- Title
- High-resolution sequence-stratigraphic correlation between shallow-marine and terrestrial strata: Examples from the Sunnyside Member of the Cretaceous Blackhawk Formation Book Cliffs eastern Utah
- Creator
- Davies, Roy; Howell, John; Boyd, Ron; Flint, Stephen; Diessel, Claus
- Relation
- AAPG Bulletin Vol. 90, Issue 7, p. 1121-1140
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1306/02210604077
- Publisher
- American Association of Petroleum Geologists
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2006
- Description
- The Sunnyside Member of the Upper Cretaceous Blackhawk Formation in the Book Cliffs of eastern Utah provides an ideal opportunity to investigate high-resolution sequence-stratigraphic correlation between shallow-marine and terrestrial strata in an area of outstanding outcrop exposure. The thick, laterally extensive coal seam that caps the Sunnyside Member is critical for correlating between its shallow-marine and terrestrial components. Petrographic analysis of 281 samples obtained from 7 vertical sections spanning more than 30 km (18 mi) of depositional dip enabled us to recognize a series of transgressive-regressive coal facies trends in the seam. On this basis, we were able to identify a high-resolution record of accommodation change throughout the deposition of the coal, as well as a series of key sequence-stratigraphic surfaces. The stratigraphic relationships between the coal and the siliciclastic components of the Sunnyside Member enable us to correlate this record with that identified in the time-equivalent shallow-marine strata and to demonstrate that the coal spans the formation of two marine parasequences and two high-frequency, fourth-order sequence boundaries. This study has important implications for improving the understanding of sequence-stratigraphic expression in terrestrial strata and for correlating between marine and terrestrial records of base-level change. It may also have implications for improving the predictability of vertical and lateral variations in coal composition for mining and coalbed methane projects.
- Subject
- Upper Cretaceous Blackhawk Formation; high-resolution sequence-stratigraphic correlation; Sunnyside Member
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/33903
- Identifier
- uon:3362
- Identifier
- ISSN:0149-1423
- Language
- eng
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