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Implication of Unfilled Accommodation Space in Previous HitCarbonateNext Hit Depositional Systems for Cyclo-Stratigraphy*

By

Gregor P. Eberli1, Paul M. Harris2, and G. Michael Grammer3

 

Search and Discovery Article #50078 (2008)

Posted July 9, 2008

 

*Adapted from oral presentation at AAPG Annual Convention, San Antonio, Texas, April 20-23, 2008.

Click to view list of articles adapted from presentations by P.M. (Mitch) Harris or by his co-workers and him at AAPG meetings from 2000 to 2008.

 

1Comparative Sedimentology Laboratory, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA

2 Chevron Energy Technology Company, San Ramon, CA, USA ([email protected])

3 Department of Geosciences, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, USA

 

Abstract

Shallow-water carbonates are thought to fill the accommodation space in each high-frequency Previous HitseaNext Hit Previous HitlevelNext Hit change, but Holocene and late Pleistocene deposits show the geologic record to be much more complex, with examples exhibiting unfilled, irregularly filled, and overfilled accommodation space. Where filling occurs, it is often achieved with one facies, indicating that progradational patterns are likely the result of lateral stacking during subsequent Previous HitseaNext Hit Previous HitlevelNext Hit changes.

As an example, the present-day topography on Great Bahama Bank from platform-margin dune ridges to the subtidal platform interior is approximately 12 m, and in a few cases up to 20 m. Both muddy and grainy tidal flat systems locally fill accommodation space to mean Previous HitseaNext Hit Previous HitlevelNext Hit. High-energy beach-dune ridges locally overfill accommodation space. Cores through tidal flats document that the provenance does not change significantly during the filling of the accommodation space; i.e., the high-energy grainy tidal systems remain grainy even in their uppermost portions. Pleistocene cores from the platform interior rarely display a shallowing-upward trend, but exposure surfaces rest directly on subtidal facies, indicating that in this environment accommodation remained unfilled until Previous HitseaNext Hit Previous HitlevelNext Hit dropped. The lack of clear shallowing-upward trends in facies is common in the cores from the modern bank, indicating that facies boundaries move little during one high-frequency Previous HitseaNext Hit Previous HitlevelNext Hit cycle. Facies juxtaposition occurs more frequently in successive Previous HitseaNext Hit Previous HitlevelNext Hit changes.

Based on the Pleistocene-Holocene succession of Great Bahama Bank, we speculate that many depositional Previous HitcyclesNext Hit in the rock record, for which a change in the provenance is reported, might in fact be two Previous HitcyclesNext Hit. In addition, the topographic relief in each cycle might have been underestimated, which might have lead to miscorrelations of cycle tops.

 

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Conclusions

  • Accommodation space is filled irregularly, mostly not completely filled but also “overfilled”in places.
  • Depositional topography creates:
    • cycle thickness variations
    • missed beats.
  • In the Pleistocene cycle thickness is not reflecting Previous HitseaNext Hit Previous HitlevelNext Hit amplitudes.
  • Suborbital Previous HitseaNext Hit Previous HitlevelNext Hit fluctuations may produce meter scale Previous HitcyclesNext Hit on a platform.

 

References

Aurell, Marc, Donald F. McNeill, Thierry Guyomard, and Pascal Kindler, 1995, Pleistocene shallowing-upward Previous HitsequencesNext Hit in New Providence, Bahamas; signature of high-frequency Previous HitseaNext Hit-Previous HitlevelNext Hit fluctuations in shallow Previous HitcarbonateNext Hit platforms: Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 65, p. 170-182.

Chappell, John, 2002, Previous HitSeaNext Hit Previous HitlevelNext Hit changes forced ice breakouts in the last glacial cycle; new results from coral terraces: Quarternary Science Reviews, v. 21, p. 1229-1240.

Cruz, F. Eduardo G., Gregor P. Eberli, and Eugene C. Rankey, 2007, Variable Pleistocene topography below Holocene Previous HitcarbonateNext Hit shoals: Ocean Cay, Western Great Bahama Bank: Comparative Sedimentology Laboratory, Annual Review Meeting, University of Miami, Miami Beach, Florida.

Haddad, G.A., Droxler, A.W., Kroon, D., and Muller, D.W., 1993, Quaternary CaCO3 input and preservation within Antarctic intermediate water. Mineralogic and isotopic results from Holes 818B and 817A, Townsville Trough (northeastern Australia margin), in McKenzie, J.A., et al., eds., Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results, v. 133, College Station, Texas, Ocean Drilling Program, p. 203-233.

Harris, P.M., 1979, Facies anatomy and diagenesis of a Bahamian ooid sand shoal: Sedimenta VII, Comparative Sedimentology Laboratory., University of Miami, Miami Beach, Florida.

Schlager, Wolfgang, 2005, Previous HitCarbonateNext Hit Sedimentology and Sequence Stratigraphy: SEPM Concepts in Sedimentology and Paleontology no. 8, 200 p.

Thompson, William G., and Steven L. Goldstein, 2005, Open-system coral ages reveal persistent suborbital Previous HitseaNext Hit-Previous HitlevelNext Hit Previous HitcyclesTop: Science, v. 308, p. 401.

 

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