Anthony C. Runkel

The Late Cambrian SPICE (δ13C) event and the Sauk II-Sauk III regression: new evidence from Laurentian basins in Utah, Iowa, and Newfoundland

Carbon isotope data from Upper Cambrian sections in three Laurentian basins in northern Utah, central Iowa, and western Newfoundland record a large positive d 13 C excursion (SPICE event) of up to 1 5‰. Peak d 13 C ratios are well dated by trilobite collections to the middle of the Steptoean Stage (Dunderbergia Zone) and occur during maximum regression associated with formation of the Sauk II- Sauk III subsequence boundary on the North American craton. Max- imum regression was marked by an influx of quartz sand into carbon- ate-platform settings in all three widely separated basins. In northern Utah, this quartz sand formed a thick sequence known as the Worm Creek Quartzite, which marks a conspicuous interruption of carbonate deposition during the Middle to Late Cambrian in the region. In west- ern Newfoundland, the thickness of the quartz sand unit is much re- duced but still marks a brief shutdown of the carbonate factory that is unique to the Cambrian shelf succession of the area. In the central Iowa area of the cratonic interior, an upward-shallowing carbonate succession culminates in cross-stratified trilobite grainstones at the peak of the SPICE in Dunderbergia Zone time, and the lowest point on the relative-sea-level curve is associated with the occurrence of coarse quartz sand derived from the encroaching shoreface. Although it is difficult to determine precisely the departure from baseline d 13 C that marks the beginning of the SPICE excursion in the stratigraphic successions analyzed, our results are consistent with a rise and subsequent fall in d 13 C tracking a major regressive-transgressive event recorded across northern Laurentia. The correlation of a major d 13 C excursion with regression is similar to that described for the Late Ordovician, for which the pattern has been attributed to either in- creased carbonate relative to terrigenous weathering rates as ice sheets covered up organic-matter-containing silicates at high latitudes or high productivity and organic-carbon burial driven by oceanic overturn. The lack of known Steptoean-age ice sheets that could have affected the ratio of carbonate to silicate weathering rates suggests that organic- carbon burial was the likely cause of the SPICE event. We suggest that increased weathering and erosion rates during relative sea-level fall (Sauk II-III) increased the burial fraction of organic carbon in an expanded region of fine-grained siliciclastic deposits in shelf and upper slope environments during the Steptoean.

High-resolution sequence stratigraphy of lower Paleozoic sheet sandstones in central North America: The role of special conditions of cratonic interiors in development of stratal architecture

Well-known difficulties in applying sequence stratigraphic concepts to deposits that accumulated across slowly subsiding cratonic interior regions have limited our ability to interpret the history of continental-scale tectonism, oceanographic dynamics of epeiric seas, and eustasy. We used a multi-disciplinary approach to construct a high-resolution stratigraphic framework for lower Paleozoic strata in the cratonic interior of North America. Within this framework, these strata proved readily amenable to modern sequence stratigraphic techniques that were formulated based on successions along passive margins and in foreland basins, settings markedly different from the cratonic interior. Parasequences, parasequence stacking patterns, systems tracts, maximum flooding intervals, and sequence-bounding unconformities can be confidently recognized in the cratonic interior using mostly standard criteria for identification. The similarity of cratonic interior and foreland basin successions in size, geometry, constituent facies, and local stacking patterns of nearshore parasequences is especially striking. This similarity indicates that the fundamental processes that establish shoreface morphology and determine the stratal expression of retreat and progradation were likewise generally the same, despite marked differences in tectonism, physiography, and bathymetry between the two settings. Our results do not support the widespread perception that Paleozoic cratonic interior successions are so anomalous in stratal geometries, and constitute such a poor record of time, that they are poorly suited for modern sequence stratigraphic analyses. The particular arrangement of stratal elements in the cratonic interior succession we studied is no more anomalous or enigmatic than the variability in architecture that sets all sedimentary successions apart from one another. Thus, Paleozoic strata of the cratonic interior are most appropriately considered as a package that belongs in a continuum of variable stratigraphic packages reflecting variable controls such as subsidence and shelf physiography. Special conditions of exceptionally slow subsidence rate, shallow bathymetry, and nearly flat regional shelf gradient are manifest mostly by the presence of individual systems tracts of relatively long duration that extend for much greater distances across depositional strike than those that characterize successions deposited in more dynamic tectonic and physiographic settings. These results suggest that if other cratonic interior successions are as anomalous as reported, a low sediment supply may have played a primary role in development of their apparently condensed stratal architecture. The results also lead us to suggest that a nonvegetated lower Paleozoic landscape played a relatively insignificant role in the development of what are commonly perceived to be enigmatic stratigraphic features of sheet sandstones, particularly their widespread yet thin geometry, and a scarcity of shale and siltstone.

Origin of a classic cratonic sheet sandstone: Stratigraphy across the Sauk II–Sauk III boundary in the Upper Mississippi Valley

The origin of cratonic sheet sandstones of Proterozoic and early Paleozoic age has been a long-standing problem for sedimentologists. Lower Paleozoic strata in the Upper Mississippi Valley are best known for several such sandstone bodies, the regional depositional histories of which are poorly understood. We have combined outcrop and subsurface data from six states to place the Upper Cambrian Wonewoc (Ironton and Galesville) Sandstone in a well-constrained stratigraphic framework across thousands of square kilometers. This framework makes it possible for the first time to construct a regional-scale depositional model that explains the origin of this and other cratonic sheet sandstones. The Wonewoc Sandstone, although mapped as a single contiguous sheet, is a stratigraphically complex unit that was deposited during three distinct conditions of relative sea level that span parts of four trilobite zones. During a relative highstand of sea level in Crepicephalus Zone time, quartzose sandstone lithofacies aggraded more or less vertically in nearshore-marine and terrestrial environments across much of the present-day outcrop belt around the Wisconsin arch. At the same time, finer grained, feldspathic sandstone, siltstone, and shale aggraded in deeper water immediately seaward of the quartzose sand, and shale and carbonate sediment accumulated in the most distal areas. During Aphelaspis and Dunderbergia Zones time a relative fall in sea level led to the dispersal of quartzose sand into a basinward-tapering, sheet-like body across much of the Upper Mississippi Valley. During early Elvinia Zone time a major transgression led to deposition of a second sheet sandstone that is generally similar to the underlying regressive sheet. The results of this investigation also demonstrate how subtle sequence-bounding unconformities may be recognized in mature, cratonic siliciclastics. We place the Sauk II-Sauk III subsequence boundary at the base of the coarsest bed in the Wonewoc Sandstone, a lag developed through erosion that occurred during the regional regressive-transgressive event that spanned Aphelaspis to early Elvinia Zones time. Such sequence-bounding unconformities are difficult to recognize where they are contained within coarse siliciclastics of the Upper Mississippi Valley, because they separate strata that are texturally and mineralogically similar, and because erosion occurred on a loose, sandy substrate along a low, uniform gradient, and in a nonvegetated terrestrial environment. Furthermore, the ultramature mineral composition of the exposed substrate is resistant to the development of a recognizable weathering profile. The well-known sheet geometry of the Wonewoc and other units of lower Paleozoic sandstone of this area is not dependent on atypical terrestrial depositional conditions conducive to the widespread distribution of sand, as commonly believed. Sand was spread into a sheet dominantly within the marine realm in a manner similar to that inferred for many better-known sandstone bodies deposited in the North American Cretaceous Western Interior seaway and Tertiary Gulf of Mexico. The laterally extensive, thin character of the Upper Mississippi Valley sandstone bodies compared to these other sandstone bodies simply reflects deposition of a continuously abundant supply of sand on a relatively stable, nearly flat basin of slow, uniform subsidence during changes in sea level. The dearth of shale in this and other cratonic sandstones can be indirectly attributed to the same controls, which led to an uncommonly low preservation potential for fairweather deposits on the shoreface.

Classification of Thermal Patterns at Karst Springs and Cave Streams

Thermal patterns of karst springs and cave streams provide potentially useful information concerning aquifer geometry and recharge. Temperature monitoring at 25 springs and cave streams in southeastern Minnesota has shown four distinct thermal patterns. These patterns can be divided into two types: those produced by flow paths with ineffective heat exchange, such as conduits, and those produced by flow paths with effective heat exchange, such as small fractures and pore space. Thermally ineffective patterns result when water flows through the aquifer before it can equilibrate to the rock temperature. Thermally ineffective patterns can be either event-scale, as produced by rainfall or snowmelt events, or seasonal scale, as produced by input from a perennial surface stream. Thermally effective patterns result when water equilibrates to rock temperature, and the patterns displayed depend on whether the aquifer temperature is changing over time. Shallow aquifers with seasonally varying temperatures display a phase-shifted seasonal signal, whereas deeper aquifers with constant temperatures display a stable temperature pattern. An individual aquifer may display more than one of these patterns. Since karst aquifers typically contain both thermally effective and ineffective routes, we argue that the thermal response is strongly influenced by recharge mode.

Differentiating pedogenesis from diagenesis in early terrestrial paleoweathering surfaces formed on granitic composition parent materials

Unconformable surfaces separating Precambrian crystalline basement and overlying Proterozoic to Cambrian sedimentary rocks provide an exceptional opportunity to examine the role of primitive soil ecosystems in weathering and resultant formation of saprolite (weathered rock retaining rock structure) and regolith (weathered rock without rock structure), but many appear to have been affected by burial diagenesis and hydrothermal fluid flow, leading some researchers to discount their suitability for such studies. We examine one modern weathering profile (Cecil series), four Cambrian paleoweathering profiles from the North American craton (Squaw Creek, Franklin Mountains, Core SQ‐8, and Core 4), one Neoproterozoic profile (Sheigra), and one late Paleoproterozoic profile (Baraboo), to test the hypothesis that these paleoweathering profiles do provide evidence of primitive terrestrial weathering despite their diagenetic and hydrothermal overprinting, especially additions of potassium. We employ an integrated approach using (1) detailed thin‐section investigations to identify characteristic pedogenic features associated with saprolitization and formation of well‐drained regoliths, (2) electron microprobe analysis to identify specific weathered and new mineral phases, and (3) geochemical mass balance techniques to characterize volume changes during weathering and elemental gains and losses of major and minor elements relative to the inferred parent materials. There is strong pedogenic evidence of paleoweathering, such as clay illuviation, sepic‐plasmic fabrics, redoximorphic features, and dissolution and alteration of feldspars and mafic minerals to kaolinite, gibbsite, and Fe oxides, as well as geochemical evidence, such as whole‐rock losses of Na, Ca, Mg, Si, Sr, Fe, and Mn greater than in modern profiles. Evidence of diagenesis includes net additions of K, Ba, and Rb determined through geochemical mass balance, K‐feldspar overgrowths in overlying sandstone sections, and K‐feldspars with reaction rims in weathered basement. The sub‐Cambrian paleoweathering profiles formed on granite are remarkably similar to modern weathering profiles formed on granite, in spite of overprinting by potassium diagenesis.

Tidal-Bundle Sequences in the Jordan Sandstone (Upper Cambrian), Southeastern Minnesota, U.S.A.: Evidence for Tides Along Inboard Shorelines of the Sauk Epicontinental Sea

ABSTRACT This study documents for the first time tidal bundling in a lower Paleozoic sheet sandstone from the cratonic interior of North America, providing insights into the hydrodynamics of ancient epicontinental seas. The Jordan Sandstone (Upper Cambrian) in the Upper Mississippi Valley contains large-scale planar tabular cross-sets with tidal-bundle sequences, which were analyzed in detail at an exceptional exposure. Tidal-bundle sequences (neap-spring-neap cycles) were delineated by foreset thickening-thinning patterns and composite shale drapes, the latter of which represent accumulations of mud during the neap tides of neap-spring-neap tidal cycles. Fourier analysis of the bundle thickness data from the 26 measurable bundle sequences revealed cycles ranging from 15 to 34 bundles per sequence, which suggests a semidiurnal or mixed tidal system along this part of the Late Cambrian shoreline. We extend the tidal interpretation to widespread occurrences of the same facies in outcrops of lesser quality, where the facies is recognizable but too few bundles are exposed for tidal cycles to be measured. By doing so, this study shows that tidally generated deposits have a significant geographic and temporal extent in Upper Cambrian strata of central mid-continent North America. The deposition and preservation of tidal facies was related to the intermittent development of shoreline embayments during transgressions. The tidally dominated deposits filled ravined topographies that were repeatedly developed on the updip parts of the shoreface. Resulting coastal geomorphologies, accompanied perhaps by larger-scale changes in basinal conditions and/or configuration, led to changes in depositional conditions from wave-dominated to tide-dominated. Outcrops of the Jordan Sandstone tidal facies in the Upper Mississippi Valley represent the farthest inboard recorded transmission of ocean-generated tides in the Laurentian epicontinental seas, demonstrating that tidal currents were significant agents in the transport of sand along the far cratonic interior shorelines of Cambrian North America. The results of this study improve the facies-level understanding of the genesis of sheet sandstones. Furthermore, tidalites documented here occur in a specific position within a sequence stratigraphic architecture for the Jordan Sandstone. This provides a framework to compare these ancient deposits and processes to younger (e.g., Carboniferous) epicontinental systems where stratal and sediment dynamics are better documented.

Tropical shoreline ice in the late Cambrian: Implications for earth's climate between the Cambrian Explosion and the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event

Middle to late Cambrian time (ca. 513 to 488 Ma) is characterized by an unstable plateau in biodiversity, when depauperate shelf faunas suffered repeated extinctions. This poorly understood interval separates the Cambrian Explosion from the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event and is generally regarded as a time of sustained greenhouse conditions. We present evidence that suggests a drastically different climate during this enigmatic interval: Features indicative of meteoric ice are well preserved in late Cambrian equatorial beach deposits that correspond to one of the shelf extinction events. Thus, the middle to late Cambrian Earth was at least episodically cold and might best be considered a muted analogue to the environmental extremes that characterized the Proterozoic, even though cooling in the two periods may have occurred in response to different triggers. Such later Cambrian conditions may have significantly impacted evolution preceding the Ordovician radiation. INTRODUCTION Understanding the paleoclimatic context within which major evolutionary events have occurred is one of the most critical, yet most elusive, aspects of interpreting the history of life on Earth. Between the Cambrian Explosion and the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE) is a ~25 m.y. period of subdued diversification, variously termed the “Late Cambrian Plateau” (Bambach et al., 2004) or the “Dead Interval” (Miller et al., 2006). Middle and late Cambrian marine fauna had low diversity, dominated by trilobite, phosphatic brachiopod, and conodont communities, yet these faunas experienced high turnover rates (Bambach et al., 2004; Miller, 2004). Viewed from the perspective of calcareous seafloor sediments and their non-uniformitarian rheological properties, this time interval is remarkable in its resemblance to the Proterozoic (Sepkoski, 1982; Cowan and James, 1992; Grotzinger and James, 2000; Knoll, 2003). The similarity in seafloor character suggests that at least some environmental conditions that typified the Proterozoic, and that existed prior to the Cambrian radiation of metazoa, might have reemerged in middle to late Cambrian time, preceding the GOBE. This resemblance may not be restricted to the nature of the seafloor. In this paper, we describe upper Cambrian features that indicate the presence of fresh-water ice at the Laurentian equator, suggesting that, like the Proterozoic, the latter half of the Cambrian was at least episodically globally cold. Ice is indicated by extraordinary intraclasts in ancient beach deposits of the Furongian (501.0–488.3 Ma) Jordan Formation in the cratonic interior of North America (Fig. 1) (Runkel et al., 2007). The intraclasts preserve evidence of brittle-ductile-brittle changes in rheological behavior during their residence time in the paleo-swash zone—features identical to those caused by freeze-thaw-freeze cycles in modern beach sands at temperate latitudes. This evidence for freezing meteoric conditions near the Furongian paleoequator is in a stratigraphic interval that corresponds in timing to a global extinction that has long been postulated to have been triggered by a cryptic cold-water oceanographic event (Palmer, 1984). Figure 1. Location maps showing Laurentian late Cambrian facies belts and position relative to the equator (E) and regional tectonic and physiographic features of the cratonic interior. Modified from Runkel et al. (2007) with paleogeography of Laurentia from Cocks and Torsvik (2002).

Terrestrial-marine carbon cycle coupling in ∼500-m.y.-old phosphatic brachiopods

Carbon isotope compositions (δ13C) of inarticulate brachiopod shells from Upper Cambrian sandstone in the cratonic interior of Laurentia record a 5‰ positive excursion that correlates biostratigraphically with the global Steptoean positive isotopic carbon excursion. A consistent 6‰ negative displacement in brachiopod δ13C relative to carbonate values is interpreted to represent an onshore-offshore gradient in the isotopic composition of dissolved inorganic carbon in Cambrian seawater. Thus, these ∼500-m.y.-old chitinophosphatic brachiopod shells preserve evidence for carbon cycle coupling between the ancient atmospheric, oceanic, and terrestrial reservoirs in the time before embryophytic land plants.

Lateral and Temporal Changes in Volcanogenic Sedimentation; Analysis of Two Eocene Sedimentary Aprons, Big Bend Region, Texas

ABSTRACT Middle to late Eocene volcanic activity in the Big Bend region of Texas induced dramatic changes in local depositional processes recorded by volcanogenic sequences in the Chisos, Canoe, and Devils Graveyard formations. Analysis of lithofacies associations, clast lithologies, and paleocurrent trends of tuffaceous strata in these sequences allows recognition of two sedimentary aprons derived from two widely spaced volcanic centers; a southern apron shed from a center in Mexico, and an apron shed from the Christmas Mountains volcanic center. Each volcanogenic apron contains distinctive vertical sequences that reflect in different ways episodic explosive activity at the volcanic source area, and also distinctive records of lateral changes in sedimentation that correspond to distance from the volcanic source area. The southern apron contains intermediate-source deposits that are the product of alternating modes of deposition that correspond to aggradation during explosive volcanic activity as well as aggradation during volcanic quiescence. Mudflow and hyperconcentrated flood-flow deposition occurred during times of explosive activity, and fluvial deposition and pedogenesis occurred during volcanic quiescence. Stacked beds of lithic-clast deficient mudflow deposits are the result of rapid aggradation of intrabasinal-derived flows on a topography inundated with tephra. Distal-source deposits do not show evidence for alternating modes of deposition but instead were deposited almost entirely by traction and suspension processes in a fluvial system, and subsequently modified by pedogenesis. Eruptions associated with the Christmas Mountains caldera complex at 42 Ma produced abundant lava and pyroclastic deposits that are interstratified with sedimentary sequences. Proximal-source exposures within 8 km of the calderas consist mostly of ashflow and air-fall tuffs, and lava and debris flow deposits, occurring as five distinctive sequences that reflect the episodic eruptive history at this center. Intermediate-source exposures from 18 to 23 km are predominantly composed of interbedded mudflow and hyperconcentrated flood-flow deposits that are separated by disconformities. Alternating aggradation and degradation apparently resulted from drastically fluctuating sediment loads originating from the episodically active volcanic source. At distal-source exposures, 30 to 35 km from he caldera, there are no apparent disconformities in the apron. Initial aggradation was dominated by mudflows and pumice-fall, followed by traction deposition in sheet-floods and channels. Evidence independent of the volcanogenic sequences indicates that each apron aggraded under roughly the same tectonic and climatic influences. Hence, this study shows that volcanogenic sequences can record the explosive activity of a source center in 2 different ways in the same climatic and tectonic conditions. In addition, this study shows that this record of explosive activity may not be recorded at distal parts of the aprons.

The Sauk Megasequence in the Cratonic Interior of North America: Interplay between a Fully Developed Inner Detrital Belt and the Central Great American Carbonate Bank

The Sauk megasequence in the far inboard region of the cratonic interior of North America (Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa) is divisible into two packages that fundamentally differ from one another in facies and stratigraphic attributes. A lower Sauk succession package, Marjuman–early Skullrockian in age, is characterized by deposits of the traditional inner detrital belt (IDB) that interfinger hundreds of kilometers seaward with the middle carbonate belt or cratonward margin of the central mid-continent great American carbonate bank (GACB). The IDB contains a typical suite of nearshore siliciclastic facies containing features that document the importance of both wave- and tide-dominated currents in the depositional system. The transitional area between the IDB and the GACB in the Cambrian and earliest Ordovician was a moat, characterized by relatively deep-water deposition, which served as a catchment for mud that was winnowed from landward parts of the shelf and then deposited near the stormwave base. Mixed carbonate and siliciclastic facies in the moat are characterized by condensation features and other attributes indicative of suppressed carbonate productivity and starvation of siliciclastic sand. These facies contrast with shallower water facies that commonly filled available accommodation space in both seaward (central part of the GACB) and landward (cratonic shoreline) directions, the former dominated by typical stacks of oolitic, ribbon-rock, and microbialite lithofacies, and the latter by stacks of nearshore siliciclastic sand-dominated parasequences. Our chronostratigraphic framework provides temporal constraints that support the long-postulated hypothesis that these two depositional systems expanded and contracted in reciprocating fashion: substantial landward migration and expansion of the GACB occurred when siliciclastic input was diminished during the most rapid rates of transgression (marked by maximum flooding intervals in the IDB). Retreat and diminishment in the extent of the GACB corresponded to falls in sea level that led to major progradations of nearshore siliciclastics of the IDB and terrigenous poisoning of the carbonate factory. An overlying upper Sauk succession package records the establishment of a fundamentally different depositional system in the far inboard regions of the cratonic interior beginning in the later Skullrockian. The Prairie du Chien Group and its equivalents represent a major landward migration and perhaps cratonwide distribution of the oolitic, ribbon-rock, and microbialite lithofacies that were previously restricted mostly to the GACB of Missouri and adjacent areas. This change was triggered by a pronounced continental-scale flooding event that led to onlap across much, or all, of the cratonic interior. The resultant burial of terrigenous source regions by carbonate strata is in part responsible for this fundamental change in depositional conditions.