James Nail 2010 Biofacies Analysis of Late Mississippian Ostracodes And
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Template Created By: James Nail 2010 Biofacies analysis of late Mississippian ostracodes and their use as paleoenvironmental indicators in the Bluefield Formation, Mercer County, West Virginia By Benjamin T. Stencil A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Mississippi State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Science In Geosciences In the Department of Geosciences Mississippi State, Mississippi August 2012 Template Created By: James Nail 2010 Copyright 2012 By Benjamin T. Stencil Template Created By: James Nail 2010 Biofacies analysis of late Mississippian ostracodes and their use as paleoenvironmental indicators in the Bluefield Formation, Mercer County, West Virginia By Benjamin T. Stencil Approved: _________________________________ _________________________________ Christopher Dewey Darrel Schmitz Associate Professor of Geology Professor of Geology (Major Advisor) Department Head of Geosciences (Committee Member) _________________________________ _________________________________ Brenda L. Kirkland John Rodgers Assistant Professor of Geology Associate Professor of (Committee Member) Physical Geography (Committee Member) _________________________________ _________________________________ Mike Brown Gary L. Myers Associate Professor of Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences Meteorology and Climatology (Graduate Coordinator) Template Created By: James Nail 2010 Name: Benjamin T. Stencil Date of Degree: August 11, 2012 Institution: Mississippi State University Major Field: Geosciences Major Professor: Dr. Christopher Dewey Title of Study: Biofacies analysis of late Mississippian ostracodes and their use as paleoenvironmental indicators in the Bluefield Formation, Mercer County, West Virginia Pages in Study: 155 Candidate for Degree of Master of Science The Bluefield Formation (Chesterian, Upper Mississippian) of the Appalachian Basin is a lithologically variable unit, composed of mudstones lithofacies with subordinate amounts of sandstone and limestone. By analyzing sedimentology and the prominence of ostracodes, an ostracode biofacies model was generated that provides a large-scale paleoenvironmental framework for the Bluefield Formation. Three ostracode assemblages were defined in an effort to identify environmental conditions during deposition of the Bluefield: Assemblage I - Polytylites Assemblage; Assemblage II - Sansabella Assemblage; and Assemblage III - Whipplella Assemblage. The assemblage distributions indicate that nearshore transitional marine environments were common and normal open marine conditions were very rare. The variable units and upward-shallowing sequences in the Bluefield reflect changes in the influx of freshwater that caused salinity fluctuations. Within the depositional environments of the Bluefield Formation, salinity was the most important controlling factor in the ostracode distribution. DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this thesis to those who have been there to help me through the dark times, who have been there to enjoy the happy times, and to those who weren’t actually here at all but were rooting for me from afar. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to start off by thanking my parents who have been the most supportive people over the past two years. I know at first they never wanted me to come down here, but it was time for me to detach from what was comfortable for me and try something new and even though it took them while to come around to the idea, I know they have had my back since day 1. I would like to also give a big thanks to Dr. Chris Dewey for inviting me down here to work with him. I may have appeared a bit lost at first, but with his guidance and support I was able to complete my thesis, a task I thought would never be complete. I would also like to say thank you to Dr. Robert Peck who was our connection in West Virginia. Without his support and knowledge of the area this project would have been near impossible to complete in the amount of time we had. Finally I would like to thank all of my friends in the basement of Hilbun Hall, without all of you I would have gone crazy, thank you all for the good times and the distraction from the work I needed to get done. Thank you all. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION.................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................... iii LIST OF TABLES............................................................................................................. vi LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... vii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................1 II. BACKGROUND ...............................................................................................4 Regional Geology ..............................................................................................4 Geologic Setting of the Bluefield Formation .....................................................8 Bluefield Formation Sedimentation .................................................................12 Sediment Packages ...........................................................................................18 Bluefield Formation Stratigraphy ....................................................................29 Greenbrier Group .......................................................................................30 Bluefield Formation ...................................................................................31 Lillydale Shale .....................................................................................31 Glenray Limestone ...............................................................................31 Webster Springs Sandstone..................................................................32 Bickett Shale ........................................................................................32 Reynolds Limestone .............................................................................32 Ada Shale.............................................................................................32 Talcott Shale ........................................................................................33 Droop Sandstone..................................................................................33 Possumtrot Shale ..................................................................................33 Raines Corner Member ........................................................................33 Indian Mills Member ...........................................................................34 Bradshaw Member ...............................................................................34 Bertha Member ....................................................................................35 Graham Member ..................................................................................35 Clayton Member ..................................................................................35 iv Coney Member.....................................................................................36 Hinton Formation .......................................................................................36 Outcrop Locations............................................................................................36 Lithofacies of the Bluefield Formation ............................................................39 Fossiliferous Limestone Lithofacies ..........................................................40 Tan-Gray Shale Lithofacies .......................................................................41 Sandstone Lithofacies ................................................................................43 Correlative Units ..............................................................................................45 Previous Ostracode Studies..............................................................................48 III. METHODS ......................................................................................................52 Field Methods ..................................................................................................52 Fossil Extraction ..............................................................................................53 Laboratory Methods .........................................................................................55 IV. OSTRACODE BIOFACIES............................................................................58 Ostracode Paleoecology ...................................................................................60 Ostracode Assemblages in the Bluefield Formation ........................................62 Assemblage I - Polytylites .........................................................................63 Assemblage II – Sansabella .......................................................................64 Assemblage III – Whipplella .....................................................................65 Other Groups of Ostracodes.......................................................................65 Discussion........................................................................................................66 Factors Controlling Ostracode Distribution.....................................................69 Summary ..........................................................................................................72