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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

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Sedimentology

Selected Works

Benjamin F. Dattilo

2014

Tempestite

File Type

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

The Curse Of Rafinesquina: Negative Taphonomic Feedback Exerted By Strophomenid Shells On Storm-Buried Lingulids In The Cincinnatian (Katian, Ordovician) Series Of Ohio, Rebecca Freeman, Benjamin Dattilo, Aaron Morse, Michael Blair, Steve Felton, John Pojeta Jul 2014

The Curse Of Rafinesquina: Negative Taphonomic Feedback Exerted By Strophomenid Shells On Storm-Buried Lingulids In The Cincinnatian (Katian, Ordovician) Series Of Ohio, Rebecca Freeman, Benjamin Dattilo, Aaron Morse, Michael Blair, Steve Felton, John Pojeta

Benjamin F. Dattilo

Thousands of lingulid brachiopods were found clustered beneath hundreds of individual valves of the strophomenid brachiopod Rafinesquina in the Upper Ordovician of Ohio. This association suggested a relationship between the two brachiopods, but the nature of this relationship was unclear. We utilized serial thin sectioning to examine these brachiopods and to determine the origin of the bed in which they were found. Sedimentary structures, mixed taphonomies, and stratigraphic and paleogeographic setting suggest that the lingulids occupied a hiatal concentration that had previously been reworked, but not significantly transported, by tropical storms. The final burial event was a storm that exhumed …


Tempestites In A Teapot? Condensation-Generated Shell Beds In The Upper Ordovician, Cincinnati Arch, Usa., Benjamin F. Dattilo, Carlton E. Brett, Thomas J. Schramm Jul 2014

Tempestites In A Teapot? Condensation-Generated Shell Beds In The Upper Ordovician, Cincinnati Arch, Usa., Benjamin F. Dattilo, Carlton E. Brett, Thomas J. Schramm

Benjamin F. Dattilo

Skeletal concentrations in mudstones may represent local facies produced by storm winnowing in shallow water, or time-specific deposits related to intervals of diminished sediment supply. Upper Ordovician (Katian) of the Cincinnati region is a mixed siliciclastic-carbonate succession including meter-scale cycles containing a shelly limestone-dominated phase and a mudstone-dominated phase. The “tempestite proximality model” asserts that shell-rich intervals originated by winnowing of mud from undifferentiated fair-weather deposits. Thus shell beds are construed as tempestites, while interbedded mudstones represent either fair-weather or bypassed mud. Meter-scale cycles are attributed to sea-level fluctuation or varying storm intensity. Alternatively, the “episodic starvation model” argues, on …