Subsidence-sinkhole development in light of mud infiltrate structures within interstratal karst of the Coastal Plain,southeast United States

Mud infiltrate structures (MIS) are a class of clastic sedimentary structures that have formed by high-angle gravitational sedimentation in vadose cavernous limestones beneath the Miocene Hawthorn Group. Observations of MIS in caves beneath the Pelham Escarpment, southwest Georgia, suggest three main types occurring either beneath, within, or contiguous to subvertical feeder pipes in the ceiling: (1) rubbly, conical masses; (2) polished, striated, cylindrical masses; and, (3) mud-flow, -drape, and-splash forms. MIS abundance suggests gravitative deposits are a major component to the total volume of cave mud. The muds apparently do not include soil-mantle materials; rather, their sources are poorly cemented clay-rich layers within the overlying Hawthorn Group. In cases where an individual MIS volume is large in proportion to the clastic-cover thickness, but no surface depression is found, the MIS location hypothetically predicts a directly overlying site of potential cover-collapse sinkhole development. Smaller-volume and/or shallower MIS predict the location of potential cover-subsidence sinkholes. The MIS forms suggest plastic and fluid behavior of the sediments occurs during displacements. The capacity for subsurface voids to accept mobile sediments depends on several factors that influence sinkhole development: (1) void size and interconnectedness; (2) spacing and size of subvertical solution pipes which can act as MIS feeders; (3) depth beneath the sediment source of any main horizontal cave development; (4) thickness of the cover sediments; and (5) the presence and depth of any breakout domes. The Hawthorn is present over more than 50 percent of the area underlain by the Floridan Aquifer system and is the system's major upper confining unit. MIS-forming processes are likely to be widely distributed within this stratigraphic setting, promoting ground subsidence and subsurface porosity obliteration. Given the existence of feeder pipes, MIS also are expected to form within the phreatic zone.     

Geomorphological, geochemical and geo-environmental aspects of karstification in the urban areas of Kerman city, southeastern, Iran

Kerman city has a semiarid-arid climate with an average annual precipitation of about 158 mm. The area is underlain by soluble subsoil and alluvial deposits, overlying highly fractured Cretaceous limestones. Geo-environmental studies indicate that both paleokarst and active karst features are developed in the area. The paleokarsts were developed in the Upper Cretaceous limestone during the cold, humid periods of Post Cretaceous and probably Early Quaternary time and include honeycombs, solution flutes, rillenkarren, caverns, and solution collapse dolines. Active karst landforms occur by combined piping-induced and limestone solution at depth in subsoils, and alluvial deposits and bajada that overly potent karstic limestones and cover subsidence sinkholes and subjacent alluvial karst collapse dolines. Many factors, such as soluble compounds (salt and gypsum), desiccation cracks, and Qanat (dug water wells), could contribute to the development of karstic landforms. The most immediate cause for active karst landforms is considered to be the drawdown of the water table in the area. There is an increasing demand for groundwater consumption to irrigate pistachio fields. Excessive pumping of the groundwater lowers the water table about 80 cm per year. This rate of drawdown accelerates land subsidence (about 6 cm per year), creates circular patterns of fractures in the ground and in buildings, disrupts agricultural work and urbanization projects, and tilts foundations. These geohazards indicate that ground sinking and karstification are in progress in the alluvial deposits and underlying limestones. The disturbance and expense caused by the geohazards could be mitigated by the application of overhead sprinkler irrigation for pistachio fields or by planting less thirsty plants.     

Natural and human-induced sinkholes in gypsum terrain and associated environmental problems in NE Spain

The central Ebro Basin comprises thick evaporite materials whose high solubility produces typically karstic landforms. The sinkhole morphology developed in the overlying alluvium has been studied using gravimetry and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) on stream terraces, as well as analyzing the evolution of sinkhole morphologies observed in aerial photographs taken in 1928, 1957, and 1985. The sinkhole morphologies give some idea of possible subsurface processes as well as an indication of the final mechanisms involve in sinkhole development. On stream terraces and cover pediments the most commonly encountered dolines are bowl-shaped in their morphology with both diffuse and scarped edges. In contrast, dolines developed in the gypsiferous silt infilled valleys have a funnel and well-shaped morphology. The diffuse-edged bowl-shaped dolines are developed through the progressive subsidence of the alluvial cover, due to washing down of alluvial particles through small voids and cracks into deeper subsurface caves, resulting in a decrease alluvial density. Future compaction of the alluvial cover will produce surface subsidences. This type of dolines are associated with negative gravity anomalies. In contrast, the scarped-edge dolines are formed by the sudden collapse of a cavity roof. The cavities and cracks formed in the gypsum karst may migrate to the surface through the alluvial deposits by piping, and they may subsequently collapse. In this instance, the cavities can be detected by both gravity and GPR anomalies where the voids are not deeper than 4–5 m from the surface. These processes forming sinkholes can be enhanced by man-induced changes in the groundwater hydrologic regime by both inflows, due to irrigation, ditch losses, or pipe leakages, and by outflows from pumping activities.     

湘鄂西奥陶纪宝塔组灰岩网纹构造成因及沉积环境探讨

网纹构造是宝塔组石灰岩地层中非常发育且分布广泛的一种构造形态 ,其成因一直存在争论和疑问。对湘鄂西地区宝塔组灰岩的研究表明 ,网纹构造的形成不是由于胶体凝缩、水下沉积物收缩或生物遗迹等原因 ,而是一种成岩早期形成的准同生变形构造。根据岩石性质及生物特征推断 ,宝塔组网纹状灰岩沉积于正常浪基面以下、风暴浪基面之上 (水深大约 5 0～ 15 0 m)的陆棚或台盆环境     

Geophysical investigation of a sinkhole in the northern Harz foreland (North Germany)

The creek Jerstedter Bach is part of the Ringelheimer Mulde along the northern rim of the Harz Mountains in Northern Germany, a trough structure comprising steeply dipping limestones. The limestones are well karstified and drain parts of the region efficiently via sub-surface flow. As the entire region is intensively used by agriculture, contamination of the fast-flowing karst aquifer is a potential problem. During 2006, a small sinkhole (Windmühlenweg) developed alongside the Jerstedter Bach close to the city of Goslar. The sinkhole enlarged rapidly, with a small cave within the gravel cover diverting part of the creek to the subsurface karst catchment. Geophysical methods (gravimetry, geoelectrics) were used around the sinkhole to determine its extent and possible evolution. A negative Bouguer anomaly was found over the sinkhole, indicating more voids further downstream. The geoelectric survey helped to identify the old meandering course of the small river, which was straightened during the cultural land reform in the twentieth century.     

Quantitative sinkhole hazard assessment. A case study from the Ebro Valley evaporite alluvial karst (NE Spain)

Quantitative sinkhole hazard assessments in karst areas allow calculation of the potential sinkhole risk and the performance of cost-benefit analyses. These estimations are of practical interest for planning, engineering, and insurance purposes. The sinkhole hazard assessments should include two components: the probability of occurrence of sinkholes (sinkholes/km² year) and the severity of the sinkholes, which mainly refers to the subsidence mechanisms (progressive passive bending or catastrophic collapse) and the size of the sinkholes at the time of formation; a critical engineering design parameter. This requires the compilation of an exhaustive database on recent sinkholes, including information on the: (1) location, (2) chronology (precise date or age range), (3) size, and (4) subsidence mechanisms and rate. This work presents a hazard assessment from an alluvial evaporite karst area (0.81 km²) located in the periphery of the city of Zaragoza (Ebro River valley, NE Spain). Five sinkholes and four locations with features attributable to karstic subsidence where identified in an initial investigation phase providing a preliminary probability of occurrence of 0.14 sinkholes/km² year (11.34% in annual probability). A trenching program conducted in a subsequent investigation phase allowed us to rule out the four probable sinkholes, reducing the probability of occurrence to 0.079 sinkholes/km² year (6.4% in annual probability). The information on the severity indicates that collapse sinkholes 10–15 m in diameter may occur in the area. A detailed study of the deposits and deformational structures exposed by trenching in one of the sinkholes allowed us to infer a modern collapse sinkhole approximately 12 m in diameter and with a vertical throw of 8 m. This collapse structure is superimposed on a subsidence sinkhole around 80 m across that records at least 1.7 m of synsedimentary subsidence. Trenching, in combination with dating techniques, is proposed as a useful methodology to elucidate the origin of depressions with uncertain diagnosis and to gather practical information with predictive utility about particular sinkholes in alluvial karst settings: precise location, subsidence mechanisms and magnitude, and timing and rate of the subsidence episodes.     

新疆柯坪中奥陶统结核状灰岩的沉积环境及成因

对新疆柯坪地区中奥陶统灰岩和泥岩交互沉积地层中的结核状灰岩的沉积环境和形成机制进行了研究。根据野外观察并结合室内偏光显微镜下阴极发光和染色等方法分析其结构和构造特征，发现有团块状、网纹状、透镜状3种结核状灰岩。运用X光衍射仪和质谱仪等化学分析手段对其常量元素、微量元素、碳氧同位素、酸不溶物等进行了测定。综合分析矿物、岩石、生物和地球化学特征，认为它们形成于陆棚中水体较深的沉积环境，灰岩和泥岩交互韵律层是在表层洋流、大洋底流和物源供给的周期变化作用下形成的。结核状灰岩形成于沉积-成岩早期阶段，它们的形成机制分别是：团块状灰岩是在洋流活动后的平静期因水体中碳酸钙沿凝结核凝结、增大、胶结而形成；网纹状灰岩是在盐度不饱和的深海底流的周期作用下冲刷同生期沉积的碳酸盐灰泥而形成；透镜状灰岩是通过上覆水体与沉积物的差异压实作用而形成的。     

Regional subglacial quarrying and abrasion below hard-bedded palaeo-ice streams crossing the Shield–Palaeozoic boundary of central Canada: the importance of substrate control

Three-dimensional surface visualization models derived from high-resolution LiDAR data provide new information about the type and scale of erosional processes below Late Wisconsin palaeo-ice streams traversing the boundary between Canadian Shield crystalline rocks with offlapping Palaeozoic limestones in central Ontario. The hard bed is directly analogous to that found below ice streams in East Antarctica and East Greenland and provides insight into the effects of abrupt changes in substrate type on subglacial processes. Erosion of hard crystalline Canadian Shield rock was largely ineffectual consisting of areal abrasion of rounded whalebacks and local lee side plucking. In contrast, fast flow over the strike of gently dipping well-bedded and jointed Palaeozoic limestones cut large flow-parallel grooves and ridges akin to mega-scale glacial lineations reflecting intense abrasion below narrow streams of subglacial debris dominated by hard crystalline Shield clasts (erodents). Regionally extensive plucking of structurally weak, well-jointed and bedded limestone produced large volumes of rubbly carbonate debris leaving a 25-km-wide belt of uncontrolled hummocky rubble terrain (long known as the Dummer Moraine in Southern Ontario) some 350 km long and locally as much as 10 m thick. Subglacial plucking and abrasion under fast flowing ice were highly effective in stripping limestone cover rocks from Precambrian basement, and over many glacial cycles, may have played a role in the location and excavation of numerous large and deep lake basins around the Shield–Palaeozoic boundary zone in North America.     

A genetic classification of sinkholes illustrated from evaporite paleokarst exposures in Spain

This contribution analyses the processes involved in the generation of sinkholes from the study of paleokarst features exposed in four Spanish Tertiary basins. Bedrock strata are subhorizontal evaporites, and in three of the basins they include halite and glauberite in the subsurface. Our studies suggest that formation of dolines in these areas results from a wider range of subsidence processes than those included in the most recently published sinkhole classifications; a new genetic classification of sinkholes applicable to both carbonate and evaporite karst areas is thus proposed. With the exception of solution dolines, it defines the main sinkhole types by use of two terms that refer to the material affected by downward gravitational movements (cover, bedrock or caprock) and the main type of process involved (collapse, suffosion or sagging). Sinkholes that result from the combination of several subsidence processes and affect more than one type of material are described by combinations of the different terms with the dominant material or process followed by the secondary one (e.g. bedrock sagging and collapse sinkhole). The mechanism of collapse includes any brittle gravitational deformation of cover and bedrock material, such as upward stoping of cavities by roof failure, development of well-defined failure planes and rock brecciation. Suffosion is the downward migration of cover deposits through dissolutional conduits accompanied with ductile settling. Sagging is the ductile flexure of sediments caused by differential corrosional lowering of the rockhead or interstratal karstification of the soluble bedrock. The paleokarsts we analysed suggest that the sagging mechanism (not included in previous genetic classifications) plays an important role in the generation of sinkholes in evaporites. Moreover, collapse processes are more significant in extent and rate in areas underlain by evaporites than in carbonate karst, primarily due to the greater solubility of the evaporites and the lower mechanical strength and ductile rheology of gypsum and salt rocks.     

The Buday’ah Formation, Sultanate of Oman: A Middle Permian to Early Triassic oceanic record of the Neotethys and the late Induan microsphere bloom

The Middle Permian to Lower Triassic Buday’ah section, exposed in the Oman Mountains, is the first deep-sea section to be described in the Neotethys. The oceanic sediments were deposited along the southern Tethys margin in the newly formed Hawasina Basin. It is one of the few places where true Tethyan Permian radiolarites are exposed that allow the documentation of CCD evolution through time. The succession begins as oceanic crust pillow basalt with red ammonoid-rich pelagic limestone occurring both above and within inter-pillow cavities; the new occurrence of Clarkina postbitteri hongshuiensis indicates a late Capitanian age for the carbonate. The sharp change to overlying late Capitanian to Changhsingian radiolarite reflects rapid subsidence about 10 Myrs after initial continental breakup that resulted in the formation of the Neotethys Ocean. New conodonts indicate that the Permian-Triassic boundary succession occurs in the first platy lime mudstone beds above a Changhsingian siliceous to calcareous shale unit. The platy lime mudstone beds include an Upper Griesbachian bloom of calcite filled spheres (radiolarians?) that marks a potential world-wide event. New conodonts indicate an early Olenekian age for overlying grey papery limestone that are devoid of both macrofossils and trace fossils indicating that recovery from the Late Permian extinction has not yet progressed within this deep-water environment.δ¹³C_org, isotope values have not been disturbed and they show a negative shift just below the Permian-Triassic transition and a second one at the parvus zone level above. The Buday’ah succession may represent the most distal and probably deepest Permian and Lower Triassic depositional sequence within the basin.     

Episodic Carbonate Deposits on the Triassic Continental Slope in Southern China

Episodic carbonate deposits on the Triassic continental slope in southern China are mainly com-posed of gravity-flow limestones and contourite limestones. Gravity-flow limestones were well developed in thelower and middle Yangtze area in the Early Triassic and in the Yunnan-Guizhou-Guangxi area in the Early and Mid-dle Triassic. Five fundamental types of gravity-flow limestones are recognized: slide limestone, debris-flow lime-stone, grain-flow limestone. turbidite limestone and rockfall limestone. They form six types of assemblage beds:slide-debris-flow limestones, slide-debris-flow-turbidite limestone, slide-debris-flow-grain-flow-turbidite lime-stone, rockfall-debris-flow limestone, debris-flow-turbidite limestone, and debris-flow-grain-flow-turbidite lime-stone. The first two were formed mainly in the Early Triassic slopes. The Middle Triassic slopes were charcterizedby widespread rockfall limestone. Growth faults, storms, earthquakes and oversteepened slopes are considered to bethe probable triggers of the gravity flows. Contourite limestones appear as isolated lenses or thin and ripple-laminated beds of grainstones occurring inhemipelagic argillaceous limestones and lime mudstones. They were formed at the base of the slope. Palaeocurrentdata indicate that the contour currents are perpendicular to the slope. The contourite limestones are not as common asthe gravity-flow ones, but they are important in the reconstruction of the palaeogeographical and palaeotectonic set-tings in southern China.     

桂西北二叠纪灰岩墙(脉)的地震成因解释

广西西北部的泥盆纪灰岩中发育大量产状直立的二叠纪茅口组的碳酸盐岩岩墙,其成因一直引起地质学家的兴趣。本文尝试用地震灾变事件解释这一奇特的地质现象,即:二叠纪强地震发生时,茅口组未成岩的软沉积物中产生的液化沉积物流借助上覆沉积物的压力,贯入下伏已成岩的坚硬的泥盆系灰岩的裂隙(断层、节理等)中,形成具直立层理的灰岩墙(脉)。上述过程反映一次强地震灾变事件作用在软沉积物与坚硬岩层中的不同响应。     

Karst database implementation in Minnesota: analysis of sinkhole distribution

This paper presents the overall sinkhole distributions and conducts hypothesis tests of sinkhole distributions and sinkhole formation using data stored in the Karst Feature Database (KFD) of Minnesota. Nearest neighbor analysis (NNA) was extended to include different orders of NNA, different scales of concentrated zones of sinkholes, and directions to the nearest sinkholes. The statistical results, along with the sinkhole density distribution, indicate that sinkholes tend to form in highly concentrated zones instead of scattered individuals. The pattern changes from clustered to random to regular as the scale of the analysis decreases from 10–100 km² to 5–30 km² to 2–10 km². Hypotheses that may explain this phenomenon are: (1) areas in the highly concentrated zones of sinkholes have similar geologic and topographical settings that favor sinkhole formation; (2) existing sinkholes change the hydraulic gradient in the surrounding area and increase the solution and erosional processes that eventually form more new sinkholes.     

Investigation of a large collapse sinkhole affecting a multi-storey building by means of geophysics and the trenching technique (Zaragoza city,NE Spain)

An active sinkhole around 100 m long has been investigated in the city of Zaragoza (NE Spain). Subsidence activity on this depression, including the sudden occurrence of a collapse sinkhole 5 m across, led to the abandonment of a factory in the 1990s. At the present time, a building with 100 flats and shallow pad foundations partially built on the sinkhole, is affected by rapid differential settlement. The development of the sinkhole results from the karstification of the halite- and glauberite- bearing bedrock and the sagging and collapse of the overlying bedrock and alluvium, more than 30 m thick. GPR and electrical resistivity profiles have provided information on the distribution and geometry of the subsidence structure. The application of the trenching technique and geochronological methods (AMS and OSL dating) has allowed us to infer objective and practical data on the sinkhole including (1) Limits of the subsidence structure, (2) subsidence mechanisms, (3) cumulative subsidence (>408 cm), (4) subsidence rates on specific failure planes (>1.8 cm/year), (5) episodic displacement regime of some fault planes. The available information indicates that the progressive deformation recorded in the building will continue and might be punctuated by events of more rapid displacement. This work illustrates the practicality of the trenching technique for the study of sinkholes in mantled karst areas.     

Mapping the susceptibility to sinkholes in coastal areas, based on stratigraphy, geomorphology and geophysics

Sinkholes and land subsidence are among the main coastal geologic hazards. Their occurrence poses a serious threat to the man-made environment, due to the increasing density of population, pipelines and other infrastructures along the coasts, and to the catastrophic nature of the phenomena, which generally occur without any premonitory signs. To assess the potential danger from sinkholes along the coast, it is important to identify and monitor the main factors contributing to the process. This article reports a methodology based on sequential stratigraphic, hydrogeological and geophysical investigations to draw up a susceptibility map of sinkholes in coastal areas. The town of Casalabate situated in the Apulia region (southern Italy), affected by a long history of sinkhole phenomena, is here presented as an example. The approach proposed is based on sequential stratigraphical, geomorphological and geophysical surveys to identify the mechanisms of sinkhole formation and to provide a zonation of the areas in which further sinkhole phenomena may likely occur. Interpretation of the ground penetration radar and electrical tomography profiles has enabled us to identify the potentially most unstable sectors, significantly improving the assessment of the sinkhole susceptibility in the area. The proposed methodology is suitable to be exported in other coastal areas where limestone bedrock is not directly exposed at the surface, but covered by a variable thickness of recent deposits.     

Sinkhole formation and subsidence along the Dead Sea coast,Israel

More than 4,000 sinkholes have formed since the 1980s within a 60-km-long and 1-km-wide strip along the western coast of the Dead Sea (DS) in Israel. Their formation rate accelerated in recent years to >400 sinkholes per year. They cluster mostly in specific sites up to 1,000 m long and 200 m wide, which align parallel to the general direction of the fault systems associated with the DS Rift. The abrupt appearance of the sinkholes reflects changes to the groundwater regime around the shrinking DS. The eastward retreat of the shoreline and the lake-level drop (1 m/year in recent years) cause an eastward and downward migration of the fresh/saline groundwater interface. Consequently, a subsurface salt layer, which was previously enveloped by saline groundwater, is gradually being invaded and submerged by relatively fresh groundwater, and cavities form due to the rapid dissolution of the salt. Collapse of the overlying sediments into these cavities results in sinkholes at the surface. An association between sinkhole sites and land subsidence is revealed by interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) measurements. On a broad scale (hundreds of meters), subsidence occurs due to compaction of fine-grained sediments as groundwater levels decline along the retreating DS shoreline. At smaller scales (tens of meters), subsidence appears above subsurface cavities in association with the sinkholes, serving in many cases as sinkhole precursors, a few weeks to more than a year before their actual appearance at the surface. This paper overviews the processes of sinkhole formation and their relation to land subsidence.     

织金大龙井岩溶大泉形成机理研究

为了弄清大龙井岩溶大泉形成机理以及地下水补径排关系。通过调查大龙井地形地貌、补径排关系以及对水化学分析等研究大龙井岩溶大泉的形成机理,通过调查得知:大龙井岩溶大泉是形成于低山－丘陵地区的石灰岩地区。是山盆期和乌江期的强烈岩溶作用以及河谷的不断下切,加上上寨台地地表峰丛之间发育洼地、漏斗,中间区域的落水洞,大气降雨沿着落水洞进入地下,在重力作用下从南向北径流,在这过程中水流逐渐集中,岩溶空间形态也逐步扩大,最终水汇集于龙洞沟呈泉集中排泄出地面,形成大龙井岩溶大泉以及大龙井水系统。      

Incipient vertical traction carpets within collapsed sinkhole fills

Small vertically oriented traction carpets are reported from the collapsed sandy fills of 100 m deep Devonian limestone sinkholes underlying the Lower Cretaceous Athabasca oil sands deposit in north‐eastern Alberta, Western Canada. Dissolution of 100 m of underlying halite salt beds caused cataclysmic collapse of the sinkhole floors and water saturated sinkhole sand fills to descend very rapidly. Turbulent currents flushed upper sinkhole fills of friable sandstone blocks and disaggregated sand and quartz pebble for tens of metres. Laminar deposits with inverse grading accumulated as many as six to eight curvilinear entrained pebble streaks, 10 to 30 cm long, vertically impinged against the sides of descending collapse blocks. These deposits were initiated as vertically oriented early stage traction carpets that interlocked fine sand grains and inversely graded overlying pebbles entrained below the dilute overlying turbulent flows. Vortexes that flushed these sinkhole fills and induced these depositional processes may have lasted only seconds before the very rapid descents abruptly halted. Some of the fabrics were suspended vertically in‐place and preserved from unlocking and obliteration. These small fabrics provide insight into the instability and ephemeral character of the transition from strong gravity‐driven grain falls to very early stages of traction carpet formation. These short‐lived deposits of very thin sand layers resulted from sufficient incipient frictional freezing that grain interlocking overcame, however briefly, the strong gravity drives of the vertical falls that would have otherwise dispersed grains and obliterated any organized fabric patterns. Tenuous frictionally locked grains were also suspended at the centres of hyperbolic grain fall flows that briefly developed between turbulent flow eddies, some of which were fortuitously preserved. Some of these suspended grain locking zones passed downward onto the relatively more stable surfaces of the rapidly descending block surfaces. The morphogenesis of these early stage traction carpets differ from more fully developed deposits elsewhere because of their short‐lived transport, dynamic instability and vertical orientation.     

台湾恒春半岛的隆起珊瑚礁台地

台湾本岛南端的恒春半岛,出露隆起珊瑚礁石灰岩和现代珊瑚礁海岸。隆起珊瑚礁石灰岩在地貌上的表现是多阶的台地。最高的公园面可达海拔300m,依次向下,是海拔约100～160m的笼仔埔面,海拔70～80m的埔顶面以及海拔10～20m的垦丁面。在恒春半岛的西侧,珊瑚礁台地面已经倾斜,因此高度的表现不同。ESR及¹⁴C定年表明,抬升的更新世珊瑚礁台地形成于0.5Ma B.P.前后及0.13Ma B.P.两时期;海拔10～20m的全新世珊瑚礁台地约形成于6 000a B.P.的时期。这些证据显示了地质时期里全球变迁的蛛丝马迹。     

库鲁克塔格地区巷古勒塔格组瘤状灰岩及其沉积环境

新疆库鲁克塔格地区巷古勒塔格组发育瘤状灰岩,是一种深水沉积序列.本区瘤状灰岩形成于台缘斜坡带,滑塌重力流改造原岩形态,并分为富泥型、过渡型及富灰型3种类型.富泥型瘤状灰岩沉积在CCD线之下,受深度海水溶解作用改造.过渡型瘤状灰岩形成在CCD附近,受海底底流和深度海水溶解的双重作用改造.富灰型瘤状灰岩形成在CCD之上,受周期性的重力流作用的改造和海底底流的溶解作用.岩性组合表明,早奥陶世库鲁克塔格地区处于迅速海侵阶段.