Cretaceous rocks from southwestern Montana to southwestern Minnesota, northern Rocky Mountains, and Great Plains

A Chemostratigraphic Model for the Development of Parasequences and Its Application to Sequence Stratigraphy and Paleoceanography, Cretaceous Western Interior Basin, USA

“…Coeval strata in the western South Dakota and the northeastern Wyoming include (from oldest to youngest) the Newcastle Sandstone, the Mowry Shale, and the Belle Fourche Shale. For a review and discussion of these stratigraphic units see Cobban and Merewether (1983), Dyman et al (1994), Hamilton (1994), and Witzke and Ludvigson (1994).…”

“…Previous researchers have correlated KWIB strata at varying levels of detail (Dyman et al, 1994;Elder and Kirkland, 1994;. Within the study area, Hamilton (1994) used a lithofacies approach to discern three lithologically defined sequences bounded by unconformities in Albian-Cenomanian strata across the Kansas.…”

Multiple cycles of wave-dominated estuarine deposits in low-accommodation settings, Cretaceous J sandstone, northwestern Nebraska

“…Significant research has been done on lower Upper Cretaceous sandstone units since hydrocarbon production boomed in western North America in the 1960s (MacKenzie and Poole, 1962;Haun, 1963;MacKenzie, 1963;Harms, 1966;Exum and Harms, 1968;Currie, 1978;Weimer, 1984;Merewether and Cobban, 1986;Mateer, 1987;Weimer et al, 1988;Dolson et al, 1991;Leckie and Singh, 1991;Dyman et al, 1994;Hamilton, 1994;Pattison and Walker, 1994;Oldham, 1996;MacEachern et al, 1998;Scott et al, 1998;Brenner et al, 2000;Graham, 2000;Holbrook, 2001;Scott et al, 2001Scott et al, , 2004Higley et al, 2003;Joeckel et al, 2005;Kirschbaum and Roberts, 2005;Holbrook et al, 2006;Currie et al, 2008;Oboh-Ikuenobe et al, 2008;Koch and Brenner, 2009). However, stratigraphic and sedimentologic models for low-accommodation settings in this region have improved significantly since a lot of the research was published (Graham, 2000;Holbrook, 2001;Holbrook et al, 2006;ObohIkuenobe et al, 2008); thus, in some cases, a reassessment of the units is timely.…”

“…Examples of these units include the J sandstone in the Denver-Julesburg Basin of Colorado and Nebraska, the Muddy Sandstone in the Powder River, Bighorn and Wind River basins of Wyoming, the Dakota Sandstone in the Uinta Basin of Utah and the San Juan Basin of New Mexico, the Newcastle Sandstone in Montana, North and South Dakota, and the Paddy Member of the Peace River Formation and the Viking Formation in Alberta, Canada, all of which are lithostratigraphically equivalent to each other (McGookey et al, 1972;Caldwell, 1984;Kauffman and Caldwell, 1993;Obradovich, 1993;Cobban et al, 2006;Scott, 2007) (Figure 1). These units were deposited in accommodation-limited shallow-marine and coastal settings and contain multiple cycles of sediment accumulation (MacKenzie, 1963;Harms, 1966;Weimer, 1984;Weimer et al, 1988;Leckie and Singh, 1991;Dyman et al, 1994;Hamilton, 1994;Pattison and Walker, 1994;MacEachern et al, 1998;Scott et al, 1998;Brenner et al, 2000;Graham, 2000;Holbrook, 2001;Scott et al, 2001Scott et al, , 2004Joeckel et al, 2005;Oboh-Ikuenobe et al, 2008). These cycles show laterally and vertically complex stratigraphic stacking patterns.…”

“…The location of reference sections is shown in Figure 2. References used to compile this figure include Haun (1963), Harms (1966), Merewhether and Cobban (1986), Dyman et al (1994), Hamilton (1994), Scott et al (1998), Brenner et al (2000), Cobban et al (2000), Scott et al (2001), Kirschbaum and Roberts (2005), Currie et al (2008). The time scale is based on Gradstein et al (2004).…”