Date Available

12-7-2011

Year of Publication

2008

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Document Type

Thesis

College

Arts and Sciences

Department

Geology

First Advisor

Dr. William A. Thomas

Abstract

A depositional framework for the Mississippian (Chesterian) Pride Mountain Formation/Hartselle Sandstone clastic tongue and the lower Bangor Limestone carbonate ramp in the Black Warrior basin, Mississippi and Alabama, is constructed from approximately 250 geophysical well logs, 15 well cuttings descriptions, and outcrop data. The framework is based upon cross sections, isopach maps, and transgressive-regressive sequence stratigraphy.

The Lowndes-Pickens synsedimentary fault block controlled sediment dispersal in during Pride Mountain/Hartselle deposition. The basin filled from the southwest, which pushed the depocenter northeastward during Hartselle deposition. The Hartselle sub-basin is composed of the Hartselle barrier-island and back-barrier deposits to the southwest, including the Pearce siltstone. The Pearce siltstone, a previously unidentified subsurface unit, was deposited in a restricted environment controlled by the Lowndes-Pickens block.

The Pride Mountain, Hartselle, and lower Bangor succession contains one complete and one partial transgressive-regressive stratigraphic sequence. An exposure surface at the top of the Hartselle Sandstone and Monteagle Limestone is a maximum regressive surface. The upper part of the Bangor ramp is highly cyclic and grades from oolitic shoal deposits southwestward into a condensed section, the Neal black shale, at the toe of the ramp. The entire thickness of the lower Bangor is equivalent to the Neal shale.

Plate_1.pdf (1177 kB)
Plate_2.pdf (9067 kB)
Plate_3.pdf (367 kB)

Included in

Geology Commons

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