TexasScholarWorks
    • Login
    • Submit
    View Item 
    •   Repository Home
    • UT Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    • UT Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    • Repository Home
    • UT Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    • UT Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Lithofacies, depositional environments, and sequence stratigraphy of the Pennsylvanian (Morrowan-Atokan) Marble Falls Formation, Central Texas

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    WOOD-THESIS-2013.pdf (16.47Mb)
    Date
    2013-08
    Author
    Wood, Stephanie Grace
    Share
     Facebook
     Twitter
     LinkedIn
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    The Pennsylvanian Marble Falls Formation in the Llano Uplift region of the southern Fort Worth Basin (Central Texas) is a Morrowan-Atokan mixed carbonate-siliciclastic unit whose deposition was influenced by icehouse glacioeustatic sea-level fluctuations and foreland basin tectonics. Previous interpretations of the Marble Falls Formation focused on outcrop data at the fringes of the Llano Uplift. This study uses a series of 21 cores to create a facies architectural model, depositional environmental interpretation, and regional sequence stratigraphic framework. On the basis of core data, the study area is interpreted to have been deposited in a ramp setting with a shallower water upper ramp area to the south and a deeper water basin setting to the north. Analysis of cores and thin sections identified 14 inner ramp to basin facies. Dominant facies are: (1) burrowed sponge spicule packstone, (2) algal grain-dominated packstone to grainstone, (3) skeletal foraminiferal wackestone, and (4) argillaceous mudstone to clay shale. Facies stacking patterns were correlated and combined with chemostratigraphic data to improve interpretations of the unit’s depositional history and form an integrated regional model. The Marble Falls section was deposited during Pennsylvanian icehouse times in a part of the Fort Worth Basin with active horst and graben structures developing in response to the Ouachita Orogeny. The resulting depositional cycles reflect high-frequency sea-level fluctuations and are divided into 3 sequences. Sequence 1 represents aggradational ramp deposition truncated by a major glacioeustatic sea-level fall near the Morrowan-Atokan boundary (SB1). This fall shifted accommodation basinward and previously distal areas were sites of carbonate HST in Sequence 2 deposition following a short TST phase. Sequence 3 represents the final phase of carbonate accumulation that was diachronously drowned by Smithwick siliciclastics enhanced by horst and graben faulting. These findings contribute to our understanding of the depositional response to glacioeustatic sea-level changes during the Pennsylvanian and can also form the basis for constructing a sedimentological and facies analog for Morrowan to Atokan shallow- to deepwater carbonates in the Permian Basin and the northern Fort Worth Basin.
    Department
    Geological Sciences
    Description
    text
    Subject
    Pennsylvanian
    Morrowan
    Atokan
    Mixed carbonate-siliciclastics
    Marble Falls
    Carbonate ramp
    Icehouse glacioeustasy
    Central Texas
    Llano Uplift
    Algal mounds
    Sponge spicule
    Sequence stratigraphy
    Depositional environment
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/2152/21902
    Collections
    • UT Electronic Theses and Dissertations

    University of Texas at Austin Libraries
    • facebook
    • twitter
    • instagram
    • youtube
    • CONTACT US
    • MAPS & DIRECTIONS
    • JOB OPPORTUNITIES
    • UT Austin Home
    • Emergency Information
    • Site Policies
    • Web Accessibility Policy
    • Web Privacy Policy
    • Adobe Reader
    Subscribe to our NewsletterGive to the Libraries

    © The University of Texas at Austin

     

     

    Browse

    Entire RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsDate IssuedAuthorsTitlesSubjectsDepartmentsThis CollectionDate IssuedAuthorsTitlesSubjectsDepartments

    My Account

    Login

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    Information

    About Contact Policies Getting Started Glossary Help FAQs

    University of Texas at Austin Libraries
    • facebook
    • twitter
    • instagram
    • youtube
    • CONTACT US
    • MAPS & DIRECTIONS
    • JOB OPPORTUNITIES
    • UT Austin Home
    • Emergency Information
    • Site Policies
    • Web Accessibility Policy
    • Web Privacy Policy
    • Adobe Reader
    Subscribe to our NewsletterGive to the Libraries

    © The University of Texas at Austin