl levels and scarce fine- to very fine-grained sandstones. This assemblage clearly suggests sedimentation in a deep marine environment below the wave base.The architecture of the glacigenic deposits has been investigated using photomosaic panels. The geometry of the depositional bodies and facies suggest that Los Pozuelos Creek outcrops exhibit a well preserved three-dimensional example of a grounding-line system. In particular, three different subenvironments of a morainal bank were interpreted: a bank-front, a bank-core and a bank-back. The bank-front assemblage is characterized by coarse-grained, mainly resedimented, diamictites grading laterally to prograding clinoforms composed of interbedded matrix-supported thinly bedded diamictite and mudstones. The bank-core assemblage is formed by a stacking of coarse-grained diamictites where at least five major erosional surfaces, bounding four multistory diamictite bodies, can be recognized. Finally, the bank-back assemblage corresponds to discontinuous intervals of striated lodgement till, and coarse-grained resedimented diamictites showing important post-depositional deformation. The retrogradational stacking of the morainal banks indicate an overall glacial retreat and a glacioeustatic sea-level rise. Erosional surfaces at the base of each morainal bank suggest intervening short term episodes of ice advance.The new data presented here confirm the existence of "true" tillites in western Paganzo Basin and suggest several (at least four) pulses of glacial advance and retreat during the Namurian glaciation in the region and permit a more refined interpretation of the glacial deposits in the Huaco area.     

济源盆地谭庄组(T2-3)上段湖相沉积及遗迹化石特征

济源市西南郊出露有中-上三叠统谭庄组,代表了济源中生代盆地充填的一部分。在湖相剖面中识别出六种岩相组成的两类相序,相序 1呈叠置的向上变粗的序列,由下到上由富有机质页岩 (相E,类型Ⅰ ),纹层粉砂岩 (相A)和水流波痕层理砂岩(相B)组成,记录了在温暖潮湿条件下常年性开放湖泊中小型河口坝三角洲的进积作用;相序 2缺少明显的垂直序列,由互层状细粒碳酸盐岩和粉砂岩(相C),变形层理和波浪改造砂岩 (相D),富有机质页岩(相E,类型Ⅱ)和粘土岩组成,虽然也代表了常年性开放浅水湖泊体系,但反映出很强的季节性气候控制特征。湖相剖面的相C中发育丰富的Skolithos linearis组合,也反映出底层受季节性气候控制。文章深入探讨了该组上段浅湖沉积的环境演替及气候对沉积作用的控制作用,在湖泊演化过程中,很可能出现过几次水体分层。根据晚三叠世时期的古地理重建,推测谭庄组上段湖相沉积反映出的强烈季节性可以用潘加亚巨型季风影响的设想模式解释。     

Upper Cretaceous Gongila Formation in the Hawal Basin, northeast Benue Trough: a storm and wave dominated regressive shoreline complex

The Gongila Formation in the Hawal Basin displays lithological characteristics, textural variations and sedimentary structures that facilitate palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. The 41 m thick Gongila succession is divisible into: (i) a mudstone facies association (at the bottom) composed of fossiliferous limestone, clay shale, and sharp-based, graded and swaly-bedded shell debris; and (ii) a cross-stratified sandstone facies association that constitutes the uppermost 60% of the entire succession. The cross-stratified sandstone facies association is further subdivided, on the basis of sedimentary structures, into: (i) a lower interval represented by a coarsening upward fine- to medium-grained sandstone, siltstone and shale in which units characterised by parallel lamination and hummocky cross-stratification pass upward through a zone of small-scale low angle cross-stratification into units characterised by planar cross-stratification and sparse Teichichnus and Skolithos burrow traces; and (ii) an upper interval dominated by fine- to medium-grained sandstone and bioturbated siltstone characterised by erosive based, high angle tangential foresets, subhorizontal laminations and burrow structures belonging to the Thalassinoides, Ophiomorpha and Skolithos ichnogenera.The overall sequence of the Gongila Formation represents progradation on a wave influenced coast, passing from shelf mudstone at the base to lower and upper shoreface sandstones at the top. Each facies association displays an alternation between relatively high energy conditions when sediment was mainly deposited by decelerating suspension laden currents, and relatively low energy conditions when wave reworked fine-grained sediment as it was deposited from suspension. The influence of storms in these conditions is inferred from the associated lithofacies, textural characteristics and sedimentary structures.     

Depositional history and stratigraphical evolution of the Sakamena group (Middle Karoo Supergroup) in the southern Morondava Basin, Madagascar

The Karoo Supergroup in Madagascar is subdivided into three lithostratigraphical units: the Late Carboniferous-Early Permian Sakoa Group; the Late Permian-Middle Triassic Sakamena Group; and the Triassic-Early Jurassic Isalo Group. The Sakamena Group is fairly well exposed in the southern Morondava Basin, where it is approximately 4000 m thick. The Sakamena Group is separated from the Sakoa Group by an angular unconformity. The Lower Sakamena Formation is characterised by two major facies associations: (1) interbedded muddy conglomerates and coarse sandstones; and (2) interbedded sandstones and mudstones, which were deposited in a rejuvenated rift setting by coarse-grained fluvial systems and debris flows on the rift margins. In the Vatambe area, facies represent fandelta deposition in a saline lake or tongue of the ocean. The Middle Sakamena Formation comprises three major facies: (1) laminated mudstones and sandstones; (2) sandstones; and (3) mudstones. The Middle Sakamena facies were deposited by low gradient meandering streams and in shallow lakes. The Upper Sakamena Formation was deposited in similar environments, except that it is comprised predominantly of red beds. The Isalo Group consists predominantly of coarse-grained sandstones (up to 6000 m thick). These sandstones were deposited by braided streams with the coarse detritus derived from a structural uplift in the east.     

Sedimentology and evolution of the Martinsburg Formation (Upper Ordovician) fine-grained turbidite depositional system, central Appalachians

The Upper Ordovician Martinsburg Formation of eastern Pennsylvania consists of mudstone, siltstone, and sandstone turbidites that accumulated in a tectonically active foreland basin. The mudstone-rich Bushkill Member, the stratigraphically lowest unit of the Martinsburg in this area, grades upward into approximately equal proportions of mudstone, siltstone, and sandstone of the Ramseyburg Member. Many of the turbidites of these units are arranged in small-scale (1–9 m) fining-upward sequences that are interpreted as reflecting the influence of external or allocyclic controls such as variations in the local rate of sea-level rise and/or variations in the intensity of tectonic activity in shelf/nearshore or hinterland areas rather than more commonly cited autocyclic mechanisms. The thick (approximately 2000 m) Bushkill-Ramseyburg coarsening-upward sequence records progradation of a muddy turbidite depositional system along the axis of the foreland basin. Although this sequence accumulated during a Caradocian eustatic rise in sea-level, sedimentation rates landward of the shoreline were apparently great enough to allow for long-term seaward progradation of the shelf source. The paucity of depositional lobe-like facies (coarsening-upward sequences) in the Bushkill Member allows for tentative comparison of the progradational Bushkill-Ramseyburg system with the active fan lobe of the Mississippi Fan. Progradation of the Bushkill-Ramseyburg system ceased abruptly when mudstone turbidites and laminated black shale of the upper unit of the Martinsburg, the Pen Argyl Member, accumulated. The great thickness of some mudstone turbidite beds of the Pen Argyl Member is interpreted to record topographic confinement of the central Appalachian foreland basin, which may have helped to preclude continued progradation of the Bushkill-Ramseyburg turbidite system.     

Three-dimensional sequence analysis of a subsurface carbonate ramp, Mississippian Appalachian foreland basin, West Virginia, USA

Well‐cuttings, wireline logs and limited core and outcrop data were used to generate a regional, three‐dimensional sequence framework for Upper Mississippian (Chesterian), Greenbrier Group carbonates in the Appalachian foreland basin, West Virginia, USA. The resulting maps were used to document the stratigraphic response of the basin to tectonics and to glacio‐eustasy during the transition into ice‐house conditions. The ramp facies include inner ramp red beds and aeolianites, lagoonal muddy carbonates, mid‐ramp ooid and skeletal grainstone shoal complexes, and outer ramp wackestone–mudstone, that grades downslope into laminated silty lime mudstone. The facies make up fourth‐order sequences, a few metres to over 90 m (300 ft) thick. The sequences are bounded along the ramp margin by lowstand sandstones and calcareous siltstones. On the ramp, sequence boundaries are overlain by thin transgressive siliciclastics and aeolianites, and only a few are calichified. Maximum flooding surfaces on the outer ramp lie beneath deeper water facies that overlie lowstand to transgressive siliciclastic or carbonate units. On the shallow ramp, maximum flooding surfaces overlie siliciclastic‐prone transgressive systems tracts, that are overlain by highstand carbonates with significant grainstone units interlayered with lagoonal lime mudstones. The fourth‐order sequences are the major mappable subsurface units; they are bundled into weak composite sequences which are bounded by red beds. In spite of differential subsidence rates across the foreland basin (1 to 3 cm/k.y. up to 25 cm/k.y.), eustatic sea‐level changes controlled regional sequence development. Thrust‐load induced differential subsidence of fault‐blocks, coupled with in‐plane stress, controlled the rapid basinward thickening of the depositional wedge, whose thickness and facies were influenced by subtle structures such as arches trending at high angles as well as parallel to the margin.     

Origin of fine-grained carbonate and siliciclastic sediments in an Early Palaeozoic slope sequence, Cow Head Group, western Newfoundland

The Cow Head Group is an Early Palaeozoic base-of-slope sediment apron composed of carbonate and shale. Whereas coarse-grained conglomerate and calcarenite are readily interpreted as debris-flow and turbidite deposits, calcilutite (lime mudstone), calcisiltite, and shale combine to form three distinct lithofacies whose present attributes are a function of both sedimentation and early diagenesis. Shale is the most common lithology. Black, green, and red shale colour variations reflect the abundance of organic matter in the source area and oxygenation conditions of the sea bottom. In black and green shale, millimetre- to centimetre-thick, alternating dark and light laminations represent terrigenous mud turbidites and hemipelagites, respectively. The calcisiltite/shale facies is uncommon and is composed of numerous graded carbonate-shale sequences (GCSS) deposited from waning carbonate turbidites and fall-out of terrigenous muds. Some of the characteristics of ribbon and parted lime mudstones in the calcilutite/shale facies can be explained by deposition of carbonate mud from dilute turbidity currents or hemipelagic settling. Other features are diagenetic in origin. The lack of micrite in GCSS and in the interbedded shales of the calcilutite/shale facies is interpreted to reflect early dissolution of the finer carbonate from these sediments. This remobilized carbonate was precipitated locally to: lithify lime mudstone turbidites or hemipelagites; form diagenetic lime mudstone beds and nodules; cement calcisiltites; and form dolomite. Many of the calcisiltites and calcilutites were, therefore, carbonate enriched at the expense of adjacent argillaceous sediments. These attributes characterize not only fine-grained sediments of the Cow Head Group but many other Early Palaeozoic slope carbonates as well, suggesting that the model proposed here for depositionl diagenesis has wider application.