Marine terrace evolution of windward Barbados

ABSTRACT The geomorphic evolution of southeastern windward Barbados is embodied in the development of a terraced seaward island slope on a tectonically rising scarp. The island slope is wholly erosional and a product of marine and subaerial processes. Modulation of the slope by terraces has occurred fundamentally by marine erosion at eustatic stillstands but includes morphologic additions by limestone deposition. The ongoing phase of morphologic development and island emergence began at or before ca. 700 ka. Emergence has proceeded at an increasing rate northwestward along the island’s southeastern coastline. The terraced island slope is markedly affected by post-terrace denudation. As many as eight marine terraces are preserved on the windward island slope below the planed surface of the Central Highlands, which is counted as terrace 1. Relics of an upper set of terraces are perched on the face of Second High Cliff, the ancient erosional margin of the oldest limestone capping Barbados. Second High Cliff developed by successive marine incisions over a probably long duration preceding oxygen isotope stage 9. A lower terrace set was excised in stages 9 through 5a in the siliciclastic island foundation or (and) in limestone cover of preceding terraces. Marine terrace floors extend seaward from an erosional backcliff and shoreline angle to a younger erosional cutoff. The most broadly preserved terrace floors indicate the following systematic succession of seaward profile elements: narrow upper ramp; broad upper flat; lower ramp; and on one, a lower flat. Carbonate cover is chiefly clastic on the upper ramp and flat, and chiefly reefal on the lower ramp. Most shoal-water reefal facies appear to be in fringe reef blankets. Terrace profile geometries are explained by a simple theory of wave abrasion in proportion to duration of sea level at a shoreline. At stillstands, the wave impact caused large shoreline recession and development of flats, whereas in transgression and regression, rapid sea-level change permitted only minor recession. Corresponding differences in cover facies are explained as functions of duration of breaking waves and seabed stability. Widespread post-terrace denudation is attributed to floods of upland provenance, local overland flow, and marine flooding. Riverine processes have produced channelization and a high degree of terrace preservation on the interfluves in the steeper, foundation-based northern windward region. This differs markedly from the more diffuse, shallow gullying and stripping of the limestone-covered shallow slopes of the southern region. An intensely stormy spell is suggested between stages 5e and 5c.

New records of crinoids from Trearne Quarry SSSI (Mississippian, Lower Carboniferous), north Ayrshire

The Mississippian succession of Ayrshire, SW Scotland, is rich in fossil crinoids, albeit mainly preserved as fragments. Trearne Quarry is exceptional in yielding moderately common crinoid cups and thecae from certain horizons. To the two nominal taxa that have been documented hitherto, we add a further seven, all cladids with one exception. These species all come from the Blackhall Limestone of the Lower Limestone Formation (Visean, Mississippian). Nominal crinoid species identified from Trearne Quarry include Cladida: Rhabdocrinus scotocarbonarius (Wright), Ureocrinus bockschii (Geinitz), Ureocrinus globulus (de Koninck), Tyrieocrinus laxus Wright, Fifeocrinus tielensis (Wright), Hydreionocrinus formosus Wright, Parazeacrinites konincki (Bather) and Phanocrinus ardrossensis (Wright); and Diplobathrida, Camerata: Cribanocrinus baccatus (Wright). Species have distributions limited to one or a few mudrock beds. Identifiable crinoids are uncommon in massive, coral-rich reefal facies.

Late Ordovician (Hirnantian) diploporitan fauna of Anticosti Island, Quebec, Canada: implications for evolutionary and biogeographic patterns

Hirnantian (latest Ordovician) localities containing echinoderm fossils are rare; the few that have been discovered primarily contain disarticulated crinoid ossicles. Therefore, relatively little is known about echinoderm evolutionary dynamics across the Late Ordovician – early Silurian boundary, especially noncrinoid echinoderms. New diploporitan echinoderms, Holocystites salmoensis and an unidentified holocystitid, from reefal facies of the Upper Ordovician Ellis Bay Formation of Anticosti Island provide a critical data point concerning diploporitan biogeography and evolutionary pathways undertaken during the Ordovician and Silurian. These fossils also provide a crucial link in understanding the ancestry of the Silurian Holocystites Fauna, an unusual diploporitan fauna from the middle Silurian of North America, whose origination dates back at least 15 million years earlier than previously thought with the discovery of taxa described here. New fossil data such as these stress the importance of uncovering new localities from underrepresented times and places in Earth’s history, so that these evolutionary transitions can be better understood.

Late Ordovician (Hirnantian) diploporitan fauna of Anticosti Island, Quebec, Canada: implications for evolutionary and biogeographic patterns

Hirnantian (latest Ordovician) localities containing echinoderm fossils are rare; the few that have been discovered primarily contain disarticulated crinoid ossicles. Therefore, relatively little is known about echinoderm evolutionary dynamics across the Late Ordovician – early Silurian boundary, especially noncrinoid echinoderms. New diploporitan echinoderms, Holocystites salmoensis and an unidentified holocystitid, from reefal facies of the Upper Ordovician Ellis Bay Formation of Anticosti Island provide a critical data point concerning diploporitan biogeography and evolutionary pathways undertaken during the Ordovician and Silurian. These fossils also provide a crucial link in understanding the ancestry of the Silurian Holocystites Fauna, an unusual diploporitan fauna from the middle Silurian of North America, whose origination dates back atleast 15 million years earlier than previously thought with the discovery of taxa described here. New fossil data such as these stress the importance of uncovering new localities from underrepresented times and places in Earth’s history, so that these evolutionary transitions can be better understood.

New insight of sedimentological and geochemical characterization of siliciclastic-carbonate deposits (Alveolina Limestone Formation, Graus-Tremp basin, Spain)

This article is a first attempt of combining sedimentological analysis and geochemical systematics of the Alveolina Limestone Formation as a tool to identify the major stratigraphic surfaces, and to improve the sequence stratigraphy interpretation. This formation is Early Eocene in age and crops out in several well-exposed cliffs in the Serraduy – Roda de Isabena area (Graus-Tremp basin, NE Spain). Within this succession, nineteen carbonate and siliciclastic facies have been identified and grouped in environmental facies associations (based on their vertical stacking and lateral relationships): 1) coastal plain; 2) clastic deltaic complex; 3) shallow carbonate inner-ramp; 4) mid-ramp; 5) outer-ramp; 6) reefal facies. The depositional architectures studied in the Serraduy area can be directly assessed on the field, and a 3D reconstruction is proposed. This enables us to build a synthetic depositional model and to identify five small-scale T/R cycles, bounded by different kinds of sedimentary discontinuities : angular unconformity, firmground, erosional surface… In parallel, geochemical analyses (C and O isotopes, major, minor and trace elements) were carried out to help at hierarchizing the cycles and the boundaries previously identified. Four of them may be considered as major stratigraphic surfaces, corresponding either to regional-scale angular unconformities, or to exposure surfaces. The latter are characterized by a selective dissolution, a slight but sharp decrease in δ13CV-PDB and in Mg, Fe and Sr contents below the surface. The absence of typical sedimentary criteria of exposure (with the exception of these geochemical signatures) may be explained by short-term exposure, an arid to semi-arid climate, and a dominant low-magnesian calcite original mineralogy, precluding the development and the preservation of widespread vadose diagenetic products. A new sequence stratigraphy model for the Alveolina Limestone Fm is finally proposed and discussed.

Microbial–metazoan reefs of the terminal Proterozoic Nama Group (c. 550–543 Ma), Namibia

Thrombolite and stromatolite reefs occur at several stratigraphic levels within the terminal Proterozoic Nama Group (c. 550–543 Ma) of central and southern Namibia. The reefs form integral parts of several carbonate platforms within the Nama Group, including the Kuibis platform of the northern Nama Basin (Zaris subbasin), and Huns platform (Witputs subbasin) of the southern Nama Basin. The reefs are composed of both thrombolites and stromatolites that form laterally continuous biostromes, isolated patch reefs, and isolated pinnacle reefs ranging in scale from a metre to several kilometres in width. In the majority of cases, the reefs occur stratigraphically as an integral facies within the transgressive systems tracts of sequences making up the Kuibis and Huns platforms. This suggests that a regime of increasing accommodation was required to form well-developed reefs, though reefs also occur sporadically in highstand systems tract settings. Within a given transgressive systems tract, a regime of increasing accommodation through time favours the transition from sheet-like biostromal geometries to more isolated patch and pinnacle biohermal geometries. Similarly, increasing accommodation in space, such as a transect down depositional dip, shows a similar transition from more sheet-like geometries in updip positions to more isolated geometries in downdip positions. Reefal facies consist of thrombolitic domes, columns and mounds with well-developed internal clotted textures, in addition to stromatolitic domes, columns and mounds, with crudely to moderately well-developed internal lamination. Stromatolites are better developed in conditions of relatively low accommodation, and updip locations, under conditions of higher current velocities and greater sediment influx. Thrombolites are better developed in conditions of relatively high accommodation and low sediment influx. Both types of microbialites are intimately associated with the first calcifying metazoan organisms, which may have attached themselves to the sediment surface or otherwise lived within sheltered depressions within the rough topography created by ecologically complex mats. The appearance of thrombolitic textures during terminal Proterozoic time is consistent with colonization of cyanobacterial mats by higher algae and metazoans, which would have been an important process in generating clotted textures. Fabrics in the Nama thrombolites are well preserved and show evidence of thrombolitic mesoclots being overgrown by fibrous marine carbonate, interpreted as former aragonite. This was followed by emplacement of geopetal micrite fills, and precipitation of dolomite as an isopachous rim cement, followed by occlusion of remaining porosity by blocky calcite spar.

Facies interpretation of Middle Carboniferous to Lower Permian Pope succession limestone of Cache Creek Group, Fort St. James, central British Columbia

Lithostratigraphy and microfacies of the Bashkirian to Asselian Pope succession limestone of the Cache Creek Group near Fort St. James, central British Columbia, were lithologically grouped into five facies associations A to E. On the basis of fusulines and conodonts, facies associations A to D and the lower part of facies association E are time-equivalent, ranging from the lower Bashkirian to lower Kasimovian, and the upper part of facies association E is dated as upper Gzhelian to Asselian. The Pope succession limestone is interpreted to have been built on a basaltic basement of an oceanic plateau or seamount in an open-ocean realm. The limestone is devoid of terrigenous grains, is associated with basaltic rocks, and laterally grades into deeper-water spicular cherts. Microfacies analysis of facies associations A to E showed that they exhibit characteristic facies of (A) deep-water basinal setting, (B) marginal basin to lower slope, (C) shallow-subtidal bank margin, (D) peritidal algal mound on the bank margin, and (E) shallow-subtidal bank margin to intertidal lagoonal flat,. Moscovian to Asselian rocks of facies associations C, D, and E record an upward increase of low-relief encrusting calci-microbes as rock-builders. This tendency is closely correlated with that in limestone buildups mapped from the Panthalassan Ocean. The abundance of phylloid algal plates and the reefal facies of the Moscovian rocks of facies association D are the same as the reef-building phylloid algae of the Bashkirian to Sakmarian limestone of both the Tethyan and Panthalassan oceans. The Pope succession limestone has many similarities in tectonic, stratigraphic, sedimentologic, and paleontologic aspects to the Akiyoshi buildup, a representative Panthalassan buildup in a Permian subduction-related accretionary complex in Japan. The timing of the increasing importance of the calci-microbes and phylloid algae in the Pope and Akiyoshi buildups is also correlatable.