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Sandstone mounds and associated facies sequences in some Late Precambrian and Cambro‐Ordovician inshore tidal flat/lagoonal deposits
Author(s) -
BALDWIN CHRISTOPHER T.,
JOHNSON HOWARD D.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
sedimentology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.494
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1365-3091
pISSN - 0037-0746
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3091.1977.tb01916.x
Subject(s) - geology , marine transgression , facies , precambrian , paleontology , ordovician , ridge , sedimentary depositional environment , fluvial , subsidence , geomorphology , structural basin
Sandstone mounds occur in some shallow marine heterolithic deposits from the Late Precambrian Stangenes Formation (N. Norway) and the Cambro‐Ordovician Crozon Formation (N. W. France) and Cabos Series (N.W. Spain). The sediments displaying the mounds accumulated in partially protected tidal flat/ lagoonal environments immediately before and during major transgressions. The mounds are erosional features typically occurring on the tops of sheet sandstones (ca. 50–500 mm thick) some of which may have a storm washover origin. Mound genesis related to periodic emergence and late stage run‐off is supported by their intimate association with mudcracks and other very shallow water features (e.g. bidirectional current‐formed structures, wave ripples, ladder and interference patterns, mudflakes, etc.). Variation in mound morphology suggests that post‐depositional dissection began as elongate ridge‐gully couplets with secondary erosion of the ridge flanks leading to the development of more characteristic hemispherical geometries. Emergence may have been a function of tidal fluctuations and/or subsidence of storm surge events. Facies sequences point to the repeated filling of these inshore environments by storm washovers superimposed on ambient tidal conditions which possibly resulted from the progressive decay of beach barriers during transgression.