Print this pageAbstract: Wet Eolian Sequence Stratigraphy and Its Relationship to Relative Sea Level Change
Mary Crabaugh, Gary Kocurek
The Middle Jurassic Entrada Sandstone of eastern Utah is the product of a wet eolian system with sequences controlled by the interaction of sediment supply and water table level. The proximity of Entrada to the paleoshoreline suggests that fluctuations in the relative water table level can be related to fluctuations in relative sea level. In a wet eolian system, the water table is at or near the sediment surface and sequences are composed of an accumulation and a capping super bounding surface. Accumulation in a wet eolian system occurs during a relative rise of the water table, whereas super surfaces mark periods of a static or falling water table when sediment bypass or erosion occurs, respectively. Outcrops of the Entrada in NE Utah near Dinosaur National Monument and along an 80 k transect in SE Utah show very similar sequences suggesting regional controls on stratigraphic architecture. Variations in these sequences along the transects identify components of a relative water table rise that occurred because of differential subsidence rates and an overall relative rise in sea level. The coupling of eolian sequences with their controls allows not only an understanding of the resultant facies architecture, but also shows the response of continental systems on basin margins to basin interior events.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90986©1994 AAPG Annual Convention, Denver, Colorado, June 12-15, 1994