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- Volume 5, Issue 4, 1993
Basin Research - Volume 5, Issue 4, 1993
Volume 5, Issue 4, 1993
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Carbonate platforms as recorders of high‐amplitude eustatic sea‐level fluctuations: the late Albian appenninica‐event
Authors JÜRGEN Grötsch, ROLF Schroeder, SIBYLLE Noé and ERIK FlugelAbstractThe mid‐Cretaceous was a time in which rapid vertical carbonate accumulation alternated with intervals of world‐wide crisis on carbonate platforms. Next to the well‐known mid‐Valanginian, mid‐Aptian and Cenomanian/Turonian event, the late Albian Rotalipora appennirjica‐7.one is a period of severe platform crisis which is reflected differently on different platforms in the Tethys, the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean. On the Dinaric Platform in western Slovenia (Tethys) karstification and subsequent temporary drowning of parts of the platform is recorded in sediment infillings of a cave system in a reef along the northern edge of the open ocean platform. Biostratigraphic analysis indicates that vertical aggradation, karstification, short‐term pelagic influx and subsequent shallow‐water carbonate production all took place in the late Albian. Simultaneous, but complete drowning can be observed in the north‐west Pacific which is an area where the demise of reefs is most obviously expressed by numerous sunken atolls. New sedimentological and palaeontological data, as well as seabeam and seismic data from several cruises, suggest a dramatic fall of sea level prior to a rise of even higher amplitude in the Rotalipora appenninica‐zone. This sea‐level rise led to the deposition of a drowning succession and the formation of terminally drowned barrier reefs, rimming the top of many guyots. Karstification and drowning during the same biozone is also recorded on an isolated, shelf‐attached platform in the Basco‐Cantabrian Basin (North Atlantic) which shows similar cavity systems, infilling sediments and a thin drowning succession. Another example of late Albian platform drowning is the Maracaibo Platform in north‐west Venezuela. Thus, carbonate platforms can be used as recorders of high‐amplitude sea‐level changes, providing quantitative data on magnitude of fluctuations and their nature (relative vs. eustatic). In the case of the appenninica‐extnt, they also provide evidence that even during Cretaceous greenhouse climate period(s), dramatic disturbance of climatic equilibrium linked with short‐term high‐amplitude regressive‐transgressive cycle(s) occurred. The reason for this eustatic sea‐level fluctuation is yet unclear but could ultimately be triggered by volcanotectonic processes.
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Geothermal field interpretation in south‐central Kansas for parts of the Nemaha Anticline and flanking Cherokee and Sedgwick basins
Authors ANDREA Förster and DANIEL F. MerriamAbstractThe first assessment of temperature conditions in Kansas was made by geothermal gradient computations from temperature measurements in shallow boreholes, and these conditions are related to structural patterns, sedimentary cover and underlying basement properties. The area of south‐central Kansas was selected for detailed study of geothermal character in relation to the geology. The aim was to quantify the relations and to determine the relationship of different variables of the temperature field. Input parameters included geothermal variables of gradient and temperature, and structure and sediment thickness. Two approaches were used: (1) the numerical computation of theoretical temperature‐depth models based on conductive heat transfer, and (2) a map‐comparison technique based on algebraic methods. The temperature field information usable for the map comparison is different in response to different measurements (nonequilibrium BHTs and temperatures from logged measurements in equilibrium).
Derived from modelled results (plotted isotherms on cross‐sections), a close relation between gradients and thermal conductivity of the sediments was confirmed. The most noticeable effect on the geothermal field, as noted quantitatively from the map‐comparison study, is the relation of thickness of outcropping Permo‐Pennsylvanian units because of their different thermal conductivity. The eastward increase of mean gradients is inversely related to the total sediment thickness, but this is mostly recognizable using the shallow temperature gradients. This dissimilarity gives additional evidence for a close link between gradients and thermal conductivity of the sediments in which the temperature measurements were made. The effect caused by the structure in deeper (older) units is not important and seems not to be significant, nor is the influence of the basement rock composition as indicated by the temperature modelling.
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Sedimentation processes and basin‐filling depositional architecture in an active asymmetric graben: Strava graben, Gulf of Corinth, Greece
Authors G. Papatheodorou and G. FerentinosAbstractThis paper presents data on the sedimentation processes and basin‐fill architecture in an incipient submarine intrabasinal graben, the Strava graben. The Strava graben is a relatively small intrabasinal structure about 15 km long and 3 km wide formed some time during the late Pleistocene. It connects the Alkyonidhes basin to the Corinth basin, in the Aegean back arc, which is characterized by fast rates of extension and intensive seismicity.
Analysis and interpretation of high‐resolution 3.5‐kHz and sparker profiles together with sonar imagery have shown that gravity‐driven sediment transport, triggered by earthquakes, is the dominant sedimentation process and that this sediment forms the vast bulk of the basin‐fill.
The sediment deposited in the Strava graben is derived from the uplifted footwall blocks bounding the graben and is transported to the basin initially as liquefied flows, some of which may progressively evolve to turbidity flows. The deposits of the liquefied flows have accumulated in the graben floor as aggradational stacks, consisting of sheet‐like, low‐relief lobes, forming base of slope aprons that are fed by multiple sediment sources along active faults. In addition to the lateral (footwall‐derived) sediment transport there is also a gravity‐controlled axial transport.
The axial transport has formed a depositional system in the down‐dip termination of the Strava graben, where it enters the Corinth basin. The axial depositional system grows outwards and upwards and consists of liquefied flow depositional lobes which are separated by turbidites.
The sedimentation transport processes and basin infilling style described for the Strava graben can be used as a predictive model for the early synrift stage of ancient submarine intrabasinal structures, in which the major sediment source area is the bounding fault scarps and not drainage basins in the hinterland.
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BOOK REVIEWS
Book reviewed in this article:
Alluvial Sedimentation:M. Marzo & C. Puigdefábregas (Eds) IAS Special Publication 17, 586 pp., 1993
Planet Earth ‐ Cosmology, Geology, and the Evolution of Life and Environment:Cesare Emiliani Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 718 pp.
Tectonics and Seismic Sequence Stratigraphy:G. D. Williams & A. Dobb (Eds) Geological Society Special Publication No. 71, 1993
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Volumes & issues
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Volume 36 (2024)
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Volume 35 (2023)
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Volume 34 (2022)
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Volume 33 (2021)
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Volume 32 (2020)
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Volume 31 (2019)
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Volume 30 (2018)
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Volume 29 (2017)
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Volume 28 (2016)
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Volume 27 (2015)
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Volume 26 (2014)
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Volume 25 (2013)
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Volume 24 (2012)
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Volume 23 (2011)
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Volume 22 (2010)
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Volume 21 (2009)
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Volume 20 (2008)
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Volume 19 (2007)
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Volume 18 (2006)
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Volume 17 (2005)
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Volume 16 (2004)
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Volume 15 (2003)
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Volume 14 (2002)
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Volume 13 (2001)
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Volume 12 (2000)
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Volume 11 (1999)
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Volume 10 (1998)
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Volume 9 (1997)
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Volume 8 (1996)
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Volume 7 (1994)
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Volume 6 (1994)
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Volume 5 (1993)
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Volume 4 (1992)
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Volume 3 (1991)
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Volume 2 (1989)
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Volume 1 (1988)