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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

AAPG Bulletin

Abstract


Volume: 49 (1965)

Issue: 3. (March)

First Page: 361

Last Page: 362

Title: Submarine Fan Deposits and the Transition From Turbidite to Shallow Water Sediments in the Upper Carboniferous of Northern England: ABSTRACT

Author(s): Roger G. Walker

Article Type: Meeting abstract

Abstract:

The Shale Grit and Grindslow Shales lie between the Mam Tor Sandstones (turbidites) and the Kinderscout Grit (nearshore or coastal plain sediments). These Upper Carboniferous formations crop out in the central Pennine Basin of northern England. The Shale Grit contains two main sandstone facies: (1) interbedded parallel sided sandstones and mudstones interpreted as turbidites and (2) thick (5 to 100 feet) sandstones without mudstone partings interpreted as very proximal turbidites. Individual thick beds characteristically show signs of a multiple origin. There are also three mudstone facies, silty mudstones, pebbly mudstones, and thinly laminated black mudstones. The Grindslow Shales contain sandy mudstones, burrowed silty mudstones, parallel bedded silty sandstones and ca bonaceous sandstones. There are also some horizons of normal and proximal turbidites, especially near the base of the formation.

The sequence of the Shale Grit facies indicates that distal turbidites are more abundant below, and proximal turbidites are more abundant in the upper part of the formation. In the Grindslow Shales the facies become sandier upward, with horizontal burrows restricted to the uppermost part of the formation. The two formations

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contain at least seventeen deep channels (10 to 50 feet), which appear to have been both cut and filled by turbidity currents. The association of deep channels and proximal turbidite sedimentation suggests that the environment of deposition of the Shale Grit was a submarine fan, similar in most respects to the fans at the foot of the Monterey and La Jolla canyons. The Grindslow Shales were probably deposited on the slope above the fan.

The sequence from the Mam Tor Sandstones (distal turbidites) via the lower Shale Grit (distal, with subordinate proximal turbidites) into the upper Shale Grit (proximal, with subordinate distal turbidites) suggests advance of a submarine fan into the central Pennine Basin. The advance continued as the Grindslow Shales slope environment covered the fan, and was itself covered by the nearshore or coastal plain Kinderscout Grit.

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Copyright 1997 American Association of Petroleum Geologists