New sequence perspective on the Devonian reef complex and the Frasnian-Famennian boundary, Canning Basin, Australia

Kennard, J. M.; Southgate, P. N.; Jackson, Michael J.; O'Brien, P. E.; Christie‐Blick, Nicholas; Holmes, Ann E.; Sarg, J. F.

doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1992)020<1135:nspotd>2.3.co;2

Cited by 25 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Siliclastic lithologies and abundant sponge debris are locally present, and there is no evidence for anoxic or hypoxic conditions during deposition. The described F/F lithologies are consistent with starvation of the slope due to reduced carbonate productivity of the platform during a period of lowered relative sea level, supporting interpretations of a major transgression immediately prior to the boundary (Kennard et al 1992;Southgate et al 1993) and previous analyses suggesting deposition under fully oxygenated conditions (Becker et al 1991). These observations are also compatible with other evidence for several rapid and strong sea-level changes during the latest Frasnian (Becker et al 1991), and for subaerial exposure followed by margin collapse in the Napier Range (George et al 1997;George and Powell 1997).…”

Section: Reefs Of the Canning Basinsupporting

confidence: 84%

“…During the Givetian-Frasnian, carbonate platforms in the Canning Basin aggraded almost vertically (the Pillara phase), with backstepping of the reef margins and related pinnacle-reef development in the Frasnian, but during the latest Frasnian or Famennian a rapid progradation of the reef (the Nullara phase) over associated marginal-slope deposits began (Playford 1980(Playford , 1981Kennard et al 1992;Becker et al 1993;Becker and House 1997). The Famennian reef margin has been interpreted as an advancing rollover margin (Playford 1984).…”

Section: Reefs Of the Canning Basinmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These phases have now been interpreted to be a response to a major transgressiveregressive cycle (Southgate et al 1993), in response to slower subsidence rates (George et al 1997). The application of sequence stratigraphy to seismic well data has led to the further recognition that each cycle consists of successively onlapping depositional sequences that reflect short-term sea level cycles (Kennard et al 1992). George and Chow (2002) have summarised the regional sedimentological changes that occurred across the F/F boundary in the Canning Basin.…”

Section: Reefs Of the Canning Basinmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Palaeoecology of a post‐extinction reef: Famennian (Late Devonian) of the Canning Basin, north‐western Australia

Wood

2004

Palaeontology

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ABSTRACT. Reefs were decimated by the Frasnian/Famennian (Late Devonian) mass extinction event (371 Ma), and are assumed to have survived only as depauperate calcimicrobial communities dominated by disaster taxa. Description of Famennian proximal reef-slope communities within the Windjana Limestone, Canning Basin, north-western Australia, shows that, notwithstanding the loss of large metazoans, novel ecologies were established in this setting by a rich biota of survivor and progenitor taxa. Diverse calcimicrobes together with algae, crinoids, bryozoans, brachiopods, and abundant sponges (stromatoporoids, inozoans, sphinctozoans, lithistids and hexactinellids) formed a reef framework of either elevated platy structures up to 4 m in diameter and 0·35 m thick, or mounds up to 15 m in diameter. This framework was dominated by a complex intergrowth of calcimicrobes, where Rothpletzella formed the primary framework, Ortonella, and Girvanella were secondary encrusters, and Shuguria spp. occupied small crypts 2-30 mm in diameter. Contiguous columnar stromatolites up to 50 mm in height and 1 m in width grew upwards from substrate sheltered beneath large sheltered primary cavities: based on minimum growth rates of 50-100 mm/year these are estimated to have been between 500 and 1000 years old. The elevated platy community is inferred to have grown in conditions of episodic siliciclastic sediment input; the reef mounds grew during either episodes, or in localised areas, of low sedimentation. At least 14 morphospecies of spicular sponges are now identified from the Windjana Limestone, where only two were previously documented. These fore-slope reef communities exposed in Windjana Gorge flourished in high-energy carbonate environments dominated by coated grain sediments, and where rapid, early lithification was pervasive.Such observations demonstrate that no protracted interval of time was necessarily required for post-extinction 'recovery' in regions where some reef-building taxa survived and suitable carbonate habitats persisted or returned. Moreover, they show that new ecologies, rather than remnants of the pre-extinction community, could be established rapidly. The reef-slope communities of the Windjana Limestone offer little evidence to support the ideas of resurgence or invasion of taxa from deeper waters after the Frasnian/Famennian extinction. Indeed, there is evidence to suggest that similar microbial-sponge communities were already established in margin and reef slope communities in the latest Frasnian. As such, the most dramatic ecological changes caused by the extinction occurred in back-reef communities.

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Section: Reefs Of the Canning Basinsupporting

confidence: 84%

Section: Reefs Of the Canning Basinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Reefs Of the Canning Basinmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Palaeoecology of a post‐extinction reef: Famennian (Late Devonian) of the Canning Basin, north‐western Australia

Wood

2004

Palaeontology

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“…During the Givetian±Frasnian, carbonate platforms in the Canning Basin aggraded almost vertically (the Pillara phase), with backstepping of the reef margins and related pinnacle-reef development in the Frasnian, but during the Famennian there was rapid progradation of the reef (the Nullara phase) over associated marginal-slope deposits (Playford 1980(Playford , 1981Kennard et al 1992;Becker et al 1993;Becker and House 1997). Both of these phases were originally interpreted to be transgressive (Playford 1980;Playford et al 1989), but have since been re-interpreted to be a response to a major transgressiveregressive cycle, with reef progradation (the Nullara phase) initiating somewhat earlier in the latest Frasnian (Southgate et al 1993), in response to slower subsidence rates (George et al 1997).…”

Section: O C a L I T I E S A N D M E T H O D Smentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both of these phases were originally interpreted to be transgressive (Playford 1980;Playford et al 1989), but have since been re-interpreted to be a response to a major transgressiveregressive cycle, with reef progradation (the Nullara phase) initiating somewhat earlier in the latest Frasnian (Southgate et al 1993), in response to slower subsidence rates (George et al 1997). The application of sequence stratigraphy to seismic well data has led to the further recognition that each cycle consists of successively onlapping depositional sequences that re¯ect short-term sea-level cycles (Kennard et al 1992).…”

Section: O C a L I T I E S A N D M E T H O D Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Palaeoecology Of A Late Devonian Back Reef: Canning Basin, Western Australia

Wood

2000

Palaeontology

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ABSTRACT. Back-reef ecologies within the celebrated mixed carbonate-siliciclastic Late Devonian (late Frasnian) Pillara Limestone of Windjana Gorge, in the Canning Basin, Western Australia, are re-interpreted as being dominated by microbial communities. Proposed microbialites are expressed as weakly-laminated, fenestral micrite, that show unsupported primary voids, peloidal textures, disseminated bioclastic debris, and traces of micro®laments. These grew as either extensive free-standing mounds or columns, often intergrown with encrusting metazoans, or thick postmortem encrustations upon skeletal benthos. In some cases, microbial encrustations are inferred to have developed in protected cavities formed by progressive burial of the reef. The calcimicrobe Shuguria also shows a preferentially cryptic habit, encrusting either primary cavities formed by skeletal benthos, microbialite, or the ceilings of mm-sized fenestrae within microbialite. A further calcimicrobe, Rothpletzella, formed columns up to 0´3 m high in areas enriched by very coarse siliciclastic sediment.Stromatoporoid sponges with a diverse range of morphologies also formed in situ growth fabrics. Monospeci®c thickets of closely-aggregating dendroid stromatoporoid sponges (Stachyodes costulata), and platy-laminar forms (?Hermatostroma spp.) were common, as were remarkably large stromatoporoids (Actinostroma spp.) that grew as isolated individuals up to 5 m in diameter. Such sponges showed impressive powers of regeneration from partial mortality, and individual clones may have been capable of substantial longevities of up to 500 years.Actinostroma spp. showed highly complex growth forms including platy-multicolumnar (A. windjanicum), and a hitherto undescribed inferred whorl-forming foliaceous morphology (Actinostroma sp.) reminiscent of the modern photosymbiotic coral Acropora palmata. These complex morphologies formed abundant primary cavities, previously thought to be only rarely developed in association with stromatoporoids.

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Fine‐Scale Forward Modelling of a Devonian Patch Reef, Canning Basin, Western Australia

Hasler

Adams

Woods

et al. 2008

Analogue and Numerical Modelling of Sedimentary Systems: From Understanding to Prediction

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Although factors that control the distribution of carbonate sediments are relatively well understood, their interaction in producing known geometries remains poorly known. A fine-scale forward model was developed to analyse the controls on decimetre-scale heterogeneity and carbonate facies distribution within larger-scale sediment bodies. The model was tested on a Frasnian (Late Devonian) patch reef, part of the so-called Glenister Knolls reef complex in the Canning Basin, Western Australia. The evolution of Glenister Knolls was digitally reconstructed using digital surveying technologies that resulted in a high-resolution dataset containing geological information from centimetrescale to outcrop dimensions. The three-dimensional digital outcrop model of Glenister Knolls was used to evaluate predictions from the fine-scale forward modelling results.The fine-scale forward model is based on a stochastic cellular automaton that simulates the spatial distribution of carbonate facies through time. The modelled carbonate facies is based on two main factors, stromatoporoid growth and sediment transport, and it successfully predicts the distribution of the basic elements -reef fabric and sediment -that compose the patch reef. The fine-scale forward model also successfully reproduces all major depositional relationships observed in the field such as backstepping, downlapping and interfingering contacts. The external structure of the reef is very sensitive to subsidence and production rates, since these directly influence accommodation space so constraining the vertical growth of the patch reef. However, the internal structure predicted by this model does not seem to be affected by one specific parameter, and displays the same sensitivity to other parameters, such as current intensity and wave amplitude.

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New sequence perspective on the Devonian reef complex and the Frasnian-Famennian boundary, Canning Basin, Australia

Cited by 25 publications

References 13 publications

Palaeoecology of a post‐extinction reef: Famennian (Late Devonian) of the Canning Basin, north‐western Australia

Palaeoecology of a post‐extinction reef: Famennian (Late Devonian) of the Canning Basin, north‐western Australia

Palaeoecology Of A Late Devonian Back Reef: Canning Basin, Western Australia

Fine‐Scale Forward Modelling of a Devonian Patch Reef, Canning Basin, Western Australia

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