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GEOREF RECORD

Back to the Jurassic; architecture of eolian, wadi, microbialite, and disturbed facies, Carmel Formation and Navajo Sandstone, Kane County, south-central Utah

Mario V. Caputo and Thomas B. Anderson
Back to the Jurassic; architecture of eolian, wadi, microbialite, and disturbed facies, Carmel Formation and Navajo Sandstone, Kane County, south-central Utah (in Geologic excursions in southwestern North America, Philip A. Pearthree (editor))
Field Guide (Geological Society of America) (September 2019) 55: 519-551

Abstract

Two sites in Kane County, south-central Utah, were selected for this two-day field trip. Stunning outcrop examples of the internal structure of eolian, wadi, and microbialite beds are accessible in the Middle Jurassic Carmel Formation at White House camp along the Paria River, and outcrop details of deformed bedding are accessible in the Lower Jurassic Navajo Sandstone on Wire Pass/Coyote Wash trail. Respective facies are described and interpreted within a theme of 'back to basics in sedimentology' and within a landscape framework of the Grand Staircase and the East Kaibab monocline. A tan, cross-bedded facies of coastal eolian origin and a red lenticular facies of wadi origin in the Thousand Pockets Member, Carmel Formation, were coeval with a wavy laminated facies of organo-sedimentary origin in the Judd Hollow Tongue of the Carmel Formation. Grainflow, wind-ripple, and grainfall processes conspired on Jurassic dunes to deposit a cross-bed array of eolian sandflow, wind-ripple, and grainfall foreset strata, and wind-ripple and possibly grainfall toeset strata in the tan cross-bedded facies. Episodes of wadi flooding are preserved in the red lenticular facies as cyclical, upward-fining sandstones-mudstones punctuated by exposure and mudcrack fills. They locally and temporarily interrupted eolian sedimentation before being overrun and buried by eolian dunes. Ripples and microbes built up the wavy laminated facies at a supratidal marine shoreline of the Middle Jurassic seaway. Ground-shaking from an earthquake or extraterrestrial impact triggered severe deformation of eolian dune sand in the disturbed facies of the Navajo Sandstone.


ISSN: 2333-0937
EISSN: 2333-0945
Serial Title: Field Guide (Geological Society of America)
Serial Volume: 55
Title: Back to the Jurassic; architecture of eolian, wadi, microbialite, and disturbed facies, Carmel Formation and Navajo Sandstone, Kane County, south-central Utah
Title: Geologic excursions in southwestern North America
Author(s): Caputo, Mario V.Anderson, Thomas B.
Author(s): Pearthree, Philip A.editor
Affiliation: Pacific Section SEPM, Tujunga, CA, United States
Affiliation: University of Arizona, Arizona Geological Survey, Tucson, AZ, United States
Pages: 519-551
Published: 20190904
Text Language: English
Publisher: Geological Society of America, Boulder, CO, United States
References: 90
Accession Number: 2020-016678
Categories: Sedimentary petrologyStratigraphy
Document Type: Serial
Bibliographic Level: Analytic
Illustration Description: illus. incl. sketch maps, 1 table, strat. col.
N35°30'00" - N38°30'00", W113°10'00" - W109°30'00"
Secondary Affiliation: University of Nevada, USA, United States
Country of Publication: United States
Secondary Affiliation: GeoRef, Copyright 2020, American Geosciences Institute.
Update Code: 2020

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