Bourgeois 1980 Trans
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TransactionNumber: 172487 1111111111111111111111111111111111111111 Call #: QE420 .JG per Location: Article Information Journal Title: Journal of Sedimentary Petrology Volume: 50 Issue: 3 S Month/Year: 1980Pages: 681-702 n ~ Article Author: ~ ~ Article Title: A transgressive shelf sequence exhibiting hummocky stratification; The Cape Q) Sebastian Sandstone (Upper Cretaceous), southwestern Oregon ;:j O" Q) Loan Information ~ Loan Title: Loan Author: Publisher: Place: Date: Imprint: Customer Information A TRANSGRESSIVE SHELF SEQUENCE EXHIBITING HUMMOCKY STRATIFICATION: THE CAPE SEBASTIAN SANDSTONE (UPPER CRETACEOUS), SOUTHWESTERN OREGON 1 JOANNE BOURGEOIS Department of Geology and Geophy sics University of Wisconsin, Madison , Wisconsin 53706 ABSTRA CT: In the tectonically active Circum-Pacific Belt, thick transgressive sequences are not uncom mon, in contrast with their rarity in the Cretaceous of the Western Interior. Thick transgressive sediment packages reflect rapid sedimentation rates but even more rapid rates of relative sea-level rise . A well-exposed example is the Cape Sebastian Sandstone, a 200-m thick , fining-upward sequence representing foreshore to offshore deposition. Progressively increasing depth of deposition is indicated by both physical and biogenic sedimentary structures in the Cape Sebastian Sandstone. Four facies make up the Cape Sebastian Sandstone. The lowest unit is a basal, shelly, boulder conglomerate overlain by trough cross-bedded pebbly sandstone, plane-laminated coarse sandstone, and crudely graded conglomerates. A single type of subvertical trace fo ssil is locally abundant. These sediments represent beach to nearshore deposition. The middle and thickest part of the formation comprises hummocky-bedded sandstone, divided into a lower hummocky-bedded facies and an upper hummocky-bedded and burrowed facies. Grain size, frequency of pebble lenses, and thickness of hummocky laminae all decrease upward through this part of the sequence. Conversely, burrowed zones, diversity of burrows, plane-laminated zones, plant debris, and symmetrical-ripple preservation increase upward. These sediments record storm inf1uenced, inner-shelf sedimentation. The uppermost part of the formation consists of alternating laminated, very fine sandstone and progressively thicker, burrowed sandy siltstone. Increased trace-fossil size and number and abundant plant debris characterize these sediments, which represent outer-shelf deposition. Modern examples of the structures described above have been observed on the Oregon and California shelves, supporting the hypothesis that the Cape Sebastian Sandstone represents a transgressive shelf sequence. The same structures have also been described in progradational (" regressive") sequences in the Cretaceous of the Western Interior, where thick transgressive sequences are rare or absent. Evidence for Late Cretaceous faulting in southwestern Oregon supports the proposition that thick transgressive sequences may be deposited in tectonically active regions. INTRODUCTION Harms and others, 1975; Ryer, 1977). This In western North America, the combina model appears to be widely applicable, but tion of tectonics, high rates of sediment examination of Cretaceous sedimentary supply, and sea-level changes during Creta rocks on the west coast of North America ceous time produced abundant paralic sedi (the Cretaceous of the Western Exterior) mentary sequences. Numerous studies of the indicates that whereas the same facies are Cretaceous of the Western Interior have led present as in the Interior, their thickness and to the establishment of a "model" prograda tional, or regressive 2 shelf sequence (e.g., (usually accompanied by geographic shifts of the shore line). The term progradation is usually employed to describe a seaward shift in shoreline location caused 1 Manuscript received January 11 , 1980; revised by deposition (a " depositional regression"), producing February 11 , 1980. a vertical sedimentary sequence of shallowing-upward 2 In my review of the literature and in communication facies (progradational sequence). The term retrograda with reviewers and others, I have found no standard tion, however, cannot refer to a "depositional trans usage of the terms regression/ transgression and pro gression," which is nonsensical; retrogradation is a gradation / retrogradation; the A. G. I. Glossary of landward retreat of the shoreline, caused by erosion. Geology is surprisingly terse and not in agreement with Hence I use the term transgressive sequence to describe many working geologists. In this paper I use the terms a vertical sedimentary sequence of deepening-upward transgression and regression to refer to sea-level changes facies. JO URNAL OF SEDIMENTARY PETROLOGY, VoL. 50, No. 3, SEPTEMB ER, 1980, P. 0681 - 0702. Copyright © 1980, The Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists 0022-4472 / 80 / 0050- 0681 / $03.00 .- -· 682 JOANNE BOURGEOIS vertical sequence differ significantly. coarse conglomerate overlying (?) Campa The Cape Sebastian Sandstone is a 200-m nian submarine-fan-channel sediments (Bour thick, fining-upward shelf sequence. Out geois, in prep.). At localities slightly inland, crops are limited (Fig. l), but well-exposed the Cape Sebastian Sandstone overlies the sea cliffs on Cape Sebastian, southwestern (?) Upper Jurassic Otter Point Formation, Oregon, permit a detailed study of sedimen a melange complex. The upper contact is tary structures (Fig. 2) . Studies of nearshore believed to be gradational with the lower and shelf sedimentation in Oregon (Clifton Maestrichtian Hunters Cove Formation (J . and others, l 97 l; Komar and others, l 972; K . Howard, 1961; Dott, 1971), which is a Kulm and others, 1975; Hunter and others, submarine slope to fan deposit, but the con 1979), Washington (Creager and Sternberg, tact is obscured by minor faults and poor 1972; Smith and Hopkins, 1972), and Califor exposure. nia (Drake and others, 1972), and of animal Coastal exposures of the Cape Sebastian sediment relationships off Oregon and Cali Sandstone are nearly continuous, but there fornia (Carey, 1972; Howard and Reineck, are small-scale faults in repetitious parts of 1979) provide modern data to compare with the section. The total thickness shown in the Cape Sebastian Sandstone. the composite section, therefore, is approxi This study is part of a broader investigation mate (see Fig. 2). of the sedimentology and tectonics of Upper Cretaceous rocks in southwestern Oregon LITHOLOGY AND SEDIMENTARY STRUCTURES (Bourgeois, in prep.). University of Wiscon Figure 2 shows the generalized strati sin students and staff have worked in this graphic sequence of the Cape Sebastian Sand area since 1959 (summarized in Dott, 1971). stone. Based on lithology and on physical In particular, J. K . Howard (1961) mapped and biogenic sedimentary structures, the the Upper Cretaceous rocks of coastal formation can be divided roughly into four southwestern Oregon (Fig. I). Stratigraphic facies. The cong/omeratic f acies comprises and sedimentologic investigations of these a basal conglomerate overlain by trough rocks have also been carried out by workers cross-bedded, plane-bedded, and pebbly from the U .S. Geological Survey (Hunter coarse sandstone. The lower hummocky-bed and others, 1970; Phillips and Clifton, 1974; ded f acies consists exclusively of hum Hunter and Clifton, in prep.). mocky-bedded sandstone with scattered The Cape Sebastian Sandstone is rich in pebble lenses that decrease upward. The K-feldspar (10- 15 %) and relatively poor in upper hummocky-bedded and burrowed volcanic material, like the uppermost Creta f acies comprises alternating hummocky-bed ceous rocks of the Coastal Belt Franciscan ded fine sandstone and burrowed sandy silt (Bailey et al., 1964) and unlike most other stones; other features such as symmetrical Mesozoic sandstones on the Pacific coast. ripples and plant-debris-rich layers appear Detailed petrography and tectonics will be in this facies. The uppermost parallel-lami presented in another paper. nated and burrowed sand- and siltstonefacies AG E AND STRATIGRAPHY consists of zones of very low-angle, hum mocky-bedded to horizontally laminated, The Cape Sebastian Sandstone was named very fine sandstone alternating with bur by Dott ( 1971 ). It is probably late Campanian rowed sandy siltstone, which increases up (mid Campanian to early Maestrichtian) in ward in thickness. age, based primarily on an Inoceramus fauna These four facies are interpreted as repre and other bivalves (Popenoe and others, senting a progression from foreshore to 1960; Dott, 1971 ; L. E. Saul, written comm.). outer-shelf sedimentation. Terminology used Fossils are not common in the Cape Sebastian to describe dynamic zones of the beach to Sandstone and occur as molds except in the outer shelf are illustrated in Figure 3. basal conglomeratic facies. Paucity of shell material may be the result of post-deposi tional leaching. Cong/omeratic Facies On Cape Sebastian and at other coastal The lowermost Cape Sebastian is a basal localities (Fig. l), the lower contact is a conglomerate, in places containing rounded HUMMOCKY-BEDDED SHELF SEQUENCE, SW OREGON 683 :. ; . Jo HU NTERS COVE B F O RMATION SAL AL CAPE S EBASTIAN lE£] FORMATION " LOWER SEQUENCE" HUNTERS OTTER POI NT COMPLEX FAULT S "l> () ------- THRUST FAULT • • • • • CONTACTS () Jo 0 () l"T\ l> z OREGON Joo INDEX MAP CRO OK POINT;~ Kh Kh o:i"' Jo MA CK POINT 0 ' ~ ' BURNT HILL MACK ARCH 01' 0 2 ~ KM ' HOUS TENA