Stratigraphy Commons^™

Onset Of The Messinian Salinity Crisis: Insights From Molecular Organic Geochemistry, Albert Permanyer, Michael A. Kruge, Luis Gibert

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) generated extensive anoxic sediments under the evaporitic deposits in marginal Mediterranean basins. In an interdisciplinary approach combining field work with multiple laboratory techniques, the oil source rock potential and biomarkers of pre-evaporitic Messinian sediments from the Caltanissetta Basin (Sicily) were evaluated using Rock-Eval pyrolysis, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, isotopic analysis and optical and electron microscopy. Organic-rich samples from the 45 m Serra Pirciata section consist of cycles of diatomaceous and carbonate layers alternating with organic shales of variable TOC. The organic matter is mostly optically amorphous, increasing in content upwards in the section. Of the 43 …

Morphodynamic Modeling Of Fluvial Channel Fill And Avulsion Time Scales During Early Holocene Transgression, As Substantiated By The Incised Valley Stratigraphy Of The Trinity River, Texas, Kaitlin Moran, Jeffrey Nittrouer, Mauricio Perillo, Jorge Lorenzo Trueba, John Anderson

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The Trinity River system provides a natural laboratory for linking fluvial morphodynamics to stratigraphy produced by sea-level rise, because the sediments occupying the Trinity incised valley are well constrained in terms of timing of deposition and facies distribution. Herein, the Trinity River is modeled for a range of base-level rise rates, avulsion thresholds, and water discharges to explore the effects of backwater-induced in-channel sedimentation on channel avulsion. The findings are compared to observed sediment facies to evaluate the capability of a morphodynamic model to reproduce sediment deposition patterns. Base-level rise produces mobile locations of in-channel sedimentation and deltaic channel avulsions. …

Chemical Contaminants As Stratigraphic Markers For The Anthropocene, Michael A. Kruge

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Thousands and even millions of years from now, widespread anthropogenic contaminants in sediments would likely persist, incorporated into the geological record. They would inadvertently preserve evidence of our present era (informally designated as the Anthropocene Epoch) characterized by large human populations engaged in intensive industrial and agricultural activities.

Hypothetical geologists in the distant future would likely find unusually high concentrations of a wide variety of contaminants at stratigraphic levels corresponding to our present time, analogous to the iridium anomaly marking the bolide impact event at the close of the Cretaceous Period. These would include both organic and inorganic substances, such …

Chronostratigraphic Framework For The Iodp Expedition 318 Cores From The Wilkes Land Margin: Constraints For Paleoceanographic Reconstruction, Lisa Tauxe, Catherine E. Stickley, Saiko Sugisaki, Peter K. Bijl, Steven M. Bohaty, Henk Brinkhuis, Carlota Escutia, J. A. Flores, A. J. P. Houben, M. Iwai, Francisco J. Jiménez‐Espejo, Robert Mckay, Sandra Passchier, Jörg Pross, Christina Riesselman, Ursula Röhl, Francesca Sangiorgi, Kevin Welsh, Adam Klaus, Annick Fehr, James Bendle, Robert B. Dunbar, J. Gonzàlez, T. Hayden, K. Katsuki, M. P. Olney, Stephen Pekar, P. K. Shrivastava, Tina Van De Flierdt, Trevor Williams, M. Yamane

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

[1] The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 318 to the Wilkes Land margin of Antarctica recovered a sedimentary succession ranging in age from lower Eocene to the Holocene. Excellent stratigraphic control is key to understanding the timing of paleoceanographic events through critical climate intervals. Drill sites recovered the lower and middle Eocene, nearly the entire Oligocene, the Miocene from about 17 Ma, the entire Pliocene and much of the Pleistocene. The paleomagnetic properties are generally suitable for magnetostratigraphic interpretation, with well‐behaved demagnetization diagrams, uniform distribution of declinations, and a clear separation into two inclination modes. Although the sequences were discontinuously …

Exploring The Role Of Organic Matter Accumulation On Delta Evolution, Jorge Lorenzo Trueba, Vaughan Voller, Chris Paola, Robert Twilley, Azure Bevington

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

We explore the role of plant matter accumulation in the sediment column in determining the response of fluvial-deltas to base-level rise and simple subsidence profiles. Making the assumption that delta building processes operate to preserve the geometry of the delta plain, we model organic sedimentation in terms of the plant matter accumulation and accommodation (space made for sediment deposition) rates. A spatial integration of the organic sedimentation, added to the known river sediment input, leads to a model of delta evolution that estimates the fraction of organic sediments preserved in the delta. The model predicts that the maximum organic fraction …

Organic Chemostratigraphic Markers Characteristic Of The (Informally Designated) Anthropocene Epoch, Michael A. Kruge

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Recognizing the tremendous collective impact of humans on the environment in the industrial age, the proposed designation of the current time period as the Anthropocene Epoch has considerable merit. One of the signature activities during this time continues to be the intensive extraction, processing, and combustion of fossil fuels. While fossil fuels themselves are naturally-occurring, they are most often millions of years old and associated with deeply buried strata. They may be found at the surface, for example, as natural oil seeps or coal seam outcrops, but these are relatively rare occurrences. Fossil fuels and their myriad by-products become the …

Organic Geochemical Analysis Of Late-Glacial And Early-Holocene Ecosystem Changes: A Case Study From Northern New England Lakes, Michael A. Kruge, Andrea Lini

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The lacustrine sedimentary archive of organic remains provides important evidence for the reconstruction of the environmental histories of lakes and their watersheds, recording the response of the Earth's biota to changes on scales varying from the local to the global. The last Glacial-Interglacial transition presents an opportunity to investigate how, and at what rates, watershed and lake ecosystems were established on once glaciated, carbon and nutrient-poor landscapes. The small lakes of northern Vermont (USA) provide an appropriate setting in which to investigate such changes.

As part of a multidisciplinary study of three Vermont lake sediment cores, samples ranging in age …

A Biogeochemical Comparison Of Fossil (Carboniferous) And Modern Crustose Red Algae, Michael A. Kruge, John E. Utgaard, William Ferry

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The nature of the contribution of the various types of algae to sedimentary organic matter continues to be a topic of research interest. Crustose red algae have however received less attention than other types. The fossil calcareous red algae (Rhodophyta) analyzed in this study are two relatively unrecrystallized specimens of Parachaetetes (Family Solenoporacea) from the lower part of the Ste. Genevieve Formation (Carboniferous, Visean) in Union County, Illinois, USA. They occurred in the patch reef phase of a small carbonate mudmound-patchreef. The three modern specimens (collected and identified by F. Collier) are the crustose algae Lithothamnion, Clathromorphum and Phymatolithon …

Comparison Of Source Rock Geochemistry Of Selected Rocks From The Schei Point Group And Ringnes Formation, Sverdrup Basin, Arctic Canada, P. K. Mukhopadhyay, F. Goodarzi, Michael A. Kruge, M. H. Alimi

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Organic-rich from the Schei Point group (middle to late Triassic in age) and the Ringnes formation (late Jurassic) from the Sverdrup basin of the Canadian arctic archipelago have been geochemically evaluated for source rock characterization. Most samples from the Schei Point group are organic-rich (> 2% TOC) and are considered as immature to mature oil-prone source rocks [kerogen types I, I-II (IIA) and II (IIA)]. These kerogen types contain abundant AOM1, AOM2 and alginite (Tasmanales, Nostocopsis, Leiosphaeridia, acritarch and dinoflagellate) with variable amounts of vitrinite, inertinite and exinite. Samples from the Ringnes formation contain dominant vitrinite and inertinite …

The Dinosaur Blues, Alessandro Montanari, Michael A. Kruge

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

(Slow blues in E for voice, guitar, and blues harmonica.)

1) I woke up this morning; saw a big rock in the sky.

I woke up this morning; I knew I was gonna die.

It's the end of an era; I knew I was gonna die.

2) We were much bigger than the rats and fish.

We were the kings on the land and the sea.

But when that stone came down, we disappeared from the scene.

3) 65 million years - it's a date to recall.

65 million years - enough time for you all.

If you …

Fossil Charcoal In Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary Strata: Evidence For Catastrophic Firestorm And Megawave, Michael A. Kruge

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Organic matter separated from calcareous sandstone from the upper portion of a deep-water tsunami deposit at Arroyo el Mimbral, Taumalipas (Mexico), which marks the biostratigraphically-defined Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, consists primarily of fossil charcoal, including semifusinite and pyrofusinite. Analytical pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry revealed the highly aromatic and polyaromatic character of the organic matter assemblage, typical of the products of partial combustion. The organic matter probably originated as terrestrial vegetation that was caught in a firestorm and subsequently transported far offshore in the backwash of a megawave. These data are consistent with the hypothesis of combustion of large masses of vegetation triggered by …

Organic Geochemistry Of Permian Organic-Rich Sediments From The Sudetes Area, Sw Poland, Shareen R. Yawanarajah, Michael A. Kruge, Maria Mastalerz, Wojciech Sliwinski

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Lacustrine and marine sediments from the Permian rift-basins of southwestern Poland were analysed using GC-MS and petrographic techniques. High Pr/Ph ratios, gamma- and beta-carotanes and gammacerane in the lacustrine sediments indicate deposition under elevated water salinities. The primary organic matter is represented by bacterial and algal lipids with variable terrestrial input. Marine algal lipids with minor bacterial and cyanobacterial lipids are the primary source of organic matter in the marine sediments. Extended hopanes, n-alkanes with even-odd predominance and low Ts/Tm ratios are consistent with deposition in a closed, evaporitic basin with substantial carbonate sedimentation.

Biological Markers In Lower Jurassic Synrift Lacustrine Black Shales, Hartford Basin, Connecticut, U.S.A., Michael A. Kruge, John F. Hubert, Jay F. Akes, Paul E. Meriney

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The East Berlin Formation (Lower Jurassic, Hartford basin, Connecticut, U.S.A.) is distinctive for its six cyclic units of lacustrine black shale and gray mudstone. separated by playa and fluvial redbeds. The black shales arc each about a meter thick and were deposited in subtropical, thermally stratified, oligomictic lakes, the youngest of which (lakes 3 through 6) were large enough to flood most of the basin and attained depths of several tens of meters.

The saturate fractions of solvent extracts of organic-rich black shales from each of the six lakes, collected at fresh roadcuts near East Berlin, arc dominated by extended …

Organic Geochemistry Of A Lower Jurassic Synrift Lacustrine Sequence, Hartford Basin, Connecticut, U.S.A., Michael A. Kruge, John F. Hubert, David F. Bensley, John C. Crelling, R Jay Akes, Paul E. Meriney

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Synrift terrestrial strata of the Lower Jurassic East Berlin Formation (Hartford basin, Connecticut, U.S.A.) record cyclical expansion and contraction of major lakes, six of which were deep enough to develop anoxic bottom waters. We have studied one representative lacustrine sequence in detail, sampling a new roadcut near the village of East Berlin. The section examined is 4 m thick, with a gray siltstone at the base, deposited in shallow water, overlain by an organic-rich black shale (deep water), succeeded in turn by another gray siltstone, deposited as the lake waters gradually receded. The upper gray siltstone is chemically distinct from …

Biomarker Geochemistry Of The Miocene Monterey Formation, West San Joaquin Basin, California: Implications For Petroleum Generation, Michael A. Kruge

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Much of the Miocene Monterey Formation of California is rich in biogenic sediment, especially organic matter and silica. Because of the geologic structure, the Monterey in the subsurface near Lost Hills in the San Joaquin Basin forms a natural laboratory for the study of the diagenetic responses of these materials. Rocks of similar age and lithology are buried to depths ranging between 500 and 3500 m, and are thus exposed to a temperature range of 45–130°C. The diagenetic progression of silica from opal-A to opal-CT to microquartz is well-documented in Monterey burial history studies. However, diagenetic indicators need to be …