ABSTRACT

Petrographic and small-scale sedimentary features of the mudstone-dominated Upper Devonian Sonyea Group of New York were examined in order to (1) improve our understanding of mudstone facies, (2) examine coeval mudstone facies within a broader depositional context, and (3) promote a simple methodology for the study of mudstones. Six mudstone facies are distinguished, each characterized by several component mudstone types or subfacies. Sedimentary conditions and environments are reconstructed from primary sedimentary structures and bioturbation characteristics. Mudstone facies are characterized by soils and flood deposits in the coastal-plain region, by rapid sediment deposition and frequent reworking in nearshore areas, by storm-dominated offshore transport on a wide, basin-margin platform, by turbidite slope deposits below storm wave base, and by bottom currents and slow settling in the distal, "deep"-basin black mudstones. The latter, although commonly thought of as deposits of a stratified anoxic basin, contain indications of benthic life, such as burrows, disrupted laminae, and clay/silt fecal pellets. These observations are incompatible with a stratified-basin model, and indicate the need to search for alternative models of black-shale accumulation.