Quantification of input and compositional variations of calciturbidites in a Middle Triassic basinal succession (Seceda, Dolomites, Southern Alps)

Triassic calciturbidites were studied in a 100-m long core and nearby outcrops of the basinal Buchenstein Formation to determine composition and thickness variations. The quantity of recognized turbidite sediment relative to background sediment changes from 15% (by volume) in the lower part to 60% in the upper part, reflecting the steady progradation of nearby platforms. The composition of the sand fraction of 214 turbidites was point-counted in thin sections. Micrite peloids (average 23%) and lithoclasts (16%) are by far the most dominant constituents. They are interpreted as two different varieties of in-situ precipitated micrite (automicrite), which probably formed under the influence of microbes and constitute the principal building material of the adjacent platforms. Platform-derived skeletal grains amount to only 0.5%. Variations in turbidite composition were quantified using Spearman's rank correlation and cluster analysis. The most significant compositional variations seem to be related to hydrodynamic sorting in the turbidity currents and to the gradual shift from distal to more proximal turbidites in the core as the platforms prograded basinward. Cluster analysis of the 214 samples shows a major subdivision into micrite and sparite dominated turbidites. Clusters associated with micrite-dominated turbidites are enriched in Radiolaria and thin-shelled bivalves, whereas the clusters related to sparite-dominated turbidites show an abundance of lithoclasts. This subdivision seems strongly related to sorting effects in a turbidity current. Point-counting of turbidites in nearby outcrops revealed a lateral variation in composition. Proximal turbidites are sparite-dominated and enriched in lithoclasts, distal portions are chiefly micrite with an open-ocean biota (thin-shelled bivalves, Radiolaria). This differentiation resembles the vertical change in composition of thick turbidite beds, and is attributed to different settling rates of the various grains in the turbidity current. There is no indication that turbidite composition fluctuated significantly under the influence of sea-level fluctuations. This is not surprising because the dominant automicrite facies of the platforms only migrates laterally, but does not change much during sea-level cycles.     

Lateral variations in sediment composition and bedding in Middle Triassic interplatform basins (Buchenstein Formation, southern Alps, Italy)

ABSTRACT Hemipelagic deposits are widespread in Triassic sequences of the Alpine belt and provide important data for stratigraphy and the study of bedding rhythms. The area of the western and central Dolomites of northern Italy escaped strong alpidic deformation and preserves such deposits in their original palaeogeographic setting. The Buchenstein Formation, the object of this study, was deposited in up to 1000 m deep, Middle Triassic interplatform basins, which extend over an area of 500 km² within the Dolomites. Excellent outcrops and volcaniclastic markers allow a detailed correlation of the formation in both laminated (anoxic) and bioturbated facies down to a bed scale, and show its relationship to coeval carbonate platforms. Correlation of lithostratigraphically well‐constrained intervals in the bioturbated facies reveal that lateral thickening and thinning of the deposits depends on the amount of shallow‐water debris in the succession and is a function of the distance to coeval carbonate platform sources. In the laminated background deposit, thickness variations in limestones and marls parallel the thickness variations in ash layers, and were caused by local redeposition of sediment on the basin floor. Lateral persistence of laminae indicates that bottom currents were weak in the Buchenstein basin, but were able to redeposit mud in a significant way. In the area around Seceda and Geisler (western Dolomites), a lateral transition from dark‐grey laminated to grey bioturbated to red bioturbated facies is observed, which is probably linked to local relief with different oxygenation conditions on the sea floor. A comparison shows that decimetre‐scale bedding is preserved in all facies types and that the bedding rhythm is partly the result of different cementation of the sediment during early diagenesis. Correlation of individual layers in the bioturbated facies reveals that beds are thicker and enriched in lime mud in the western part of the basin, and decrease in thickness and contain less micrite towards the east, further away from the main shallow‐water areas. Nearslope calciturbidites change gradually from distinct layers into lateral arrays of micrite nodules and bands further out in the basin. These observations point to a platform source of lime mud in the Buchenstein basin.     

Volume Contents

Volume Contents

Volume Contents     

Sedimentation Rates, Observation Span, and the Problem of Spurious Correlation

Plots of sedimentation rates vs. time span of observation are routinely used to demonstrate that sedimentation rates decrease if one averages over longer time spans. However, these plots are suspect because they plot a variable, time, against its inverse. It has been shown that even random numbers may yield correlation coefficients of 0.7 or higher under these circumstances. We have circumvented this problem by splitting observed sedimentation rates into time classes and performing regression on the primary variables, thickness and time, separately in each class. An alternative is weighted regression that corrects for the effect of spurious correlation. Regression on the primary variables has been performed on real data from siliciclastic and carbonate rocks. Data were sorted into time classes of 10 ^–1–10 ² yr, 10 ²–10 ⁵ yr, and 10 ⁵–10 ⁸ yr. Sedimentation rates decrease systematically as the time windows increase. The experiment indicates that the decrease of sedimentation rates with increase of time is not simply an effect of the mathematical transformation. It is a physical phenomenon, probably related to the fact that sedimentation is an episodic process and that the sediment record is riddled with hiatuses on all scales.     

Challenges of governing groundwater in U.S. western states

Over the last several decades, water users in the western United States have increasingly turned to groundwater resources to support economic development, but few institutional arrangements were in place to govern groundwater use. Over time, numerous groundwater problems have emerged. Two closely related explanations for this are explored. Surface water sources were the first to be developed, and institutional arrangements to allocate surface water were the first to be devised. These arrangements are not particularly well suited for governing groundwater. Furthermore, the physical differences between rivers and aquifers lead to differences in the development of each type of water, and in production and organization costs. Groundwater development involves low upfront production costs, which individual water users can cover. Once groundwater users have individually invested in productive activities problems emerge, such as declining water tables. Thus, unlike surface water users, groundwater users are faced with devising institutional arrangements to coordinate their water uses after they have invested in and developed productive economic activities. Most western states regulate pumping, although groundwater users, in general, resist pumping limits. The discussion concludes with proposals for modifying the prior appropriation doctrine to better accommodate the active management of groundwater basins for long-term sustainability.

Bucket structure in carbonate accumulations of the Maldive, Chagos and Laccadive archipelagos

Peritidal platforms rimmed by reefs, and raised reefs rimming deep lagoons, are characteristic morphologies of the tropical carbonate factory; their geometry contrasts sharply with the seaward-sloping shelves of siliciclastic margins. The structure has been compared to a bucket—stiff reef rims holding a pile of loose sediment. Remote-sensing data from the Maldive, Chagos and Laccadive archipelagos of the Indian Ocean show that ring reefs with bucket structure are the dominant depositional pattern from patch reefs of tens of meters to archipelagos of hundreds of kilometers in diameter, that is, over more than 4 orders of magnitude in linear size. Over 2.5 orders of magnitude, the bucket structures qualify as statistical fractals, exhibiting self-similar patterns and size distributions following power laws. However, most regional or genetic subsets of the data follow lognormal distributions and small subsets of lagoon reefs exhibit exponential distributions. Seismic data and boreholes in the Maldives indicate that the bucket has been a dominant depositional motif since the Oligocene. Ecological and hydrodynamic studies on modern reefs suggest that the bucket structure is a form of biotic self-organization: the edge position in a reef is favored over the center position because bottom shear is higher and the diffusive boundary layer between reef and water thinner. Thus, the reef edge has easier access to nutrients and is less likely to be buried by sediment. The bucket structure reflects these conditions. Karst processes have accentuated the surface relief of the buckets, particularly in the late Quaternary.     

Drowning history of a Miocene carbonate platform (Zhujiang Formation, South China Sea)

The identification and interpretation of drowning events in the geologic record can aid significantly to the reconstruction of the depositional, tectonic and eustatic history of a study area and often improve reservoir and seal prediction in carbonate rocks. The differentiation between drowned platforms showing a record of continuous deepening and those with a record of exposure followed by rapid deepening remains, however, problematic. The Zhujiang carbonate platform (Liuhua 11-1 field, South China Sea) study shown here provides an example of an integrated approach combining high-resolution geochemistry, microfacies analyses and foraminiferal biostratigraphy in order to improve the reconstruction of environmental conditions prior, during and after platform demise and drowning. The Zhujiang carbonate platform displays the following vertical succession of four facies types i) skeletal grain facies with a miogypsinid/lepidocyclinid-dominated fauna deposited in a moderately deep (< 50 m), oligotrophic back-reef setting; ii) in situ corals in patch-reef facies in an oligotrophic lagoon (< 10 m); iii) rhodoid facies with in situ red algal crusts, dominated by Heterostegina sp. and spiroclypeids, possibly capped by a subaerial exposure surface. Well-rounded rhodoids representing a mesotrophic lagoon dominate the upper portions of the rhodoid facies; iv) pelagic marine shales of the Hanjiang Formation burying the carbonate platform after drowning. This facies succession, in combination with geochemical evidence suggests a deepening-upward trend. This trend might have been interrupted by transient subaerial exposure but no evidence for meteoric diagenesis was found at the drowning unconformity topping the carbonate platform. Instead, microfacies analyses suggest that platform demise may be related to progressive changes in environmental conditions, including increasing nutrient-levels and/or decreasing temperature up-core towards the drowning unconformity. These findings are of significance for those concerned with Miocene carbonate factories and, more specifically, the demise of carbonate platforms in general.     

Depositional bias and environmental change—important factors in sequence stratigraphy

Differences among depositional systems, here called depositional bias, strongly influence sequence patterns. Siliciclastics and shallow-water carbonates, for instance, shed most of their sediment during opposite phases of a sea-level cycle (lowstand shedding and highstand shedding, respectively). Furthermore, the two systems generate their own, system-specific relief on the sea floor, disperse their sediment load along different avenues and differ in the way they are deactivated: reefs and carbonate platforms can be drowned, whereas siliciclastic deposition can be shut off and renewed at any depth. As a consequence of these differences, pronounced unconformities (drowning unconformities) develop where carbonate platforms are terminated and buried by siliciclastics (the siliciclastic-to-carbonate transition tends to be more gradual). Drowned platforms and drowning unconformities appeared world-wide in great abundance in the Miocene, Cretaceous (Valanginian-Turonian), Jurassic (Toarcian) and Devonian (Frasnian/Famennian). Examples of drowning unconformities interpreted as sequence boundaries, include those of the Early Cretaceous platforms off New Jersey and off Morocco, the mid-Cretaceous unconformity in the Gulf of Mexico and Miocene unconformities on top of reefs in the Far East.

The eustatic cycles postulated from sequence stratigraphy are a very unlikely cause for the mass drownings of reefs and platforms: either the rates of rise are an order of magnitude lower than the growth potential of platforms, or cycle amplitudes are too small, or the cycles are too short and subsidence too slow to remove platforms permanently from the photic zone. The critical element in the mass drowning seems to be environmental stress that reduces the growth potential of carbonate systems. Thus, drowning unconformities demonstrate the importance of environmental change as a control on sequence development. Other examples of dominantly environment-controlled sequences include slope deposits shaped by shifting currents (e.g. Florida and Blake Plateau) and basin fills that were controlled by changes in sediment input related to tectonic alteration of the drainage in the hinterland (e.g. Gulf of Mexico).

Environmental change must be considered as a third, independent factor that competes with eustatic and tectonically driven regional changes of sea-level for control of sequences. The definition of sequences and sequence boundaries should be broad enough to include the possibility of non-sea-level controls.     

Das Zusammenwirken von Sedimentation und Bruchtektonik in den triadischen Hallstätterkalken der Ostalpen

Zusammenfassung Die Hallstätterkalke der Ostalpen verdienen als Träger der Obertriasstratigraphie der Tethys allgemeines Interesse. Ihre Lithologie wird bestimmt durch Ablagerung in einem von Flachwasserkarbonaten umgebenen Hungerbecken mit fast stagnierender Sedimentation einerseits und durch die Wirkung synsedimentärer Tektonik andererseits.Die vertikale Abfolge und ihr horizontaler Wechsel innerhalb der Hallstätterkalke sind in der klassischen Region des Salzkammergutes auffallend konstant, so daß ein schematisches Normalprofil aufgestellt werden konnte. Neben der Hallstätterkalk-Fazies gibt es eine solche mit tonreicheren Grausedimenten, die im einzelnen deutlich davon differiert, aber im Großrhythmus der Kalk-TonSedimentation ähnlich ist.Die synsedimentäre Tektonik wird beherrscht von brechender Verformung der weitgehend festen Sedimente. Es bildet sich ein Netz von Zugklüften mit stellenweise meterbreiten, offenen Spalten, die allmählich verfüllt werden. Tektonische Einengung wurde nur selten beobachtet, häufiger Versetzung und Kippung von Schollen im Meterbereich. Die Interferenz der Sedimentation mit den tektonischen Bewegungen beweist, daß letztere im kleinen ruckartig verliefen, im großen aber während des Karn und Nor ziemlich gleichmäßig andauerten. Sie stehen möglicherweise in Zusammenhang mit der relativen Hebung des gesamten Hallstätter Beckens gegenüber den rasch absinkenden Dachsteinkalk-Plattformen.In stratigraphischer Hinsicht wirken die Spalten als Fossilfallen und lagern oft sehr fossilreiche Sedimente unter Durchbrechung des Lagerungsgesetzes in stratigraphisch älteres Gestein ein. Die Unterscheidung von Spalten- und Schichtlagern im Hallstätterkalk ist jedoch im allgemeinen gut durchführbar.

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As they bear classical stratigraphic localities of the Upper Triassic, the East Alpine Hallstätterkalke are of general interest. Their area of deposition was a starved basin between shallow water carbonate platforms with reduced sedimentation and subsolution on one side and influence of syngenetic tectonics on the other.The vertical successions and their lateral changes within the Hallstätterkalk are remarkably constant. A schematical standard succesion can be given. Besides the facies of Hallstätterkalk with generally red sediments there exists another with more argillaceous gray deposits, differing in details of lithology but not in the general rhythm of lime and clay sedimentation.Syngenetic tectonic activity causes fracturing in the highly consolidated sediments. Among the joints most frequently tension cracks occur, some meters wide and filled with younger sediment. Tilted blocks and displacements are common, but shearing and tectonic compression are rare. The tectonic activity consisted of many small jerks, but was continuous during a long period, i. e. the Carnian an the Norian. This is shown by the interference with sedimentation.From the stratigraphic point of view the cracks are important as they act as traps for fossils and as these fossil-rich fillings are deposited in older rocks, breaking the law of stratigraphic succession. But in most cases deposits in cracks can easily be distinguished from those in normal sediment.

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Résumé Les calcaires de Hallstatt des Alpes Orientales contiennent les profils classiques du Triassique supérieur et sont donc d'un grand interêt. Leur lithologie est déterminée par une sédimentation réduite dans un «starved basin» d'une part et par l'effet d'une tectonique syngénétique d'autre part.Leur succession verticale et leur variation latérale particulièrement constantes dans la région classique du Salzkammergut permettent de dresser un profil typique schématique. A part le faciès des calcaires rouges il existe un autre à sédiments gris plus colloidal dont les détails se distinguent du premier mais leur rhythme principal calcaire-colloide est analogue.La tectonique synsédimentaire est caractérisée par une déformation rupturelle des sédiments largement consolidés. Il se forme un système de diaclases ouvertes qui sont remplies peu à peu. Des phénomènes de cisaillement et de resserrement sont assez rares, des diaclases d'extension et des basculements de blocs sont observés plus souvent à l'échelle de quelques mètres. Pour des périodes limitées les mouvements tectoniques ont eu lieu par secousses, mais vu l'ensemble des périodes du Carnien et du Norien on se rend compte de la continuité de leur activité.Du point de vue stratigraphique les diaclases ont la fonction de pièges à fossiles. Des sédiments fossilifères se trouvent souvent dans des roches plus anciennes. Mais ce dépôts à fossiles peuvent être distingués nettement des couches stratifiées dans les calcaires de Hallstatt.

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