Page 56 - Carbonate Facies in Geologic History

Cyclic and Reciprocal Sedimentation 43

Shelf
Basin margin Shelf
______ ~A ~--------~A~ __ ~~~_
S,a ,,,,,, A,~' ,S"""~O'_
1 t I I I ~""2'f..".L,,..L

CARBONATE STAGE High sea level,shoreline far from shetf margin

A
14 I

CLASTIC STAGE Low sea level, shoreline near shelf margin
Fig. II-20. Stratigraphic model of cyclic and reciprocal sedimentation from Meissner (1972,
Fig. 7), courtesy of West Texas Geological Society

Bernal facies
Time lines

Fig. II-21. Stratigraphic model of cyclic and reciprocal sedimentation in Permian Reef com-
plex, New Mexico from Meissner (1972, Fig.8). Shows the repetition of several depositional
cycles each composed of a "carbonate" and a "clastic" stage. Lithofacies terminology of the
Artesia Group has been applied to the basin ward prograding diachronous and regressive
facies. Illustration courtesy of author and West Texas Geological Society

geologists of how common this type of sedimentation may be. Meissner's models
(Figs. II-20, 11-21) are derived from the Late Permian of the Delaware basin and
Van Siclen's initial presentation (1958) comes from the Pennsylvanian-Wolf-
campian, eastern shelf of the Midland basin. Wilson (1967 a, 1972) has described
this type of sedimentation in detail from Late Pennsylvanian beds in the Oro
Grande basin. Additional examples are from the Middle Pennsylvanian evaporite
filling of the Paradox basin (Peterson and Ohlen, 1963), Permo-Pennsylvanian
beds of the Glass Mountains (Ross, 1967), Devonian shale filling the Alberta basin
(Oliver and Cowper, 1963), and the Mississippian beds of the Illinois basin (Line-
back, 1969). The recognition of cyclic and reciprocal sedimentation is largely
based on thin subsurface correlation markers seen in slope and basinal strata, and
on recognition of equivalence in time of both basinal and shelf sandstones.