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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

Houston Geological Society

Abstract


Deltas: Models for Exploration, 1975
Pages 471-484

Deltaic Deposits in the Upper Cretaceous Ferron Sandstone, Utah

Edward Cotter

Abstract

Deltaic deposits at the base of the Upper Cretaceous regressive clastic wedge known as the Ferron Sandstone Member of the Mancos Shale are exposed in depositional dip section for more than 45 miles (72 km) along the southern part of the Castle Valley in eastcentral Utah. These deposits were formed as the Late Cretaceous Last Chance Delta prograded northward as a high-constructive lobate complex. In the relatively stable depositional basin the facies were dispersed laterally to produce a deltaic sequence that typically comprises 40 to 80 feet (12 to 24 m) of siltstone, sandstone, and some coal. Thin prodelta deposits at the base are overlain by a thicker, laterally continuous sheet of delta front deposits, and these, in turn, are overlain by the coal-bearing delta plain facies. Delta front beds typically are horizontal or have slight primary inclination to the north, but several delta-front sequences are steeply inclined to the west or north-west. These inclined Gilbert-type deltaic sequences possibly developed as distributary channels issued into a less saline western embayment.


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