Award Date

1-1-1997

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Geoscience

Number of Pages

324

Abstract

The stratigraphy and depositional systems revealed within the Lower to Middle Cambrian Tapeats Sandstone-Pioche Shale-Lyndon Limestone-Chisholm Shale succession were studied between the easternmost limit of Cretaceous overthrusting in southern Nevada and the western edge of the Colorado Plateau in northwestern Arizona. Nine intergradational lithofacies were distinguished based on a rich suite of sedimentary structures, including lenticular-, wavy-, and flaser-bedding, wrinkle marks, herringbone cross-stratification, convolute bedding, primary current lineations, interference ripple marks, bird's eye structures, thrombolites, intraformational conglomerates, oncoids, cryptalgal laminites, and Arenicoloides, Corophioides, and Skolithos ichnofossils. The collective presence of these structures indicates that Lower and Middle Cambrian rocks in the study area were deposited in shallow-subtidal to supratidal settings; The proposed depositional model incorporates an east-west oriented Cambrian shoreline and asserts that the Lower and Middle Cambrian sequence represents a series of sedimentological responses to fluctuating rates of relative sea-level rise.

Keywords

Arizona; Cambrian; Depositional; Environment; Lake; Lake Mead; Lower; Mead; Middle; Nevada; Northwestern; Region; Southern; Strata; Stratigraphy

Controlled Subject

Geology

File Format

pdf

File Size

12902.4 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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