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Crinkle cracks in the Proterozoic Piegan Group, Belt Supergroup, Montana and Idaho; a descriptive style of sand-filled cracks hypothetically formed by subaqueous solitary-like waves

Don Winston and Shane V. Smith
Crinkle cracks in the Proterozoic Piegan Group, Belt Supergroup, Montana and Idaho; a descriptive style of sand-filled cracks hypothetically formed by subaqueous solitary-like waves (in Belt Basin; window to Mesoproterozoic Earth, John S. MacLean (editor) and James W. Sears (editor))
Special Paper - Geological Society of America (August 2016) 522: 57-69

Abstract

Crinkle cracks are sand-filled cracks up to 5 mm wide in plan view that pinch at their ends. In cross section, they are canted and crinkled. They cut mudstone beds that underlie hummocky cross-laminated sandstone lenses. They are here described from the Piegan Group, Proterozoic Belt Supergroup, but they are widespread in Proterozoic and Phanerozoic marine and lacustrine rocks. However, they represent a distinctive, descriptive style of mudcracks, not attributed to inferred syneresis processes, although they have been commonly attributed to syneresis. In plan view, crinkle cracks closely resemble cracks formed where oscillatory waves striking viscous mud banks are transformed into fluid solitary-like waves that open surface cracks on their trailing limbs and close the cracks on their leading limbs as they pass through the viscous mud. Crinkle cracks preserved in rocks are hypothetically attributed to oscillatory waves moving sand over viscous mud. The oscillatory waves are transformed into solitary-like waves as they pass down into the mud, forming the cracks. The surface sand falls down into the cracks, preserving them. With burial, the water escapes, and the viscous mud compacts, crinkling the sand-filled cracks.


ISSN: 0072-1077
EISSN: 2331-219X
Coden: GSAPAZ
Serial Title: Special Paper - Geological Society of America
Serial Volume: 522
Title: Crinkle cracks in the Proterozoic Piegan Group, Belt Supergroup, Montana and Idaho; a descriptive style of sand-filled cracks hypothetically formed by subaqueous solitary-like waves
Title: Belt Basin; window to Mesoproterozoic Earth
Author(s): Winston, DonSmith, Shane V.
Author(s): MacLean, John S.editor
Author(s): Sears, James W.editor
Affiliation: University of Montana, Geoscience Department, Missoula, MT, United States
Pages: 57-69
Published: 20160818
Text Language: English
Publisher: Geological Society of America (GSA), Boulder, CO, United States
References: 50
Accession Number: 2016-087183
Categories: Sedimentary petrology
Document Type: Serial
Bibliographic Level: Analytic
Illustration Description: illus.
N45°00'00" - N49°00'00", W117°00'00" - W110°00'00"
Secondary Affiliation: Kean University, USA, United States
Source Note: Online First
Country of Publication: United States
Secondary Affiliation: GeoRef, Copyright 2017, American Geosciences Institute. Reference includes data supplied by the Geological Society of America, Boulder, CO, United States
Update Code: 201643
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