Cyclothems and Larger Sedimentary Cycles of the Pennsylvanian

Weller, J. Marvin

doi:10.1086/626494

Cited by 21 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…While first identified in the Illinois Basin (''Illinois-type'' cyclothems), two other types of cyclothems (Fig. 3) are recognized in Pennsylvanian strata of North America based on the preservation of facies changes within successions in different sedimentary basins (Moore 1931;Wanless and Shepard 1936;Weller 1958). The different types of cyclothems are referred to as ''Kansas-type'', ''Illinois-type'', and ''Appalachian-type.''…”

Section: Lateral Variation Of North American Cyclothemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Paleoenvironmental Significance of Middle-Late Pennsylvanian Conodont Apatite 18o Values in the Illinois Basin

Rosenau¹,

Tabor²,

Herrmann³

2014

PALAIOS

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Conodont apatite d 18 O V-SMOW values from Middle though Upper Pennsylvanian (Desmoinesian-Missourian) laminated, marine black shale units within cyclic deposits of intercalated terrestrial and marine strata (cyclothems) from the Illinois Basin (United States) were measured in order to evaluate their utility as a proxy for changes in the oxygen isotopic composition of the epicontinental Late Pennsylvanian Midcontinent Sea (LPMS). The average d 18 O V-SMOW values of well-preserved monogeneric (Idiognathodus) separates of conodont apatite from 12 lithologic units representing nine cyclothems range from 17.0% to 20.1% and average 19.0% ± 0.4% (1s). Within the limits of analytical uncertainty of stable isotope measurements, the stratigraphic distribution of conodont apatite d 18 O values is nontrending; particularly, there is no significant shift in d 18 O values across the Desmoinesian-Missourian boundary, a period that has been interpreted to preserve a shift toward a warmer climate, increased seasonality, and shorter periods of wet conditions in the terrestrial record. Conodont apatite d 18 O values from stratigraphically equivalent black shale members across the Illinois Basin vary up to 2.6%, which is nearly equivalent to the observed stratigraphic range of conodont apatite d 18 O values, and suggests differences in local (basin-scale) seawater d 18 O values affected the conodont apatite d 18 O values. Within analytical uncertainty, conodont apatite d 18 O values from the Illinois Basin and Midcontinent Basin (United States) are indistinguishable, suggesting a component of overarching broader regional to global controls on seawater d 18 O values.Nevertheless, if the large variability observed in stratigraphically equivalent black shale members in the Illinois Basin is attributed to regional factors, these results indicate caution should be used when attempting to interpret temporal shifts from single aliquots of conodonts in epicontinental settings.

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Section: Lateral Variation Of North American Cyclothemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Paleoenvironmental Significance of Middle-Late Pennsylvanian Conodont Apatite 18o Values in the Illinois Basin

Rosenau¹,

Tabor²,

Herrmann³

2014

PALAIOS

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“…The strongest cyclicity results from coastal settings, where on either side of the shoreline several contrasting depositional environments coexist which can be shifted readily by relative sea level variations. Coal measures interbedded with marine sediments therefore provide particularly good examples of cyclic sedimentation and were used by Weller (1930) to formulate the concept of cyclothems, which for many decades strongly influenced research into coal measure sedimentation (Fiege 1937(Fiege , 1952van Leckwijck 1948;Wanless 1931Wanless , 1950Wanless and Weller 1932;Wanless and Shephard 1936;Weller 1956Weller , 1958Moore 1950;Moore 1959;Jessen 1956aJessen -c, 1961Jessen et al 1952, and others). A comprehensive summary of the early work is given by Duff et al (1967).…”

Section: Coal Formation and Sequence Stratigraphymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…inertodetrinite and liptodetrinite) in a particular coal ply, the formation of a lacustrine dirt band, such as Fulton's (1987) bivalve-bearing interleaf sediments in the Warwickshire Thick Coal (see Chap. 5), or by the deposition of fresh-water limestones in the Carboniferous coal measures of North America (Weller 1930(Weller , 1956(Weller , 1958Wanless 1964;and others). In reference to Masson and Rust (1983) and to the work of Wanless (1964) on the effects of marine transgressions on coal measure sedimentation, Rust et al (1987Rust et al ( , p.1877 Drowning of the peat has been a common mechanism by which peat accumulation was terminated in transgressive coal seams.…”

Section: Properties Of Transgressive Coal Seams Without a Marine Roofmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These constituted-more rigid portions of the crust which at the time of sedimentation were covered with a thinner veneer of shelf sediments than the more mobile basin they separate. The low-lying terrain and frequent flooding ofthese wide and shallow depressions in the Carboniferous continental margin produced coal measures of astonishing cyclicity on which the original cyclothem concept was based (Weller 1930;Wanless 1931Wanless , 1950Wanless and Weller 1932;Wanless and Shephard 1936;Weller 1956Weller , 1958Duff 1974;and others).…”

Section: Coalfields Of Mobile Shelf Basinsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Coal-Bearing Depositional Systems

Diessel¹

1992

401

416

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“…Elias (1937, p. 411) observed that "no single cycle of the Big Blue rocks shows all phases of the ideal cycle, but the missed phases in one cycle appear in proper position in neighboring cycles above and below." As a consequence, different types of cyclothem were recognized from the Illinois region, labeled with either arbitrary letters (e.g., types a-d of Weller, 1942), or names (e.g., the Macoupin, LaSalle, and Bogota motifs of Weller, 1958). Weller (1956Weller ( , 1958 also argued for the recognition of an Illinois "megacyclothem," based on vertical groups of his cyclothem motifs, which he then correlated westward with the Kansas megacyclothem motif of Moore (1936).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sedimentary cyclicity in the marine Pliocene-Pleistocene of the Wanganui basin (New Zealand): Sequence stratigraphic motifs characteristic of the past 2.5 m.y.

Saul

Naish

Abbott

et al. 1999

Geological Society of America Bulletin

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Earth's climatic history since 2.5 Ma has been controlled by Milankovitch variations in the planetary orbit, comprising alternate periods of glaciation and interglaciation with a dominant frequency of 41 000 yr. Concomitantly, eustatic sea level has fluctuated 70 to 130 m, causing rapid transgressions and regressions of the shoreline across the world's continental shelves. The resulting sedimentary record is cyclothemic, each cyclothem corresponding to a single climate and sea-level cycle. The Wanganui basin, New Zealand, contains a 2-km-thick, almost complete, composite record since isotope stage 100 (ca. 2.5 Ma) in the form of 47 superposed cyclothems of shelf origin. Each cyclothem corresponds to an unconformity-bound stratigraphic sequence, and typically contains a transgressive systems tract, sometimes a mid-cycle shell bed, a highstand systems tract, and sometimes a regressive systems tract. No advantage accrues from using transgressive-regressive units rather than cyclothems and/or sequences in description of the succession. Six basic sequence motifs represent deposition in locations between the shoreline and offshore shelf, i.e., the Hawera, Birdgrove, Turakina, Seafield, Castlecliff, and Rangitikei motifs. A seventh, the Nukumaru motif (which includes dominant coquina limestone), represents deposition in shallow-water areas of reduced terrigenous sediment on the flank of the basin. The sequence motifs represented in any section change systematically in sympathy with basin-scale changes in subsidence and sediment supply. In contrast with the 41000 year length of individual glacio-eustatic sequences, these basin-wide tectonic cycles have a periodicity of many hundreds of thousands to a few million years, i.e., that of third-or fourth-order sequences of the Exxon type. This, coupled with the restriction of strongly cyclothemic sediments to geological periods of known glacio-eustasy (Permian-Carboniferous, Pliocene-Pleistocene), suggests that tectonic subsidence cycles rather than glacio-eustasy are the driving forces behind the development of the third-and fourth-order unconformity-bound sequences that are reported to occur throughout the stratigraphic record.

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Cyclothems and Larger Sedimentary Cycles of the Pennsylvanian

Cited by 21 publications

References 3 publications

Assessing the Paleoenvironmental Significance of Middle-Late Pennsylvanian Conodont Apatite 18o Values in the Illinois Basin

Assessing the Paleoenvironmental Significance of Middle-Late Pennsylvanian Conodont Apatite 18o Values in the Illinois Basin

Coal-Bearing Depositional Systems

Sedimentary cyclicity in the marine Pliocene-Pleistocene of the Wanganui basin (New Zealand): Sequence stratigraphic motifs characteristic of the past 2.5 m.y.

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