Depositional Facies and Eustatic Effects in Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Ripley Formation, Central and Eastern Alabama

Michael C. Skotnicki, David T. King, Jr.

In eastern and central Alabama, the Upper Cretaceous Ripley Formation (40-175 m thick) is comprised of five depositional facies. Facies 1 (barrier-island shoreface and tidal-inlet fill) is a medium to coarse, intraclastic quartzose sand that is planar and trough cross-stratified and has abundant Ophiomorpha traces. Facies 2 (back-barrier lagoon or marsh) is a bioturbated, micaceous, carbonaceous silt that contains macerated plant debris and bivalve molds and impressions. Interbedded with facies 2 is facies 3 (storm-washover deposits), a hummocky cross-stratified, micaceous fine sand. Facies 4 (back-barrier tidal flat) is a micaceous silty clay lacking body fossils and plant debris. Facies 5 (lower shoreface) is a glauconitic, clayey and micaceous, fine to medium sand that is highly bioturbated and commonly has abundant marine macrofauna. The Ripley is divided into two genetic packages of facies; the genetic packages are bounded by stratigraphic breaks or discontinuities. The package-bounding breaks are correlated biostratigraphically with discrete third-order eustatic drops on the world sea level curve. The basal Ripley break is correlated with the end of Campanian (about 74 Ma) eustatic drop, and the middle Ripley break (separating the two genetic packages) marks the mid-Maastrichtian (71 Ma) sea level drop. The basal and middle Ripley breaks are low-relief surfaces marked by sharp facies discontinuities (correlatable across 130 km) and terminal coarsening-upward cycles (5 m thick); the estimated eustatic sea level fall in both instances was about 50 m. he break at the top of the Ripley has 70 m of erosional relief and a bone bed up to 80 cm thick. This break represents a late Maastrichtian (about 68 Ma) sea level fall estimated to have been nearly 95 m. Facies of the superjacent Praire Bluff Chalk and Providence Sand overlie the erosional surface.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91029©1989 AAPG GCAGS and GC Section of SEPM Meeting, October 25-27, 1989, Corpus Christi, Texas.