Scanning electron microscopy of quartz grains in supraglacial debris, Adishy Glacier, Caucasus Mountains, USSR

The surface microtopography of quartz grains in glacial depostis has often been attributed to mechanical release from source rocks during weathering and prior to entrainment by glaciers. Fractures on quartz particles, including subparallel and conchoidal features, often attributed to cryostatic pressure in ice and stick-slip processes at the base of glaciers, have been considered, in part, to result from mechanical weathering of source rocks. To test this hypothesis we studied 15 samples of supraglacial debris from the Adishy Glacier in the central Caucasus Mountains, USSR. Clasts in transport on the surface of the glacier originate primarily from the cirque headwall by weathering and mass wasting processes; a minor amount is presumed to have been derived from aeolian influx following reworking of older sediments down valley. The results show unequivocally that mechanical weathering is only likely to produce grains with pronounced fracture faces that lack subparallel and conchoidal fracture features. No fresh glacial-crushing type features were observed on these samples. Grains that had been glacially crushed, weathered and retransported, presumably by aeolian processes, were observed in four samples of the data set.     

Eocene fan delta-submarine fan deposition in the Wagwater Trough, east-central Jamaica

ABSTRACT The Wagwater Trough is a fault-bounded basin which cuts across east-central Jamaica. The basin formed during the late Palaeocene or early Eocene and the earliest sediments deposited in the trough were the Wagwater and Richmond formations of the Wagwater Group. These formations are composed of up to 7000 m of conglomerates, sandstones, and shales. Six facies have been recognized in the Wagwater Group: Facies I-unfossiliferous massive conglomerates; Facies II—channelized, non-marine conglomerates, sandstones, and shales; Facies III-interbedded, fossiliferous conglomerates and sandstones; Facies IV—fossiliferous muddy conglomerates; Facies V—channelized, marine conglomerates, sandstones, and shales; and Facies VI—thin-bedded sheet sandstones and shales. The Wagwater and Richmond formations are interpreted as fan delta-submarine fan deposits. Facies associations suggest that humid-region fan deltas prograded into the basin from the adjacent highlands and discharged very coarse sediments on to a steep submarine slope. At the coast waves reworked the braided-fluvial deposits of the subaerial fan delta into coarse sand and gravel beaches. Sediments deposited on the delta-front slope were frequently remobilized and moved downslope as slumps, debris flows, and turbidity currents. At the slope-basin break submarine fans were deposited. The submarine fans are characterized by coarse inner and mid-fan deposits which grade laterally into thin bedded turbidites of the outer fan and basin floor.     

Uranium oxidation and probable subaerial weathering of phosphatized limestone from the Pourtales Terrace*

Phosphatized limestones from the Pourtales Terrace, Straits of Florida, have undergone fresh-water diagenesis, as shown by several selective petrologic features such as dissolution of aragonitic skeletal material and preservation and recrystallization of Mg-calcite. This interpretation is supported by the fact that greater than 94% of the uranium in these samples is in the U(VI) oxidation state. On the deeper Pourtales Escarpment, phosphatized limestones show no alteration features indicative of fresh-water diagenesis. The uranium in these samples is a mixture of U(IV) and U(VI) with oxidation-state ratios similar to other sea-floor phosphorites. Our interpretation of these data is that uranium in the terrace samples was oxidized when that area was emergent. The karsted surface of the terrace, therefore, is a result of subaerial exposure of this portion of the Floridan platform. The escarpment samples were never above sea level, and so more closely retain their original uranium oxidation-state ratios.     

A FORWARD GENERATED SYNTHETIC SEISMOGRAM FOR EQUAL-DELAY LAYERED MEDIA MODELS*

A forward solution for the reflection response of a parallel stratified lossless medium characterized by discrete reflection coefficients and unequal layer delays, for a normally incident pressure source signal, is presented. The notation, which details the reflection history of each wavelet in a response record, facilitates systematic enumeration of all terms in the reflection impulse response model, the determination of compact closed form expressions for amplitudes and delays of multiply reflected wavelets, and the aggregation of dynamic analog groups. An equal delay time constraint on layer thicknesses leads then to the reflection sequence or synthetic seismogram structure as an infinite sum of wavelets by their order of reflection.     

The relation between the crystallography of quartz, and upturned aeolian cleavage plates

The relation between the crystallography of artificially abraded quartz sand grains and aeolian surface textures has been studied using an X-ray precession camera and the scanning electron microscope (SEM). Crushed Brazilian quartz was sieved to between 250 and 350 μm, eroded in a paddle wheel device which simulated aeolian action at 8 m s^?1 for 3 h, and photographed with the SEM. A typical grain was selected and over 1100 photographs were combined to create a 3 × 3 m photomosaic; because of the large size, it was possible to observe and measure the angular and linear relations between the various features. After the c axis direction in the grain was determined by precession X-ray analysis, the most important aeolian features were related to the crystallography of quartz. The upturned plates or cleavage plates probably represent traces parallel to r(10ī1) and z(01ī1) cleavages in quartz. Blocky areas appear to be an expression of a cleavage parallel to m(10ī0). In addition, plate spacing on thirty-five experimental, modern, and ancient quartz sand grains is fairly constant. Assuming that abrasion in most sedimentary environments acts in the same manner with respect to quartz crystallography, much of the fine silt and clay in sediments and sedimentary rocks may be the result of cleavage following abrasion parallel to the r and z cleavage planes, while the less common blocky particles are probably the result of cleavage parallel to the m planes.     

Correlations between Holocene flood tidal delta and barrier island inlet fill sequences: Back Sound-Shackleford Banks, North Carolina

Large, well-developed flood tidal deltas on a barrier island coastline generally indicate a wave-dominated, microtidal sedimentary regime. Vibracores in a lagoon behind the barrier island Shackleford Banks, North Carolina contain an upward fining sequence of coarse-medium, very shelly sand, medium-fine laminated sand, fine-very fine cross-laminated sand and marsh mud. This sequence is interpreted as being a flood tidal delta deposit based on analogy with modern flood tidal delta sediments and represents lagoonal deposition in response to a migrating or closing inlet. The sand facies defined in lagoonal vibracores is found to be continuous beneath a lagoonal marsh and correlative with inlet sections identified in Shackleford Banks drill holes. The correlation of flood tidal delta deposits with inlet sequences in this microtidal environment indicates a close relationship between barrier and backbarrier inlet controlled sedimentation.     

Sedimentology of a saline playa in the northern Great Plains, Canada

Ceylon Lake, a small salt playa located in southern Saskatchewan, is typical of many shallow ephemeral lacustrine basins found in the northern Great Plains of western Canada. The present-day brine, dominated by magnesium, sodium, and sulphate ions, shows wide variation in composition and concentration on both a temporal and a spatial basis. The modern sediments overall exhibit relatively simple facies relationships. An outer ring of coarse grained shoreline and colluvial clastics surrounds mixed fine grained clastics and salts and, in the centre of the basin, salt pan evaporites composed mainly of mirabilite, thenardite, and bloedite. Coring of the late Pleistocene and Holocene sedimentary fill shows that the lake has evolved from a relatively dilute, deep water, clastic dominated basin through a shallower, brackish water, carbonate-clastic phase, and finally into the present salt dominated playa. The thick sequence of evaporites preserved in the basin suggests evolution of the brine from a Na-rich solution to a mixed Mg-Na system. The most important post-depositional processes affecting Ceylon Lake sediments are mud diapirism and salt karsting.     

Detrital modes and provenance of the Stilo-Capo d'Orlando Formation (Miocene), southern Italy

The Stilo-Capo d'Orlando Formation (SCO Fm) is a Miocene clastic unit nonconformably covering the basement of the southern portion of the Calabria-Peloritani Arc (CPA), a small-scale terrane which was accreted onto the Apennines-Maghrebides orogenic system during Neogene time. The SCO Fm is composed of conglomerate, sandstone and mudrock deposited in a marine environment through the action of gravity currents. Detrital modes of sandstones and conglomerates of the SCO Fm indicate a local provenance. In fact, petrological parameters can be matched directly with nearby basement lithologies. Two petrofacies with distinctive parameters are present. A northern petrofacies is predominantly composed of plutonic and low-grade metamorphic detritus, and was derived from the Serre massif, which is mostly made of late Hercynian plutons intruded into metasedimentary rocks. A southern petrofacies is mostly composed of metamorphic detritus and was derived from the Aspromonte and the Peloritani Mountains, which are predominantly composed of middle-to high-grade metamorphic rocks. Petrological results place important constraints on the geodynamic evolution of the CPA. According to several authors, the arc is composed of two sectors (microterranes) with different geological histories and partly composed of contrasting rock types, whose timing of juxtaposition is debated (Early Cretaceous against middle-late Miocene; that is, much before or soon after deposition of the SCO Fin). The SCO Fm crops out only in the southern sector of the CPA and does not contain any detritus derived from the northern sector, in spite of a favourable sediment palaeodispersal system. This fact indicates that the amalgamation of the two sectors probably took place after deposition of the SCO Fm.     

A depositional model for storm- and tide-influenced prograding siliciclastic shorelines from the Middle Devonian of the central Appalachian foreland basin, USA

A stratigraphic motif observed in many foreland basins is the development of basinward tapering siliciclastic wedges characterized by various scales of depositional cycles. The Middle Devonian (Givetian) Mahantango Formation in the central Appalachian foreland basin is such an example. It consists of both small-and large-scale thickening- and coarsening-upward cycles; the small-scale cycles are typically less than 10 m thick whereas larger-scale cycles are generally a few tens of metres thick and commonly contain several of the smaller-scale cycles. Outcrop-based facies analyses indicate that the depositional cyclicity resulted from episodic progradation of a regionally straight, tide-dominated shoreline onto a storm-dominated, shallow marine shelf. The depositional model for this ancient shallow marine system consists of a vertical facies succession in which storm-dominated offshore marine mudstone and fine sandstone pass gradationally upward into storm-dominated nearshore marine shelf and shoreface sandstone overlain by, in proximal sections, tide-dominated shoreline sandstone, pebbly sandstone and mudstone. Transgressively reworked lag deposits cap most of the thickening- and coarsening- upward packets. In this model, coarse-grained rocks, rather than implying basinward shifts of facies, are a consanguineous part of the stacked shoaling cycles. Lateral facies relationships show that the dominance of storm- vs. tide-generated sedimentary features is simply a function of palaeogeographical position within the basin; proximal sections contain tidally influenced sedimentary features whereas more distal sections only display evidence for storm-influenced deposition. These results suggest caution when inferring palaeoceanographic conditions from sedimentological datasets that do not contain preserved examples of palaeoshorelines.