Unincised fluvial and tide-dominated estuarine systems from the Mesoproterozoic Lower Tombador Formation,Chapada Diamantina basin,Brazil

The Mesoproterozoic Lower Tombador Formation is formed of shallow braided fluvial, unconfined to poorly-channelized ephemeral sheetfloods, sand-rich floodplain, tide-dominated estuarine, and shallow marine sediments. Lowstand braided fluvial deposits are characterized by a high degree of channel amalgamation interbedded with ephemeral, intermediate sheetflood sandstones. Sand-rich floodplain sediments consist of intervals formed by distal sheetflood deposits interbedded with thin layers of eolian sandstones. Tide-dominated estuarine successions are formed of tide-influenced sand-bed braided fluvial, tidal channel, tidal sand flat and tidal bars. Shallow marine intervals are composed of heterolithic strata and tidal sand bars. Seismic scale cliffs photomosaics calibrated with vertical sections indicate high lateral continuity of sheet-like depositional geometry for fluvial–estuarine successions. These geometric characteristics associated with no evidence of incised-valley features nor significant fluvial scouring suggest that the Lower Tombador Formation registers deposition of unincised fluvial and tide-dominated systems. Such a scenario is a natural response of the interplay between sedimentation and fluctuations of relative sea level on the gentle margins of a sag basin. This case study indicates that fluvial–estuarine successions exhibit the same facies distributions, irrespective of being related to unincised or incised-valley systems. Moreover, this case study can serve as a starting point to better understand the patterns of sedimentation for Precambrian basins formed in similar tectonic settings.     

豫西荥巩——新密煤田太原组、山西组的沉积环境和聚煤规律

荥巩和新密煤田是豫西北部的两个相邻煤田。主要含煤地层为晚古生代晚石炭世太原组和早二叠世山西组,总厚100—150m;下石盒子组及晚二叠世的上石盒子组在本区仅偶含薄煤层。太原组位于含煤岩系最底部,为碳酸盐岩和碎屑岩交替沉积,灰岩形成于清澈、温暖、浅水的陆表海潮下环境,碎屑岩则为潮道和潮间带为主的潮道、潮坪沉积。太原组含有6—7层薄煤层,形成于咸水或半咸水的泥炭沼泽中。山西组几乎全由碎屑岩组成,下部发育本区的主要可采煤层二1煤。二1煤以下层位为潮坪和横向与之共生的潮道、潮沟及河口潮汐砂脊沉积,二1煤以上为河流作用为主的三角洲沉积,三角洲由北向南进积到半咸水的海湾中。二1煤形成于海退时期,它们堆积在滨海平原的淡水泥炭沼泽中,其厚度变化及发育程度主要受成煤前沉积环境控制,但在本区西部构造较复杂处,煤层厚度受后期构造影响较大。沉积环境对煤层原生厚度的影响主要表现在潮坪和废弃的潮道、潮沟、河口潮汐砂背沉积物之上,煤层发育好,而在二1煤之下有活动的潮道及河口潮汐砂脊发育时,煤层较薄或不发育。     

A storm and tidally-influenced prograding shoreline—Upper Cretaceous Milk River Formation of Southern Alberta, Canada

The Santonian-Campanian Milk River Formation of Southern Alberta represents the transition from an open shelf, through a storm-dominated shoreface into a non-marine sequence of shales and sandstones, with coal. The open shelf deposits consist of interbedded bioturbated mudstones with sharp-based hummocky cross-stratified sandstones. There are no indications of fairweather reworking of the sandstones, which are therefore interpreted as having been deposited below fairweather wavebase. The shoreface sequence consists of a 28 m thick sandstone. It has a very sharp, loaded base, and is dominated by swaley cross-stratification, a close relative of hummocky cross-stratification. Angle of repose cross-bedding is preserved in scattered patches only in the top 5 m of the sand body. Channels up to 180 m wide and 7 m deep are cut into this sand body, with channel margins characterized by lateral accretion surfaces. Regional dispersal trends, as well as local palaeocurrent readings suggest flow toward the NW. Within the channels there is some herringbone cross-bedding and at least two examples of neap-spring bundle cycles, suggesting that the channels are tidally-influenced. Above the channels there is a sequence of carbonaceous shales with in situ root casts and lignitic coal seams. No marine, brackish or lagoonal fauna was identified, and the sequence appears to represent a distal floodplain. The sequence from interbedded hummocky cross-stratified sandstones and bioturbated mudstones into a 10–20 m thick, sharp-based shoreface sandstone characterized by swaley cross-stratification is uncommon. The scarcity or absence of angle of repose cross-bedding in the shoreface, and the dominance of swaley cross-stratification suggests that the shoreface was so storm-dominated that almost no fairweather record was preserved. Other examples of swaley cross-stratified shorefaces are reviewed in the paper.     

Depositional facies of the subsurface Neogene Surma Group in the Sylhet Trough of the Bengal Basin,Bangladesh: record of tidal sedimentation

The Bengal Basin, in the north-eastern part of the Indian subcontinent, contains a thick (± 22 km) early Cretaceous-Holocene sedimentary succession. The Neogene succession in the Sylhet Trough of the basin reaches a thickness of more than 6 km of which the Surma Group contains important sandstone reservoirs. Lithologically, the group consists of a succession of alternating shales, siltstones, sandy shales and sandstones, with minor conglomerates. This research work is a sedimentological analysis of the subsurface Neogene succession encountered in the petroleum exploration wells in the Sylhet Trough of the Bengal Basin. Detailed lithologic logs of the cores, based on considering texture and sedimentary structure, permit a subdivision into eight lithofacies, e.g., a shale-dominated facies, interbedded fine sandstones and mudstones, ripple-laminated sandstones, parallel-laminated sandstones, massive sandstones, cross-bedded sandstones, cross-bedded sandstones with pebble/granule lag and conglomerates. Characteristic sedimentary structures of the Surma Group, such as flaser-, wavy- and lenticular-bedding, bipolarity of ripple cross-stratification, evenly laminated sand/silt-streaked shales, reactivation surfaces within cross-bedded sandstone sets, mud-drapes on foreset laminae and herringbone cross-stratification as well as small-scale vertical sequences (several fining-upward cycles) are diagnostic for tidal influence. On the basis of the lithofacies associations and prograding character of the deposits revealed from the electrofacies associations, the Surma Group sediments have been interpreted as representing deposits of tide-dominated deltaic depositional setting.     

Stratigraphy and architecture of the Upper Triassic Ischigualasto Formation,Ischigualasto Provincial Park,San Juan,Argentina

The Ischigualasto Formation in northwestern Argentina contains abundant fluvial channel sandstones, overbank mudstones, and paleosols that were deposited in a northwest-trending continental-rift basin during Late Triassic time. In the study area the formation progressively thins from ～700 m in the west to ～400 m in the east, over a distance of 7 km. This thinning is accompanied by a relative decrease in the abundance of fluvial channel sandstones and an increase in mud-rich overbank deposits and paleosols. While preserved channel deposits in the formation are highly variable in terms of their size and stratigraphic distribution, four general channel forms can be recognized based on their overall cross sectional geometry and internal sedimentary structures. Of these, the dominant channel-body types are interpreted as the deposits of sandy multi-channel fluvial systems. The internal stratigraphic architecture of the Ischigualasto Formation indicates that during deposition, the central part of the basin was the location of a long-lived, north flowing, fluvial channel belt that received relatively continuous channel and proximal overbank deposition. To the east, however, channel-related deposition was more infrequent, resulting in enhanced pedogenic modification of alluvial deposits. The overall thickness and facies trends observed in the Ischigualasto Formation most likely correspond to variations in fault-related accommodation development within the basin during the time of deposition.     

Old red sandstone sedimentation—an example from the brownstones (highest lower old red sandstone) of south central wales

The Brownstones form the highest Lower Old Red Sandstone in South Wales and the Welsh Borderlands. Sections from the Brecon Beacons of Central South Wales consist of laterally extensive sheets of interbedded sandstone and siltstone. Facies sequence A consists of parallel laminated sheet sandstones and siltstones and is interpreted as a sandy sheetflood and distal muddy floodflat association. Facies sequence B comprises sheet sandstones composed of multistorey channel fills, small calcrete-clast filled channels and massive siltstones with thin interbedded sandstones. This sequence is interpreted as low sinuosity channel deposits merging laterally and downslope into a muddy flood-basin, with calcrete clasts infilling intrabasinal channel systems. Facies sequence C consists of multistorey sandstones and is interpreted as a proximal low sinuosity channel system. The Brownstones of the Brecon Beacons formed on an extensive alluvial plain with low sinuosity sand-bed channels merging downslope into sheetfloods and muddy floodflats, in a system broadly analogous to that of the Eyre Basin of South Australia.     

The roles of pedogenesis and diagenesis in clay mineral assemblages: Lower Cretaceous fluvial mudrocks,Nova Scotia,Canada

Clay mineral assemblages in alluvial mudrocks are important for paleoclimatic interpretation and for understanding burial diagenetic cementation in sandstones, but it is commonly difficult to unravel the relative importance of source weathering, pedogenesis and diagenesis in their origin. The clay mineral assemblages in fluvial overbank mudrocks from the Lower Cretaceous Chaswood Formation in central Nova Scotia, investigated by X-ray diffraction analysis of the < 2 µm fraction of 45 samples, include kaolinite, illite, vermiculite, and mixed layer kaolinite/expandable clay and mica/vermiculite. The assemblages vary with depositional facies. Wetland organic-rich mudrocks have large amounts of amorphous material and kaolinite is the dominant clay mineral. In the eastern part of the basin, where overbank mudrocks were episodically uplifted by syn-sedimentary strike-slip faulting, cumulate ultisol and alfisol paleosols are common. In the ultisols, hematite is enriched and kaolinite increases at the expense of illite in the B horizon. Alfisols contain more illite and vermiculite and the B horizon is enriched in goethite. In the western part of the basin, where thin sandstones with abundant diagenetic kaolinite cement are interbedded with the mudrocks, the distinctive clay mineral assemblage of mica/vermiculite mixed layer, vermiculite with 15.5 Å peak, and kaolinite/expandable mixed layer clay with a 17.7 Å peak is interpreted to result from bacterially-mediated oxidation of organic matter below the paleo-water table during early burial diagenesis. Deeper burial diagenesis may lead to slightly higher kaolinite crystallinity. Volcanic ash appears to alter to kaolinite/expandable mixed layer clay with a 7.9 Å peak. Comparison with the continuously subsiding and rapidly accumulated Wessex Formation of southern England, formed at a similar paleolatitude, shows the strong role of pedogenic processes and early diagenesis by meteoric water in development of clay mineral assemblages in the locally tectonically uplifted Chaswood Formation.     

Stratigraphic evolution of a fluvial–eolian succession: The example of the Upper Jurassic—Lower Cretaceous Guará and Botucatu formations, Paraná Basin, Southernmost Brazil

The Guará and Botucatu formations comprise an 80 to 120 m thick continental succession that crops out on the western portion of the Rio Grande do Sul State (Southernmost Brazil). The Guará Formation (Upper Jurassic) displays a well-defined facies shift along its outcrop belt. On its northern portion it is characterised by coarse-grained to conglomeratic sandstones with trough and planar cross-bedding, as well as low-angle lamination, which are interpreted to represent braided river deposits. Southwards these fluvial facies thin out and interfinger with fine- to medium-grained sandstones with large-scale cross-stratification and horizontal lamination, interpreted as eolian dune and eolian sand sheets deposits, respectively. The Botucatu Formation is characterised by large-scale cross-strata formed by successive climbing of eolian dunes, without interdune and/or fluvial accumulation (dry eolian system). The contact between the Guará and the Botucatu formations is delineated by a basin-wide deflation surface (supersurface). The abrupt change in the depositional conditions that took place across this supersurface suggests a major climate change, from semi-arid (Upper Jurassic) to hyper-arid (Lower Cretaceous) conditions. A rearrangement of the Paraná Basin depocenters is contemporaneous to this climate change, which seems to have changed from a more restrict accumulation area in the Guará Formation to a wider sedimentary context in the Botucatu Formation.     

Contourites associated with pelagic mudrocks and distal delta-fed turbidites in the Lower Proterozoic Timeball Hill Formation epeiric basin (Transvaal Supergroup), South Africa

Five genetic facies associations/architectural elements are recognised for the epeiric sea deposits preserved in the Early Proterozoic Timeball Hill Formation, South Africa. Basal carbonaceous mudrocks, interpreted as anoxic suspension deposits, grade up into sheet-like, laminated, graded mudrocks and succeeding sheets of laminated and cross-laminated siltstones and fine-grained sandstones. The latter two architectural elements are compatible with the Te, Td and Tc subdivisions of low-density turbidity current systems. Thin interbeds of stromatolitic carbonate within these first three facies associations support photic water depths up to about 100 m. Laterally extensive sheets of mature, cross-bedded sandstone disconformably overlie the turbidite deposits, and are ascribed to lower tidal flat processes. Interbedded lenticular, immature sandstones and mudrocks comprise the fifth architectural element, and are interpreted as medial to upper tidal flat sediments. Small lenses of coarse siltstone–very fine-grained sandstone, analogous to modern continental rise contourite deposits, occur within the suspension and distal turbidite sediments, and also form local wedges of inferred contourites at the transition from suspension to lowermost turbidite deposits. Blanketing and progressive shallowing of the floor of the Timeball Hill basin by basal suspension deposits greatly reduced wave action, thereby promoting preservation of low-density turbidity current deposits across the basin under stillstand or highstand conditions. A lowstand tidal flat facies tract laid down widespread sandy deposits of the medial Klapperkop Member within the formation. Salinity gradients and contemporaneous cold periglacial water masses were probably responsible for formation of the inferred contourites. The combination of the depositional systems interpreted for the Timeball Hill Formation may provide a provisional model for Early Proterozoic epeiric basin settings.     

Deposits of a near-coastal fluvial plain — the toe head formation (upper devonian) of southwest cork,EIRE

The Toe Head Formation of southwest Cork occurs in a thick, conformable sequence of Upper Devonian and Lower Carboniferous sedimentary rocks. It occupies a position between typical terrestrial “red-beds” and tidal flat and marine shelf sediments. The rocks are predominantly arenaceous and grey-green in colour. The formation is described in terms of five major lithofacies which are: (1) large-scale bedded sandstone facies, (2) rippled sandstone facies; (3) interbedded facies; (4) mudrock facies; and (5) mudcrack association facies. Simple statistical analysis of sequential organisation shows a crude pattern of fining-upwards sequences. The facies are interpreted to represent a spectrum of fluvial channel and flood plain environments, this interpretation being supported by the unidirectional palaeocurrent pattern. In view of the overall stratigraphical succession, a near-coastal fluvial plain is suggested. The formation is shown to be roughly equivalent to the Upper Old Red Sandstone of the Geological Survey (1860–1864) and to extend at least from Seven Heads to Dunmanus Bay.     

长江三峡东部地区震旦纪事件沉积?

长江三峡东部地区震旦纪先后发生了热事件、冷事件、重力事件等突发性灾变沉积。早震旦世发育由河流作用与陆地冰川作用形成的陆源碎屑沉积；晚震旦世则发育由两次台地-盆地-台地的海进-海退旋回形成的巨厚海相碳酸盐沉积。热事件沉积产物见于下震旦统莲沱组，夹于河流相沉积的砂岩及粉砂岩中。根据凝灰碎屑的岩石学特征，可将其分为降落型凝灰碎屑和水携型凝灰碎屑两类。冷事件沉积产物为下震旦统南沱冰碛层，属低纬度低高程的大陆冰川沉积。重力事件可分为滑塌事件和浊流事件，其沉积产物均分布于上震旦统，夹在大套的深水碳酸盐岩中。其中滑塌事件的沉积产物主要为滑塌角砾白云岩（石灰岩），浊流事件的沉积产物主要为浊积颗粒石灰岩（白云岩）。     

Desert sand plain and sabkha deposits from the Bunter Sandstone Formation (L. Triassic) at the northern margin of the German Basin

Facies studies of well cores from the Bunter Sandstone Formation in the Tønder area, Denmark indicate, that the formation is composed of two desert sand plain sequences associated with sabkha and inland basin (lake?) mudstones. The lower desert sand plain sequence consists of subaerial sand flat deposits overlain by aeolian sand sheet and dune facies topped by interbedded aeolian and ephemeral river deposits. The upper desert sand plain sequence consists of ephemeral river deposits partly interbedded with and overlain by sabkha and inland basin mudstones. Two shoreline sandstones occur in the uppermost part. Both sequences are interpreted mainly in terms of tectonic subsidence of the basin and related upheavals of the source regions. The lower sequence represents a rather continuous progradation of the desert sand plain followed by a rapid transgression of the waters from the inland basin. The upper sequence represents brief periods of fluvial progradation followed by a gradual retreat of the river plain. The most distal part of the sand plain was finally reworked by weak wave-action.     

Gravel-topped offshore bar sequences in the Lower Carboniferous of southern Ireland

Within the Kinsale Formation (Lower Carboniferous) of southern Ireland are pebbly sandstones and conglomerates contained in what is known locally as the Garryvoe conglomerate facies. In this facies there are three main groups of lithologies: (a) heterolithic mudrocks and sandstones characterized by a wide variety of wave-produced structures; (b) sandstones dominated by swaley cross-stratification (SCS), parallel lamination, and rare hummocky cross-stratification (HCS); and (c) pebbly sandstones and conglomerates occurring as discrete beds or as gravel clasts dispersed through SCS sets. Successions of the facies comprise units of heterolithic mudrock and rippled sandstone alternating repeatedly with coarsening-upward units of SCS pebbly sandstone capped by top-surface granule and pebble lags. The Garryvoe conglomerate facies accumulated in a system of offshore bars on a muddy shallow-marine shelf that was dominated by waves and currents generated by storms. Sands and gravels were bypassed from a contemporaneous northerly coastal zone to the shelf, where they were moulded by the storm-generated flow into low, broad, sand ridges (offshore bars). The elongate bars were spaced kilometres apart, oriented obliquely to the coast, and separated by muddy interbar troughs. Their surfaces were largely covered by hummocky and swaley forms. Long-term, gradual seaward migration of the offshore bars concentrated gravels on landward flanks from the dispersed pebbly sands that were on the crests and seaward flanks. Exceptionally intense storms could form laterally extensive winnowed gravel lags above thinned bar sequences. Such storms could also flush gravel-bearing turbidity currents into muddy interbar trough areas.     

A relationship between alluvial backswamps and avulsion cycles: an example from the Willwood Formation of the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming

Stratigraphically limited intervals from the Lower Eocene Willwood Formation contain laterally extensive carbonaceous shales and ribbon sandstone networks associated with channel avulsion. We present data from one such interval that documents the avulsion sequence. Vertical sections measured along the outcrop of this interval are similar and comprise a basal carbonaceous shale overlain by fine-grained deposits on which weakly developed, hydromorphic paleosols formed. The paleosols enclose and are locally incised by ribbon sandstones, some of which cut down to and partly through the carbonaceous shale. The ribbons have width/thickness ratios between 3 and 13. Some ribbons cluster at a particular stratigraphic level, which, together with paleocurrent trends, suggests that they formed channel networks. Sections are capped by yellow-brown paleosols showing moderate pedogenic development. We suggest that the carbonaceous shales developed in low-lying topogeneous swamps in distal portions of the floodplain far from the trunk channel. Such a location set limits on the sediment that they received. The mudrocks with weakly developed paleosols and associated ribbon sandstones are interpreted as crevasse-splay complexes resulting from avulsion of the trunk river. The ribbon sandstones represent ancient feeder channels of the avulsion complex. The rapid influx of avulsion deposits appears to have been crucial to preserving the organic material, and this study reveals an important and as yet uncharacterized link between trunk channel processes and the accumulation of organic-rich deposits in distal alluvial swamps. Similar deposits are found in other stratigraphic units in the Rocky Mountain region, and the development of these and other organic-rich deposits should be reassessed in terms of channel avulsion.     

A sequence stratigraphic model for the Lower Coal Measures (Upper Carboniferous) of the Ruhr district, north-west Germany

Upper Carboniferous Coal Measures strata have been interpreted traditionally in terms of cyclothems bounded by marine flooding surfaces (marine bands) and coal seams. Correlation of such cyclothems in an extensive grid of closely spaced coal exploration boreholes provides a robust stratigraphic framework in which to study the Lower Coal Measures (Namurian C–Westphalian A) of the Ruhr district, north-west Germany. Three distinct types of cyclothem are recognized, based on their bounding surfaces and internal facies architecture. (1) Type 1 cyclothems are bounded by marine bands. Each cyclothem comprises a thick (30–80 m), regionally extensive, coarsening-upward delta front succession of interbedded shales, siltstones and sandstones, which may be deeply incised by a major fluvial sandstone complex. The delta front succession is capped by a thin (<1 m), regionally extensive coal seam and an overlying marine band defining the top of the cyclothem. (2) Type 2 cyclothems are bounded by thick (≈1 m), regionally extensive coal seams with few splits. The basal part of a typical cyclothem comprises a thick (15–50 m), widespread, coarsening-upward delta front or lake infill succession consisting of interbedded shales, siltstones and sandstones. Networks of major (>5 km wide, 20–40 m thick), steep-sided, multistorey fluvial sandstone complexes erode deeply into and, in some cases, through these successions and are overlain by the coal seam defining the cyclothem top. (3) Type 3 cyclothems are bounded by regionally extensive coal seam groups, characterized by numerous seam splits on a local (0·1–10 km) scale. Intervening strata vary in thickness (15–60 m) and are characterized by strong local facies variability. Root-penetrated, aggradational floodplain heteroliths pass laterally into single-storey fluvial channel-fill sandstones and coarsening-upward, shallow lake infill successions of interbedded shales, siltstones and sandstones over distances of several hundred metres to a few kilometres. Narrow (<2 km) but thick (20–50 m) multistorey fluvial sandstone complexes are rare, but occur in a few type 3 cyclothems. Several cyclothems are observed to change character from type 1 to type 2 and from type 2 to type 3 up the regional palaeoslope. Consequently, we envisage a model in which each cyclothem type represents a different palaeogeographic belt within the same, idealized delta system, subject to the same allogenic and autogenic controls on facies architecture. Type 1 cyclothems are dominated by deltaic shorelines deposited during a falling stage and lowstand of sea level. Type 2 cyclothems represent the coeval lower delta plain, which was deeply eroded by incised valleys that fed the falling stage and lowstand deltas. Type 3 cyclothems comprise mainly upper delta plain deposits in which the allogenic sea-level control was secondary to autogenic controls on facies architecture. The marine bands, widespread coals and coal seam groups that bound these three cyclothem types record abandonment of the delta system during periods of rapid sea-level rise. The model suggests that the extant cyclothem paradigm does not adequately describe the detailed facies architecture of Lower Coal Measures strata. Instead, these architectures may be better understood within a high-resolution stratigraphic framework incorporating sequence stratigraphic key surfaces, integrated with depositional models derived from analogous Pleistocene–Holocene fluvio-deltaic strata.     

Fluvial shoal water deltas: pre-vegetation sedimentation through the fluvial–marine transition,Lower Cambrian,English Channel region

Lower Palaeozoic fluvial systems tend to be more sand-prone than those of later eras and the nature of coastal environments less certain. Field studies are presented that characterize the fluvial to marine transition over a distance of 80 km, in the Lower Cambrian of the Cotentin Peninsula, northern France. The sedimentary rocks are divided into six facies associations which represent deposition in proximal fluvial, distal fluvial, delta plain, delta front, pro-delta and offshore carbonate bank environments. The basin fill is sandstone-dominated and subdivided into three stratigraphic intervals. A 200 to 300 m thick basal interval contains very coarse-grained fluvial sandstones deposited during a relative sea level lowstand. An overlying interval, 250 to 1500 m thick, is a facies mosaic. Fluvial strata in the north-west pass laterally south-east into deltaic and shallow marine pro-delta sediments. The delta front deposits show repetitively stacked, upward-coarsening parasequences, 8 to 10 m thick, which reflect the repeated progradation of lobate, fluvially-dominated deltas onto a shallow marine shelf. The deltas formed following marine transgression and accumulated during a period of gradually rising relative sea level. An upper unit, 130 m thick, containing offshore stromatolitic and oolitic limestones, caps the study interval and represents deposition during a relative sea level highstand. The fluvial and delta distributary channel sandstones of the middle unit contain <1% mudstone. The cohesionless substrate determined that deltaic distributaries were predominantly braided in character and subject to common bifurcations which resulted in an ordered diminution of channel size and competence in a seaward direction. Terminal distributary channels show evidence of migratory levées and mouth-bars and consistently delivered fine to medium-grained sand to the delta front. The study highlights an example of pre-vegetation deltaic sedimentation that was hydraulically organized and predictable, despite being fed by braided fluvial systems with high levels of peak discharge.     

Fusain in Carboniferous shallow marine sediments, Donegal, Ireland: the sedimentological effects of wildfire

Evidence from fusain deposits in Lower Carboniferous rocks of western Ireland indicates that a catastrophic wildfire destroyed thousands of square kilometres of Carboniferous ‘forest’. In addition to yielding large quantities of charcoal, this wildfire event resulted in increased surface water runoff which affected sedimentation in an adjacent estuarine environment where the fusain is now preserved. This is the oldest documented evidence for a catastrophic palaeowildfire and a clear example of the sedimentological effects of large-scale fires. The Lower Carboniferous (Visean) rocks in the Largymore Syncline of western Donegal, Ireland, are shallow marine sandstones, mudstones and limestones. The Upper Shalwy Beds are mudstones and cross-bedded sandstones which show bi-polar cross-stratification and mud drapes on cross-bed foresets indicating deposition in a tidal environment, probably a large estuary. In three coastal exposures a bed containing up to 20% fusain is found at the same stratigraphic horizon. The fusain is interpreted as fossil charcoal produced by palaeowildfire in a land area to the north-west. The volume of fusain present in the unit can be estimated and by comparison with charcoal production in modern wildfires it has been calculated that around 95 000 km² (more than the present land area of Ireland) was burnt. Along with the fusain, other effects of the wildfire can be seen in the deposits, which are poorly sorted compared to the rest of the Upper Shalwy Beds and are characterized by inclined heterolithic stratification produced by the draping of underlying bedforms. These features are considered to be due to a considerably increased sediment load in the estuary, resulting from enhanced surface runoff and soil erosion due to the wildfire.     

The significance and timing of sheetflood vs braided channel deposition on lacustrine fan deltas,Junggar Basin,NW China

The fan-delta reservoir play has become an important exploration target within the Junggar Basin, especially in the Mabei area within the Mahu Sag, where a fan-delta oil and gas pool has been recently discovered. The sedimentary characteristics, distribution patterns and formation mechanisms of the fan-delta clastic bodies in Lower Triassic Baikouquan Formation (T1b) were studied using seismic, well log and core data accompanied by a flume tank experiment and a modern analogue depositional study. The T1b in the Mabei area is composed of a fan delta consisting of fan-delta plain (including debris flow deposits, sheetflood deposits, braided channel deposits, and floodplain deposits), fan-delta front (including subaqueous reworked sheetflood deposits and distal sheetflood deposits) and muddy lake deposits. The sheetflood deposits, characterised by moderately sorted conglomerates with brown matrix, form during the peak flooding. They are widespread and sheet-like, occupying the major portion of the fan-delta plain. The braided channel deposits are characterised by well-sorted and clast-supported conglomerates and pebbly sandstones, formed later during the falling flow stage. Owing to the decline in volume and velocity, and the formation of continuously braided fluid flow, the sediments of the flood period are reworked, generating the braided channels. Laterally, the braided channels occur as belts of clastic bodies surrounded by continuous sheetflood deposits. Vertically, the braided channels are interbedded between the sheetflood deposits. The subaqueous reworked sheetflood deposits are characterised by greyish-green, well-sorted and clast-supported conglomerates, whereas the distal sheetflood deposits are characterised by well-sorted sandstones, intercalated with mudstone. The subaqueous reworked sheetflood and distal sheetflood deposits are a distal partly subaqueous extension of the main sheetflood deposits, albeit reworked by basinal currents and waves. The distal sheetflood deposits form on distal fringes of the sheetfloods and are more thoroughly reworked by longshore and wave currents. The braided channel, subaqueous reworked sheetflood and distal sheetflood deposits can form high-porosity reservoirs. These findings challenge the common view and suggest that the channelised facies on the fans are not the main flood events; rather, the more extensive sheetfloods are the major flood events.     

Facies relationships in the Upper Devonian-Lower Carboniferous of southwest Ireland and adjacent regions

In southwest Ireland 2,500 m of Upper Famennian to basal Namurian marine sandstones and mudstones, the Cork Beds, overlie rocks of Old Red Sandstone facies. Coastal exposures of the Cork Beds are interpreted as showing gradual upward change from alluvial strata, through thick subtidal and shelf sediments to pyritic muds. A review of recent palaeontological evidence shows that the thick shallow marine part of the Cork Beds is older than the major development of lime-stones north of the Cork Harbour—Kenmare Une, whose equivalents to the south are in the condensed basinal sediments. The Lower Carboniferous portion of the Cork Facies is shown to be thicker in South Cork than in West Cork. In Lower Carboniferous times a positive area–the Glandore High–separated two sub-basins with different depositional histories. Six palaeogeographic maps are used to demonstrate the progressive shift of facies belts as Lower Carboniferous marine transgression progressed. Finally, brief comparison is made with rocks of the same age in southwest England.     

Tectonically induced climate and its control on the distribution of depositional systems in a continental foreland basin, Cloverly and Lakota Formations (Lower Cretaceous) of Wyoming, U.S.A.

Continental sediments of the Cloverly and Lakota Formations (Lower Cretaceous) in Wyoming are subdivided into three depositional systems: perennial to intermittent alluvial, intermittent to ephemeral alluvial, and playa. Chert-bearing sandstones, conglomerates, carbonaceous mudrocks, blocky mudrocks, and skeletal limestones were deposited by perennial to intermittent alluvial systems. Carbonaceous mudrocks contain abundant wood fragments, cuticle and cortical debris, and other vascular plant remains representing deposition in oxbow lakes, abandoned channels, and on floodplains under humid to seasonal conditions. Intraformational conglomerates, sandstones, bioturbated and blocky mudrocks with caliche nodules, and bioturbated limestones characterize deposition in intermittent to ephemeral alluvial systems. Bioturbated limestones are encased in bioturbated mudrocks with abundant pseudo-slickensides. The presence of caliche nodules in some of the blocky to bioturbated mudrocks is consistent with supersaturation and precipitation of calcium carbonate from groundwater under semi-arid conditions. Caliche nodules, pseudo-slickensides, and carbonate-rich floodplain sediments are interpreted to have been deposited by intermittent to ephemeral alluvial systems under seasonal to semi-arid climatic conditions. Laminated mudrocks, siltstones, vuggy carbonates, bedded to nodular evaporites, pebbly mudrocks, and diamictites were deposited in evaporative alkaline lakes or playas. Pebbly mudrocks and diamictites are interpreted to represent deposition from channelized and unchannelized hyperconcentrated flows on a playa, resulting from intense rain events within the basin.The areal abundance and distribution of these depositional systems change systematically across the overfilled portion of the Early Cretaceous Cordilleran foreland basin in Wyoming. The lower part (A-interval) of the Cloverly and Lakota Formations is characterized by deposits of perennial to intermittent rivers that existed 300 to 1000 km east of the Sevier fold-and-thrust belt. Proximal to the Sevier fold-and-thrust belt, the A-interval of the Cloverly Formation and upper Ephraim Formation of the Gannett Group are typified by deposits of intermittent to ephemeral rivers and their associated floodplains. In the middle part (B-interval) of the Cloverly Formation, intermittent to ephemeral alluvial systems expand to 600 km into the basin. The upper part (C-interval) of the Cloverly Formation is characterized by playa deposits in the Bighorn and Wind River Basins and intermittent to ephemeral alluvial deposits along the front of the ancestral Sevier Mountains. Deposits of perennial to intermittent alluvial systems in the C-interval of the Cloverly and Lakota Formations are restricted to the Black Hills region, almost 900 km to the east of the Sevier Mountains. The change in the areal distribution of depositional systems through time within this continental foreland basin may be attributed to the development of a rain shadow associated with the uplift of the Sevier Mountains in the Early Cretaceous.