ISSN:
1573-0417
Keywords:
carbonate
;
wetland
;
lacustrine
;
cyclothem
;
Pennsylvania
;
Upper Freeport
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Biology
,
Geosciences
Notes:
Abstract The Upper Freeport Formation (Upper Allegheny Group, Middle Pennsylvanian) is one of the earliest non-marine cyclothems in the Appalachian Basin and contains carbonates, siliciclastics, and coal. A detailed facies analyses of 25 cores from the Upper Freeport Limestone in western Pennsylvania (Armstrong and Indiana Counties) identified four facies associations containing thirteen separate facies: rudstone-limestone (Association A), rudstone-laminated limestone (Association B), laminated limestone (Association C), and coal — siliciclastics (Association D). We interpreted them, respectively, as shallow, high energy lacustrine margin (A); littoral to sublittoral lacustrine (B); offshore lake (C); and vegetated swamp and marsh (D). The depositional environment is envisaged as an anastomosed channel system surrounded by extensive wetlands containing adjacent densely vegetated swamp and marsh areas and freshwater, carbonate-producing lakes. Lakes developed in the topographic lows of the alluvial plain, protected and filtered from siliciclastic deposition by vegetated swamps. These lakes were small in size (several square km), shallow, and stratified, as indicated by the abundance of laminated facies. They were hydrologically open, and interconnected by surface and ground waters. Carbonate production in this lacustrine system was not triggered by evaporative concentration but by biogenic algal production. Carbonates were continually being recycled, both physicochemically and biologically, within the depositional system. Various early diagenetic processes, including brecciation, pedogenesis and recrystallization, masked original evidence for transport mode. The Upper Freeport Limestone contains numerous features of palustrine carbonates, and provides a case study for one end-member of freshwater carbonate models, characterized by a very short period of subaerial exposure. Small-scale climatic changes or autocyclic processes such as small topographic differences, changes in local drainage patterns, and fluvial dynamics may have controlled Upper Freeport lake level changes. Facies analysis does not support a climate forcing as a control for cyclothem development of non-marine sequences during the Pennsylvanian. Tectonic and autocyclic processes better explain the evolution of these wetland (lacustrine/alluvial) systems with its associated coal formation.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00683273
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