Friday, December 9, 2016

Highlights: Ichnology—Mixing It Up

Mixed siliciclastic-carbonate depositional systems occur throughout the geologic record. Although their general sedimentologic aspects are well-constrained, substrate-controlled trace fossil assemblages that can represent discontinuities in these successions are less well understood. By integrating ichnological descriptions and facies analyses of the Baldonnel Formation at Williston Lake, B.C., Canada, Schultz and others explore the ichnological composition of paired Trypanites- and Glossifungites-demarcated discontinuity surfaces, the significance of these surfaces in regional stratigraphy, and the relationship of these two assemblages to each other in individual parasequences sets. Recognition of these surfaces, and an understanding of their character, is paramount to the stratigraphic evolution and architecture of this mixed carbonate–siliciclastic depositional system, and may have analogs in other mixed systems.



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