Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/books/book/chapter-pdf/3799472/9781565762299_frontmatter.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 Stratigraphy and Paleoenvironments of the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway, USA Edited by: Walter E. Dean, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado And Michael A. Arthur, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania On the front cover: (lower, background figure) Northeast face of the Kaiparowits Plateau, south-central Utah. Cliffs are formed by the Coniacian/Santonian Straight Cliffs Formation. Gray shale at the base of the cliffs is the Cenomanian/Turonian Tropic Shale; (Middle, left) Bedding cycles in the Bridge Creek Limestone Member of the Cenomanian/Turonian Greenhorn Formation, Pueblo, Colorado; (Middle, right) Map of major basins and uplifts in Colorado and adjacent states. On the back cover: Photograph of bioturbated limestone in the Fort Hays Limestone Member of the Niobrara Formation in the Amoco Bounds core showing large Chondrites burrows at the base and large Teichichnus burrows at the top. Copyright 1998 by SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology) Robert W. Dalrymple, Editor of Special Publications SEPM Concepts in Sedimentology and Paleontology No. 6 Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA March 1998 Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/books/book/chapter-pdf/3799472/9781565762299_frontmatter.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 SEPM thanks the following for their generous contributions to Stratigraphy and Paleoenvironments of the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway, USA Walter E. Dean U.S. Geological Survey Robert W. Scott Precision Stratigraphy Associates Cleveland, Oklahoma Paul C. Franks, Geologist Tulsa, Oklahoma ISBN 1-56576-044-1 0 1998 by SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology) 1731 E. 71st Street Tulsa, OK 7413-5108 1-800-865-9765 Printed in the United States Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/books/book/chapter-pdf/3799472/9781565762299_frontmatter.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 iii PREFACE This volume presents the results of a coordinated, multidisciplinary study of Cretaceous carbonate and elastic rocks in cores collected along a transect across the old Cretaceous seaway that extended from the Gulf Coast to the Arctic by a team of academic, industry, and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists. Our overall goal was to construct a subsurface transect of mid-Cretaceous strata that were deposited in the U.S. Western Interior Seaway (WIS), ranging from pelagic, organic-carbon rich, marine hydro-carbon source rocks in Kansas and eastern Colorado to nearshore, coal-bearing units in western Colorado and Utah. This transect of cores has provided the basis for paleoenvironmental interpretation of organic-carbon burial in an epicontinental, foreland basin setting. In part, the objectives of our study were motivated by the research emphases outlined by the Cretaceous Resources, Events and Rhythms (CRER) Project of the Global Sedimentary Geology Program. In particular, the papers in this volume focus on the Graneros Shale, Greenhorn Formation, Carlile Shale, and Niobrara Formation and equivalents in cores from six drillholes from western Kansas, southeastern Colorado, and eastern Utah. This series of cores provides unweathered samples and continuous, smooth exposures required for geochemical studies, mineralogical investigations, and biostratigraphic studies. Major objectives of the project covered in the collected papers include: (1) establishing the precise timing of sea level change, rates of subsidence, and facies change; (2) determining of controls on the accumulation, burial, and diagenesis of organic matter; (3) calibrating of depositional cycles using high-resolution stratigraphy; and (4) determining the paleogeography, paleoclimatology, and paleoceanography of the Western Interior Seaway and immediately adjacent landmasses. We gratefiilly acknowledge the many sources of funding and materials that supported these studies. Much of the research was fiinded by the Continental Scientific Drilling Program through the USGS and by the Department of Energy (DOE) through a grant to Penn State (DE-FG02-92ER14251). A core from an Amoco drillhole from western Kansas was released to the USGS in 1992, and description and analysis of this core plus that of a previously acquired well (Schock-Errington #1) in northwestern Kansas constitute the data base for the eastern end of the transect. Three holes that form the western end of the transect, funded by USGS energy programs, were drilled and continuously cored in June 1991 in the Kaiparowits basin near Escalante, Utah. In June 1992, a 700-foot hole, fiuided by DOE, was drilled and continuously cored near Portland, Colorado, east of the Florence oil field. This sequence, deposited in relatively deep water on the west side of the WIS, includes cycles of terrigenous-clastic and pelagic- marine sediments to contrast with the pelagic-carbonate-dominated cycles of Kansas and the clastic- dominated cycles of western Colorado and Utah. A second, 800-foot hole, also funded by DOE, was drilled in July 1992 about 10 miles southwest of the Portland hole in Pierre Shale, which serves as the reservoir for hydrocarbons in the Florence field. Formal descriptions of the cores are available in a computer data base published as USGS Open-File Reports. All tabulated data from the project are available through the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC). We sincerely thank the many reviewers of individual papers in the volume for their concentrated efforts to maintain high tecimical standards and Peter Sholle for encouraging us to publish this volume through SEPM, the Society for Sedimentary Geology. Most of the data presented in the papers in this volume are available through: World Data Center-A for Paleoclimatology Phone: 303-497-6280 NOAA/NGDC Fax: 303-497-6513 325 Broadway Telex: 592811 NOAA MASC BDR Boulder, CO 80303 USA http ://www. ngdc . noaa.gov/p al eo/p al eo . html Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/books/book/chapter-pdf/3799472/9781565762299_frontmatter.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 iv DEDICATION We dedicate this volume to our colleague and friend, Erle G. Kauffman. Erle was a collaborator in this project but was unable to complete his planned contribution to meet the deadline for the volume because of a major illness. However, Erle Kauffman's profound influence is evident in nearly every paper and we are indebted to him for helping us in so many ways. Armed with a strong intellect, boundless energy, and the gift of a silver tongue, Erle has captured the imagination of a horde of students and colleagues and ensnared many to study the spectacular but complicated Cretaceous geology of the Western Interior. Erle's own "holistic" efforts, aided by a cadre of talented students, combine grueling field work with classical principles of biozonation, radiometric dating, lithostratigraphy, and paleoecology to build a foundation for understanding Cretaceous events and basin evolution in the U.S. Western Interior. This substantial body of work includes early recognition of the utility of "Milankovitch" cyclicity in the rock record that provides an unprecedented quasi-20,000-year resolution of events preserved in sedimentary strata. Likewise, he has examined the imprints of anoxic events on faunal compositions and sedimentary structures of these strata, and has made a number of intriguing suggestions, including the hypothesis that anoxia -typically occurred at the sediment/water interface rather than within the water column as commonly assumed. Erle was also among the first to use sequence stratigraphic concepts in his studies--long before the techniques became a hallmark of sedimentary geology. In 1977, a landmark paper summarized many of these concepts as a series of enduring insights into the history of sea level and lithostratigraphy of Cretaceous Western Interior basin. He also found evidence for stepwise biotic extinctions accompanying the Cenomanian/Turonian "event," among many other contributions. Erle Kauffman has pursued both science and life with great vigor. His detailed knowledge and experience, infectious enthusiasm, and endless store of intriguing speculation coupled with boundless optimism and humor and profound generosity has affected us all. We wish him all the best as he rebounds from his unfortunate illness and hope that he will soon rejoin us in our quest to understand the intriguing strata of the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway, of course with a few bottles of wine and strum of the ol' banjo. Walter E. Dean Michael A. Arthur Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/books/book/chapter-pdf/3799472/9781565762299_frontmatter.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE ....... ... ...IH DEDICATION IV CRETACEOUS WESTERN INTERIOR SEAWAY DRILLING PROJECT: AN OVERVIEW Walter E. Dean, and Michael A. Arthur TIMING OF MID-CRETACEOUS RELATIVE SEA LEVEL CHANGES TN THE WESTERN INTERIOR: AMOCO NO. 1 BOUNDS CORE........... ............. ... ... 11-34 Robert W. Scott, M. J. Evetts, P. C. Franks, James A. Bergen, and J. A. Stein UPPER CRETACEOUS NANNOFOSSIL ASSEMBLAGES ACROSS THE WESTERN INTERIOR SEAWAY: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ORIGINS OF LITHOLOGIC CYCLES IN THE GREENHORN AND NIOBRARA FORMATIONS 35-58 Celeste E. Burns, and Timothy J. Bralower CENOMANIAN-SANTONIAN CALCAREOUS NANNOFOSSIL BIOSTRATIGRAPHY OF A TRANSECT OF CORES DRILLED ACROSS THE WESTERN INTERIOR SEAWAY ...... 59-77 Timothy J. Bralower and James A. Bergen FORAMINIFERAL PALEOECOLOGY AND PALEOCEANOGRAPHY OF THE GREENHORN