Search results for "Sedimentary depositional environment"
showing 10 items of 126 documents
Tracing 2000 Years at the Source of the Douix, Côte-d’Or, France: Water, Offerings, and Recurrence
2019
The Source of the Douix in Châtillon-sur-Seine, France, has been visited by local inhabitants for over 2000 years and served as a watery focal point for the ritual deposition of various types of offerings. While water deposits are by no means uncommon across Europe, the continued use of a single space over multiple millennia is. An examination of the preserved offerings at the Douix indicate there are three phases of depositional activity: late Hallstatt to early La Tène periods, late La Tène to Gallo-Roman periods, and the early modern period. Despite being separated by hundreds of years there are similarities across depositional phases including the importance of modified metallic objects…
Taphonomic sequences—A new tool for sequence stratigraphy
2002
The Middle-Upper Jurassic boundary in western Europe is characterized by extensive condensed sections containing authigenic minerals together with abundant and varied fossils, both reworked and not reworked. We have analyzed ammonite shells and chronologically ordered taphonomic events in a taphonomic sequence extending from the time the dead organism settled on the seafloor to the time it became permanently incorporated in the sediment. Three types of taphonomic sequence are recognized; they are characteristic of (1) sedimentation in depositional environments having little and only occasional hydrodynamic activity (coinciding with periods of increasing accommodation), (2) sedimentation dur…
Anthropogenic units fingerprinted by REE in archaeological stratigraphy: Mas d'Is (Spain) case
2013
Abstract On occasions, archaeologists have to deal with serious difficulties to differentiate between processes that ultimately are responsible for the formation of stratigraphic units. Sometimes we face problems related with depositional units in multilayered deposits and other times, we ask for the character of some dark surface soils, very similar to natural paleosols and usually associated with archaeological findings. In both cases, the problems we must address concern the relative impact of human activities. The imbalance between anthropic and natural processes in the formation of archaeological deposits is crucial for a correct interpretation of the processes involved in the formatio…
Growth pattern of underlithified strata during thrust-related folding
2004
Abstract Asymmetric anticlines with overturned or steeply dipping forelimbs and gently dipping backlimbs are generally interpreted as thrust-related folds. Fold asymmetry occurs as a consequence of forelimb rotation. If deformation takes place in environments dominated by submarine sedimentation, the limbs coincide with the slope (depositional surface) and rotation reflects slope steepening. If folds are nucleated in poorly or unlithified deposits, growth geometry also depends on the properties of the media, such as cohesion and the angle of internal friction. For cohesionless deposits, the tilting of the slope influences the equilibrium of the soft sediments, resulting in gravity-driven fl…
Facies and facies association of the siliciclastic Brak River and carbonate Gemsbok formations in the Lower Ugab River valley, Namibia, W. Africa
2007
Abstract The Neoproterozoic Zerrissene Turbidite Complex of central-western Namibia comprises five turbiditic units. From the base to the top they are the Zebraputs Formation (greywacke and pelite), Brandberg West Formation (marble and pelite), Brak River Formation (greywacke and pelite with dropstones), Gemsbok River Formation (marble and pelite) and Amis River Formation (greywacke and pelites with rare carbonates and quartz-wacke). In the Lower Ugab River valley, five siliciclastic facies were recognised in the Brak River Formation. These are massive and laminated sandstones, classical turbidites (thick- and thin-bedded), mudrock, rare conglomerate and breccia. For the carbonate Gemsbok R…
Depositional Environment of the Devonian Quartz Sandstones in the Bāle Sand Pits
2014
This paper summarises data about the depositional environment of Devonian quartz sandstones in Latvia and discusses new fieldwork data from Bāle 1 and Bāle 2 sand pits. The commercial bed in these sand pits is composed of fine to gravel size grained white and pale gray sandstones with mud clasts and quartz pebbles in places. Studies in Bāle sand pit sectors 1 and 2 suggest the deposition of sediments in details channel and sand bars, with the scarce influence of tidal processes on sedimentation.
Mesozoic tectonics and volcanism of Tethyan rifted continental margins in western Sicily
2010
Abstract The paleotectonic and volcanic features of the Jurassic–Cretaceous carbonate successions, outcropping in central-western Sicily, allow us to restore the tectono-sedimentary evolution of a sector of the African continental margin. These successions consist of shallow-to-deep-water Mesozoic deposits that have formed in the carbonate platform-to- pelagic plateau depositional setting of the so-called Trapanese paleogeographic domain. Fieldwork, including structural analyses, has indicated the occurrence of lateral facies changes, resedimented materials, volcanic products (pillow lavas and tuffitic deposits), unconformity surfaces and paleofaults of different trends and age. These data,…
A Taphonomic Perspective on Neolithic Beginnings: Theory, Interpretation, and Empirical Data in the Western Mediterranean
2001
The fills of caves and rockshelters generally comprise complex depositional palimpsests, making fine scale chronological resolution extremely difficult. Nevertheless, these settings remain very important in archaeology because they often preserve long records of cultural change. This is true for the initial appearance of food producing economies in the western Mediterranean. The chronologically ambiguous nature of cave and shelter deposits is one of the reasons for the continued debate over the processes responsible for the beginning of the Neolithic in this region. We employ taphonomic studies of the archeofaunal record from Mesolithic and early Neolithic cave and shelter sites in Mediterr…
Séries condensées et indice de préservation d'unité biostratigraphique: exemple de l'ennoiement de la plate-forme nord-bourguignonne (France) au Call…
1999
Abstract Several depositional environments associated with Callovian-Oxfordian condensed series of the southeast of the Paris Basin are defined. As sedimentation rates were very low, variations in palaeodepth, which were synchronous at regional scale, were taken to directly reflect fluctuations in accommodation potential. Within a major trend toward increased accommodation potential, five sharp upturns and one sharp downturn are detected. A biostratigraphic unit preservation index is denned to quantify and discuss the low preservation of sediments in these condensed series. This index is seen to vary with accommodation potential.
Rare earth elements in limestone/marlstone couplets from the Albian-Cenomanian Cismon section (Venetian region, northern Italy) : assessing REE sensi…
1997
Abstract We have studied the REE distribution through the Albian-Cenomanian interval of a stratigraphic succession (Cismon section, Scaglia Variegata Formation, Venetian Prealps) consisting of rhythmically alternating carbonate-rich and carbonate-poor strata which are the sedimentary expression of systematic variations of surface fertility and bottom-water redox conditions in the depositional basin. Limestone semicouplets show seawater-like shale-normalized patterns (HREE-enriched, with negative Ce anomalies and high Er/Nd ratios) indicating a clear dependence on the REE chemistry of surface seawaters. Marlstones and shales exhibit flatter patterns, more moderate Ce anomalies and low Er/Nd.…