Sequence Stratigraphy, Correlations Between Wopmay Orogen and Kilohigok Basin, and Further Investigations of the Bear Creek Group (Goulburn Supergroup), District of Mackenzie, N.W.T.

Grotzinger, J. P.; Adams, Roy D.; McCormick, David S.; Myrow, Paul M.

doi:10.4095/126836

Cited by 15 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…In the central Kilohigok Basin (Fig. A), the Burnside River Formation shows a complex depositional evolution from lower marine shelf and deltaic to upper fluvial facies and is punctuated by stratigraphic unconformities related to lithospheric flexure (Grotzinger et al ., ; McCormick & Grotzinger, ). Topographic confinement was induced by orogenic relief in the hinterland and flexural arching in the foreland (McCormick & Grotzinger, ).…”

Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reappraisal of Precambrian sheet‐braided rivers: Evidence for 1·9 Ga deep‐channelled drainage

Ielpi

Rainbird

2016

Sedimentology

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The repetitive sedimentology of many Precambrian sheet-dominated fluvial sandstones favoured their attribution to unconfined depositional processes. This article presents outcrop evidence for deep-channelled drainage in the 1Á9 Ga Burnside River Formation of Kilohigok Basin, Arctic Canada. On the ground, sheet-like sandbodies with ubiquitous cross-bedding are at first consistent with classic, unconfined depositional models. However, satellite and oblique-aerial imagery of sections up to 15 km wide and 500 m thick reveals the occurrence of incised palaeovalleys hosting clustered, kilometre-scale, channel bodies with attached large foreset bars pointing to downstream-lateral accretion, sand sheets with aspect ratios (i.e. width to thickness) as high as 2500, and scattered aeolian intervals. The genetic association of these architectural elements points to aggradational fluvial piedmonts composed of low-relief unit bars generated by braidplain channels several metres deep. Preservation of aeolianites was facilitated by fluctuating groundwater table and accommodation. Fluvial piedmonts were transected by weakly sinuous channel belts up to 25 m deep and characterized by through-going or tributary planform. Aspect ratios comparable with those of late Palaeozoic to modern braided channels disprove the inference that all Precambrian streams readily widened in response to increased discharge. Previous facies models for large-scale Precambrian sheet-braided rivers failed to depict entire channel forms, possibly because they could not be resolved by ground-based observations. Based on their limited geomorphic variability and abundance of architectural elements with very high aspect ratios, this study recommends that large sheet-braided fluvial systems should still be considered separately from their post-Silurian (i.e. vegetated) braided counterparts. Parallels between sheet-braided and modern dryland rivers do not, however, reconcile with the deep, perennial, channelized processes described here. Yet, distal sand-bed and perennial reaches of modern sandur plains remain the closest analogue to sheet-braided rivers. This conjecture contradicts the assumption that all Precambrian rivers were prone to simulate seasonal behaviours independently from their actual climate regime.

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Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reappraisal of Precambrian sheet‐braided rivers: Evidence for 1·9 Ga deep‐channelled drainage

Ielpi

Rainbird

2016

Sedimentology

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“…Amongst the earliest attempts to apply sequence stratigraphy to Neoproterozoic and Early Cambrian geology were studies begun in 1984 in the western United States (Christie-Blick and Levy, 1985Levy, , 1989Link et al, 1987;Christie-Blick et al, 1988;Levy, 1991;Levy and Christie-Blick, 1991 ;Levy et al, 1994), and at about the same time in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia (Christie-Blick and vonder Borch, 1985;vonder Borch et al, 1986vonder Borch et al, , 1988vonder Borch et al, , 1989Christie-Blick et al, 1988, 1990bGravestock and Hibburt, 1991;Mount and McDonald, 1992;DiBona and vonder Borch, 1993) and in the Amadeus basin of central Australia (Lindsay, 1987(Lindsay, , 1993Korsch, 1989, 1991). Since the mid-1980s, sequence stratigraphy has become increasingly applied in Proterozoic and Cambrian geology in Canada (Grotzinger et al, 1989;Bowring and Grotzinger, 1992;Myrow and Hiscott, 1993;Myrow, 1995), China (Qiao Xiufu et al, 1991;Wang Chengshu, pets. commun., 1993), Siberia (Pelechaty and Grotzinger, 1993) and Africa (Deynoux et al, 1991;Saylor et al 1995).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sequence stratigraphy and the interpretation of Neoproterozoic earth history

Christie‐Blick

Dyson

Vonderborch

1995

Precambrian Research

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The application of sequence stratigraphy to Neoproterozoic successions is important for improving the resolution of timecorrelation within individual sedimentary basins and potentially at a global scale. The methodology is illustrated in this paper by reference to two contrasting examples from the Hinders Ranges (Adelaide geosyncline) of South Australia, where the younger part of the Neoproterozoic to earliest Cambrian succession (~ 770 Ma to ~ 540 Ma) has been divided into thirteen unconformity-bounded depositional sequences. One of the most prominent sequence boundaries, at or near the base of the Wonoka Formation, is characterized by a series of buried canyons as much as 1 km deep. High-resolution sequence-stratigraphic studies at Umberatana syncline continue to support the view that the canyons were cut subaerially and filled by fluvial and shallow-water sediments. In contrast to the Wonoka canyons, sequence boundaries interpreted at the base of the Nuccaleena Formation/Seacliff Sandstone and near the top of the ABC Range Quartzite are relatively subtle, with only limited evidence for erosion and valley incision. Four sequence boundaries, at the level of the Sturtian and Marinoan (Varanger?) glacial deposits and in the vicinity of the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary, are thought to correlate with surfaces in the Amadeus basin of central Australia. Other prominent sequence boundaries, including the Wonoka canyons and surfaces within the upper part of the Wonoka Formation and at the base of the Ediacara Member of the Rawnsley Quartzite, correspond with a relatively condensed section in the Amadeus basin, and their lateral persistence beyond the Adelaide geosyncline is therefore difficult to evaluate. Given the lack of precision in biostratigraphy and isotope geochemistry in Neoproterozoic rocks, and in a marked departure from Phanerozoic practice, we recommend placement of a terminal Proterozoic GSSP at a sequence boundary. A prime candidate in Australia is the sequence boundary at the base of the Nuccaleena Formation/Seacliff Sandstone, immediately above the Marinoan glacial rocks in the Adelaide geosyncline, and its likely correlative at or near the base of the Gaylad Sandstone in the Amadeus basin.

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“…At section 14, pebbly sandstone at the base of the Burnside Formation rests sharply on red mudstones of the Rifle Formation of the lower Bear Creek Group (Fig. 8) that were deposited below wave base (Bowring& Grotzinger 1992), indicating that two formations in the lower Bear Creek Group and any transitional Burnside facies are cut out in this area Grotzinger et al 1989).…”

Section: Distribution Of Unconformities During Initial Alluvial Sedimmentioning

confidence: 98%

Evolution and significance of an overfilled alluvial foreland basin: Burnside Formation (1.9 Ga), Kilohigok Basin, N.W.T., Canada

McCormick

Grotzinger

1992

Basin Research

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The Burnside Formation records the transition from marine shelf to largely alluvial conditions in the palaeo‐Proterozoic (about 1.9 Ga) Kilohigok foreland basin in the Slave Province of the Canadian Shield. The Burnside Formation forms a thick (up to 3.5 km), N W‐tapering siliciclastic wedge, representing a braided alluvial system that prograded transversely across the Slave Province. The stratigraphic architecture of this unfossiliferous, predominantly alluvial succession documents the location and distribution of unconformities caused by lithospheric flexure in a Proterozoic foreland basin. The locations of these unconformities demonstrate the changing locations of tectonic and sedimentary loads on both sides of the Silave craton. Associations of sedimentary facies and palaeocurrents indicate that initially a braid delta system drained longitudinally, and was restricted to the proximal part of the basin between the orogenic hinterland (the Thelon Orogen) and a syn‐sedimentary flexural arch. Palaeocurrents for the lowermost braid delta facies in the proximal foreland were parallel to palaeocurrents in underlying foreland basin turbidites, parallel to the flexural arch closest to the Thelon Orogen, parallel to the strike of the orogen, and perpendicular to the transport direction of thrust‐nappes directed out of the orogenic belt. An abrupt shift to a transverse palaeocurrent mode accompanied the onset of higher‐gradient braided stream conditions across the entire foreland basin, showing that from this time, sediment supply exceeded subsidence in the proximal foreland. The long‐lived, laterally extensive transverse dispersal and the presence of sedimentary facies lacking interbedded mud or sedimentary structures indicative of desiccation suggest that fluvial discharge was probably perennial. The sharp superposition of medial braid plain facies directly on marine shelf and deltaic facies in the distal foreland indicates that the transition to non‐marine conditions marks an erosional unconformity over two coeval flexural arches. The eastern flexural arch relates to covergence on the eastern margin of the Slave Province and to thrust loading in the Thelon Orogen that created the Kilohigok foreland basin. The evolution of a passive margin on the western side of the Slave Province caused the other flexural arch. In the centre of Kilohigok Basin a profound unconformity exists at the top of the Burnside alluvial succession. This unconformity suggests that a single flexural arch existed at the end of alluvial sedimentation that may signify the migration and yoking together of the two previously independent flexural arches. This migration may have been caused by the combined mass of the thick alluvial sedimentary wedge over the eastern edge of the Slave craton, coupled with initial thrust loading and foreland basin development in Wopmay Orogen. The transition within a foreland basin from largely marine to largely alluvial deposition reflects changing subsidence patterns across the basin due to changes in rates of...

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Sequence Stratigraphy, Correlations Between Wopmay Orogen and Kilohigok Basin, and Further Investigations of the Bear Creek Group (Goulburn Supergroup), District of Mackenzie, N.W.T.

Abstract: Results indicate that the Rifle, Beechey, Link , and basal Burnside Formations are

Cited by 15 publications

References 3 publications

Reappraisal of Precambrian sheet‐braided rivers: Evidence for 1·9 Ga deep‐channelled drainage

Reappraisal of Precambrian sheet‐braided rivers: Evidence for 1·9 Ga deep‐channelled drainage

Sequence stratigraphy and the interpretation of Neoproterozoic earth history

Evolution and significance of an overfilled alluvial foreland basin: Burnside Formation (1.9 Ga), Kilohigok Basin, N.W.T., Canada

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