Sedimentology and tectonic implications of the Late Proterozoic to Early Cambrian Chilhowee Group in southern and central Virginia

Few detailed facies analyses of rift to passive-margin transitions have been undertaken in exhumed orogenic belts. In the central Appalachians, the Chilhowee Group records such an evolution. The Unicoi and basal Hampton Formations record the transition from rifting to opening of the Iapetus Ocean. The majority of the Hampton Formation and the overlying Erwin Formation represent an overall regressive sequence punctuated by five progradational packages that accumulated along a passive margin. The rift to passive·margin phases of sedimentation in the central Appalachians reflect a continuum from fault·influenced to thermotectonic subsidence. Alluvial sediments and intercalated basalts of the lower Unicoi Formation developed in a rift setting. Paleontological data indicate that rifting continued into lower Cambrian time. The upper Unicoi Formation represents the incipient phase of passive-margin sedimentation related to a first-order, sea level rise. Differences in degree of crustal attenuation controlled the distribution of sedimentary environments during transgression. On the most attenuated crust to the east, initial transgressive facies consist of tidal sandwave and sandridge deposits intercalated with proximal and medial braid-pIain deposits. As transgression progressed cratonwards onto less attenuated crust, tidal sedimentation was supplanted by tide- and wave-influenced sedimentation characterized by sandwave complexes, tidal inlets and longshore bedforms. Drowning at the top of the Unicoi Formation is indicated by outer-shelf black mudstones. Deepening may have been enhanced by continued movement along listric faults throughout the incipient phase of passive-margin development. Examination of outcrops of the Hampton and Erwin Formations on different thrust sheets has permitted an across-strike reconstruction of the Early Cambrian Chilhowee shelf in space and time. Progradational packages developed under storm- and fair·weather wave conditions. Coarsening· and thickening-upward sequences on westerly thrust sheets were generated during progradation of shoreface, inner-shelf and outer-shelf environments. Outer-shelf facies predominate on easterly thrust sheets. Intertidal-flat deposits on the most westerly thrust sheet erosively overlie progradational shoreface sediments and developed during transgression in an embayment in which the tidal wave was amplified. More distal transgressive deposits consist of fining- and thinning·upward sequences with glauconitic horizons, and condensed sections in mudstones.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Geology

Department dc:contributor.department

Geology

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Year dc:date.issued

1987

Author dc:creator

• Simpson, Edward L.

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Eriksson, Kenneth

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Bambach, Richard K.
• Read, J. Frederick
• Simpson, C.
• Glover, Lynn III

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10919/53660

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/53660