Late Devonian and Early Mississippian Distal Basin-Margin Sedimentation of Northern Ohio1

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Late Devonian and Early Mississippian Distal Basin-Margin Sedimentation of Northern Ohio1 Late Devonian and Early Mississippian Distal Basin-Margin Sedimentation of Northern Ohio1 THOMAS L. LEWIS, Department of Geological Sciences, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH 44115 ABSTRACT. Clastic sediments, derived from southeastern, eastern and northeastern sources, prograded west- ward into a shallow basin at the northwestern margin of the Appalachian Basin in Late Devonian and Early Mississippian time. The western and northwestern boundary of the basin was the submerged Cincinnati Arch. The marine clastic wedges provided a northwest paleoslope and a distal, gentle shelf-edge margin that controlled directional emplacement of coarse elastics. Rising sea levels coupled with differences in sedimen- tation rates and localized soft-sediment deformation within the basin help explain some features of the Bedford and Berea Formations. The presence of sand-filled mudcracks and flat-topped symmetrical ripple marks in the Berea Formation attest to very shallow water deposition and local subaerial exposure at the time of emplacement of part of the formation. Absence of thick, channel-form deposits eastward suggests loss of section during emergence. OHIO J. SCI. 88 (1): 23-39, 1988 INTRODUCTION The Bedford Formation (Newberry 1870) is the most The Ohio Shale, Bedford, and Berea Formations of lithologically varied formation of the group. It is com- northern Ohio are clastic units which record prograda- prised of gray and red mudshales, siltstone, and very tional and transgressional events during Late Devonian fine-grained sandstone. The Bedford Formation thins and Early Mississippian time. The sequence of sediments both to the east and west and reaches its maximum is characterized by (1) gray mudshale, clayshale, siltstone, thickness in the Cleveland area. (2) gray-black mudshale, siltstone, (3) black mudshale, The Berea Formation (Newberry 1870) is a fine- to (4) gray mudshale, siltstone, very fine-grained sandstone, medium-grained lithic sandstone. In the Cleveland re- (5) red mudshale, (6) channel-form and blanket sand- gion, the upper part has a blanket geometry; the lower stone, and (7) gray, black mudshale. In this field trip part has thick, channel-form features of controversial ori- preface I want to present an overview of the regional gin. A thin blanket sand underlies channel-form units in (northern Ohio) variation in these sediment character- outcrops west of Cleveland. istics based on previous studies and on my field obser- The Sunbury Shale Member of the Cuyahoga For- vations, display paleocurrent information (much of which mation is a thin, black shale unit of variable thickness has not been previously published) about the coarse clas- that lies conformably on the Berea Formation. tic sequences, and present paleoenvironmental inter- pretations about the record. LITHOFACIES DESCRIPTION AND STRATIGRAPHY PALEOENVIRONMENTAL INTERPRETATION The stratigraphy consists of portions of four for- Six major lithofacies of the Upper Devonian and Lower mations. They are, in ascending order, the Chagrin and Mississippian stratigraphic section are recognized in the Cleveland Members of the Ohio Shale Formation, the Cleveland vicinity (Fig. 2). Regional position of the Bedford Formation, the Berea Sandstone and the Sunbury stratigraphic units representing these facies is indicated Shale Member of the Cuyahoga Formation (Fig. 1). The in Figure 3- position of the systemic boundary between the Devonian GRAY MUDSHALE-CLAYSHALE AND SILTSTONE and Mississippian is controversial. Pepper et al. (1954) LITHOFACIES. Light to medium-gray clayshale and and DeWitt (1970) placed it at the base of the Bedford mudshale with intercalated laminated and bedded silt- Formation. Eames (1974) placed it at the top of the Berea stones comprise the lowest stratigraphic lithofacies ex- Formation, and Conkin et al. (1980) placed it on top of posed in the Cleveland region. This represents the Cha- the Bedford Formation. grin Shale. Thin bluish gray, dark gray to black bands The Chagrin Shale Member of the Ohio Shale For- and marcasite and clay ironstone concretions also are mation, named by Prosser (1903), is a wedge-shaped present (Nelson 1955). Fossils include mainly inarticu- body of gray mudshale, clayshale, siltstone, and fine- late and articulate brachiopods and trace fossils, occa- grained sandstone that lies between the Huron and Cleve- sional bivalves, gastropods, nautiloids and echinocarid land (black shale) Members of the Ohio Shale Formation. remains and traces, rare bryozoans, echinoderms, The wedge thickens eastward to western Pennsylvania sponges, and fish remains (Coogan et al. 1986). Siltstones where it becomes the Riceville Shale. It thins westward thicken and concentrate (up to 25% of section) eastward and pinches out near the Huron River. The overlying where they are generally massive, bioturbated, vertically Cleveland Shale, named by Newberry (1870), thins both burrowed and occasionally show slight hummocky cross- to the east and west from maximum thickness west of bedding near the tops. Siltstones thin westward in the Cleveland. Cleveland region where they comprise < 10% of the sec- tion and occur as both continuous units and very thin "Manuscript received 15 September 1987 and in revised form 6 (0.5-1.0 cm) structureless lensoid pods along with dis- January 1988 (87-39). coidal siderite concretions. Some sandy siltstones with 24 T. L. LEWIS Vol. 88 Potter et al. (1979, 1980), envisioned deep waters mar- AGE ROCK UNIT SEC ginal to black shales where coalescing submarine fans . accumulated along and at the base of a paleoslope. How- Meadville Member ever, residual hummocky cross-bedding that survived FM active bioturbation suggests storm activation and depo- A Strongsville Member sition above storm wave base. Hannibal and Feldmann (1983) evoked storm events for some siltstones that con- Sharpsville Member tained escape traces of echinocarid arthropods. N GRAY-BLACK MUDSHALE AND SILTSTONE Orangeville Member LlTHOFACIES. This lithofacies is distinguished by thin CUYAHOG Sunbury Submem. laminae and thin beds of gray siltstone intercalated with gray and black mudshale laminae and beds. Regionally, the facies represents the lower part (informal Olmsted Shale) of the Cleveland Shale. It pinches out eastward Berea Formation between the Gray Mudshale-Clayshale and Siltstone lithofacies and overlying black mudshales, and westward between black mudshales near the Huron River (Fig. 3). The facies is thickest in the western Cleveland area where the frequency of siltstone laminae and beds reaches MISSISSIPPIA a maximum. Siltstones may show graded bedding with Bedford Formation various combinations of Bouma turbidite horizons (Broadhead et al. 1982), rare flutes and prods, frequent Sagamore Siltstone Member grooves and swaley cross-stratification, trace fossils, and Euclid Siltstone locally bioturbated tops and bottoms. Multitudinous Member alternating silt and black organic laminations occur. The facies represents a siltstone turbidite and mud fill N in a distal shallow basin. Directional data (Fig. 4) sug- gest sediment input off (northwestward), subparallel (westward), and parallel (southwestward) to a northwest Cleveland Member paleoslope, as the silt sediments followed the longi- N tudinal axis of the basin suggested by the lineation of the Cleveland Shale isopachs in Figure 5. Mausser (1982) FORMATIO suggested that the turbidite sequence was derived from a E river directed from the northeast, with these sediments bypassing the main Chagrin (Gray Mudshale-Clayshale and Siltstone lithofacies) to the east. Moreover, such by- SHAL passing also allowed some time for reworking with little DEVONIA O Chagrin Member deposition to concentrate the pyrite zone traced on top of part of the Chagrin. Active storms on the shallow shelf OHI margin, however, may have initiated the sediment in- fluxes that behaved as turbidites off and parallel to the paleoslope. Storm activity could also have developed a fossil lag deposit as well. Distally, the basin was slightly FIGURE 1. Generalized stratigraphic column for Upper Devonian deeper but still shallow, as attested by active biotur- and Lower Mississippian rocks in the Cleveland area. Portions of the section described are bracketed. bation, occasional inclined burrows and, as noted by Mausser (1982), some truncated internal stratification load and groove casts, articulate brachiopods, plant re- that developed because of storm effects. Extensive mains, burrows, swaley cross-stratification, and symmet- swaley cross-stratification (which also causes truncation) rical ripple occur in one area along the Cuyahoga Valley in the siltstones, however, suggests deposition by fairly and in outcrops between the Grand River and Ashtabula, unidirectional basin currents. This, along with the ab- Ohio. These units record paleocurrents to the northwest sence of symmetrical ripples, may indicate deposition and west (Fig. 4). A thin fossiliferous pyrite layer on top below storm wave base. of part of the facies occurs in outcrops around the plateau BLACK MUDSHALE LITHOFACIES. This facies occurs margin between the Cuyahoga and Chagrin River Valleys at several stratigraphic horizons in the Cleveland area and (Hlavin 1978, Mausser 1982). is represented by the upper units of the Cleveland Shale The facies likely represents a shallow prograding shelf and by the Sunbury Shale. The Cleveland Shale is the (Mausser 1982). An eastward increase of sandy shales more conspicuous and extensive unit of the area. Isopach with increased frequency
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