Thick turbidite successions from supply-dominated shelves during

sea-level highstand
Cristian R. Carvajal ⎤ Department of Geological Sciences, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas, Austin,
⎥⎦
Ron J. Steel Texas 78712, USA

ABSTRACT rates of subsidence in the east. Correlation of

Emphasis on the association between relative sea-level lowstand and the formation of ⬃500 well logs (with gamma ray, spontaneous
sandy deep-water fans has tended to downplay the significance of high sediment supply potential, and conductivity curves) in this ba-
and its potential to create deep-water fans, even during sea-level highstands. The Lance– sin allows a three-dimensional tracking of in-
Fox Hills–Lewis shelf margin in southern Wyoming suggests that high supply was critical dividual fourth-order cycles through the
in causing the accretion of this moderately wide Maastrichtian shelf margin, at a minimum linked fluvial to shelf to deep-marine deposi-
rate of 47.8 km/m.y., and the generation of large, sand-rich fans during every shoreline tional system of the Lance Formation, Fox
regression across the shelf. It is surprising that fans developed from shelf-margin clino- Hills Sandstone, and Lewis Shale (Figs. 1 and
forms that show systematically rising shelf-edge trajectories (proxy for rising relative sea 2).
level) as well as from those that show flat trajectories (stable to falling relative sea level). In this system, the rivers of the Lance For-
However, the latter, producing more sediment bypass, resulted in bigger and thicker fans, mation (paralic and coal bearing, ⬎200 m
whereas the former produced somewhat smaller and thinner fans. We term the former thick) and deltas of the Fox Hills Sandstone
highstand fans and suggest caution in using the lowstand model for high-supply systems. (mainly sandy river-wave deltas, ⬎214 m
thick) fed large volumes of sediment to deep-
Keywords: deep-water deposits, sediment supply, sea level, sequence stratigraphy. water areas of the Lewis Shale (⬎762 m). The
high-supply character of the Fox Hills deltas
INTRODUCTION 1991), biasing researchers to interpret ancient allowed them to easily cross a moderately
The growth of submarine fans, both modern deep-water deposits preferentially following wide shelf (tens of kilometers), delivering
(Flood and Piper, 1997) and ancient (Mutti, the lowstand model. Thus, focus on this low- large volumes of sand as slope and basin-floor
1985; Posamentier and Vail, 1988), has been stand model has tended to cause us to over- turbidites.
widely accepted as being preferentially asso- look (1) the dominant role that sediment sup-
ciated with relative sea-level lowstand. In this ply may play in deep-water sediment delivery, DETERMINING CLINOTHEMS—UNITS
model, fall of relative sea level below the shelf and (2) how such supply-dominated shelf mar- OF SHELF-MARGIN ACCRETION
edge causes rivers both to reach the outer shelf gins can generate deep-water fans even during The term clinoform was introduced by Rich
and to entrench at the shelf edge (Johannessen periods of rising relative sea level. (1951) for the sloping segment of a shelf-
and Steel, 2005), thus focusing the delivery of We provide here an example of how Maas- margin profile. Here we use it for the entire
sand to deep-water areas. Conversely, this trichtian deep-water fans of the Lewis Shale surface connecting shoreline-shelf areas via
model postulates that during times of relative in southern Wyoming formed from shelf-edge deep-water slopes to basin-floor areas. Cli-
sea-level highstand much of the sand budget deltas that we can document crossed moder- nothems are thus the sand-prone lithosomes
is stored on the shelf and coastal plain, and ately wide shelves in a high-supply setting. bounded by easily identifiable shale intervals
that deep-water fans become draped by muds The submarine fans were generated by every (representing transgressions and maximum
(e.g., see Damuth et al., 1988). This model has one of at least 15 deltaic regressive shelf tran- flooding surfaces; see Fig. 2) that in the
been challenged using examples from narrow sits (Figs. 1 and 2), during a total time interval Lewis–Fox Hills clinoforms penetrate land-
shelf settings (e.g., fans in the California Bor- of less than 1.8 m.y., and there is evidence ward up to 40–50 km. This distance, there-
derland, Gulf of Corinth, and Mediterranean that many of these shelf transits happened fore, documents that the shelf was moderately
Sea; see Piper and Normark, 2001; Ito and while relative sea level was rising. Note that wide. This is also the distance that the deltas/
Masuda, 1988) or extremely high supply sys- ‘‘rising’’ cannot be interpreted as late low- strandplains had to cross to reach the shelf
tems (e.g., Bengal Fan; Weber et al., 1997). In stand rising (Posamentier and Vail, 1988), but edge during the subsequent regression. Cli-
these cases slope canyons extending to almost is highstand rising because it links back to a nothems (commonly with amplitudes of as
the shoreline may receive sand from littoral major shelf regression of the deltas. much as 430 m) thus consist of (1) a regres-
drift or shelf currents during rising sea level. sive lower component produced by deltas and/
In addition, deltas may easily cross narrow GEOLOGIC SETTING AND DATA SET or strandplains crossing the shelf, and in our
shelves and provide sand for deep-water de- Our data are from the Lance–Fox Hills– data set always reaching the shelf edge; (2) a
posits under normal supply conditions during Lewis depositional system in southern Wyo- more steeply dipping basinward component
relative sea-level highstand. It has also been ming. This Maastrichtian succession is the fi- created by sediment gravity flows on a long
postulated that in moderately wide (tens of ki- nal third-order shoreline regression of the slope below the shelf edge, reflecting an in-
lometers) to wide shelf (hundreds of kilome- Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway (Winn et crement of shelf-margin growth; and (3) a
ters) settings, significant volumes of sand can al., 1987). The onset of the Laramide orogeny transgressive upper component produced by
be bypassed to deep-water areas at highstand and associated tectonic subsidence resulted in landward-migrating coastal plain, estuary, and
through shelf-edge deltas (Burgess and Hov- rapid and significant southward shelf-margin barrier lagoon systems.
ius, 1998; Pore˛bski and Steel, 2006). None- progradation into the deep-water (as much as Clinothems in our data set are easily visu-
theless, documenting such delivery either in 430 m from undecompacted clinoform ampli- alized by using a marked shale of basin-floor
the modern or ancient has been difficult (ex- tudes) Washakie and Great Divide basins origin as stratigraphic datum (Fig. 2). This
cept for suggestions from studies at the third- (Figs. 1 and 2). These basins formed a single shale is of nearly basin-wide aerial extent, has
order time scale, e.g., McMillen and Winn, asymmetric trough at that time, with higher high organic content and gamma-ray values

䉷 2006 Geological Society of America. For permission to copy, contact Copyright Permissions, GSA, or [email protected].
Geology; August 2006; v. 34; no. 8; p. 665–668; doi: 10.1130/G22505.1; 4 figures; 1 table. 665
 Figure 3. Maximum progradation distance
and progradation/aggradation ratio (P/A) vs.
Figure 1. Location of study area (inset map), local geology (from Love and Christiansen, maximum thickness for clinothems 4–12.
1985), well database, shelf-edge positions (at time of maximum flooding during beginning Clinothems with flat shelf-edge trajectories
of each cycle), and two basin-floor fans. Fan 5 was deposited during rising shelf-edge tra- (gray squares) tend to have higher P/A ra-
jectory, whereas larger fan 6 was generated from flat shelf-edge trajectory. tios and progradation distances, and thicker
fans than clinothems with rising shelf-edge
trajectory (black squares).
(Pyles and Slatt, 2000), and helps to tie well Such elements include the shelf-edge trajec-
logs regionally. The shales bounding the cli- tory, fan thickness and area (where enough of and average aggradation of the shelf edge
nothems have been correlated before (e.g., As- the fan area is present), and the character and/ (Fig. 3) along cross sections NS2, NS3, and
quith, 1970; Winn et al., 1987; McMillen and or geometry of the sand accumulated on the NS4 (Fig. 1), which cross most of the deep-
Winn, 1991; Ross et al., 1995; Pyles and Slatt, slope. The shelf-edge trajectory (Steel and Ol- water depocenters. Our measures are unde-
2000), resulting in correlation schemes some- sen, 2002) represents the pathway of the shelf compacted, but our trajectory trends and re-
what similar to ours and so increasing the con- edge during the development of a given cli- lationship to deep-water fans seem to be
fidence of the correctness of the correlation nothem or group of clinothems (Fig. 2). We similar to those that can be inferred from a
and quantification of key elements of the have quantified this trajectory by calculating decompacted published section in the area
shelf-edge to deep-water system. the ratio between the average progradation (Ross et al., 1995).

Figure 2. NS3 cross sec-

tion (orange line with well
number labels in Fig. 1)
showing clinothems 1–16
from shelf to slope and to
basin floor (great vertical
exaggeration). Note that
fan maximum thickness
does not necessarily
coincide with this cross
section because fan
depocenters shifted
through time. Trajectory
quantification was done
using NS2, NS3, and NS4
cross sections.

666 GEOLOGY, August 2006

 TABLE 1. RATES OF PROGRADATION AND AGGRADATION FOR DIFFERENT SHELF MARGINS*

Shelf margin Age Aggradation Progradation Time Aggradation Progradation Reference

(m) distance (my) rate rate
(km) (m/my) (km/my)
Lewis–Fox Hills, Wyoming Late Cretaceous 480⬍ 86⬍ 1.8 267 47.8 This work
West Siberia Early Cretaceous ⬃1000 550 9.0 111 61.1 Pinous et al. 2001
Spitsbergen, Norway Early Eocene 1125 34 6.0 188 5.7 Johannessen & Steel, 2005
Porcupine Basin, Offshore Ireland Early Eocene 400 33 4.0–5.0 80–100 6.6–8.3 Johannessen & Steel, 2005
North Slope, Alaska Early to Late Cretaceous ⬃1000 155 10.0 100 15.5 McMillen, 1991
Exmouth Plateau, Offshore Australia Early Cretaceous 610 57⬍ 6.0 102 9.5 Erskine & Vail, 1988
Pletmos Basin, Offshore S. Africa Early Cretaceous 594 54 3.6 165 15.0 Brink et al., 1993
New Jersey Middle Miocene A few meters 31 1.8 Small 17.2 Steckler et al., 1999
*Progradation distance and aggradation measured in undecompacted cross sections (except for New Jersey). Errors may arise from cross-section orientations, lack of
depth-converted seismic data, and limited aerial coverage (e.g., in the North Slope). Dating is reasonably good for all margins except for the North Slope whose time
interval is poorly constrained. In the Lewis–Fox Hills margin, progradation distance is from shelf-edges 4–15 (Fig. 1) and time estimate is given by the Western Interior
Seaway ammonites zones from B. elliasi (ca. 70.9) to the top of B. clinolobatus (ca. 69.1) (Winn et al., 1987; Kauffman et al., 1993).

FOX HILLS–LEWIS MARGIN AS A eastward-migrating series of broad, lobe-like dimensions tend to be greater in those cli-
HIGH SEDIMENT-SUPPLY SYSTEM bodies. These sand-prone bodies have largely nothems with flat to falling or very low angle
Shelf-margin progradation and aggradation blocky to slightly serrate gamma-ray signa- trajectory, compared to the fans linked to ris-
rates have been calculated for the Fox Hills– tures, have maximum thicknesses between 52 ing shelf-edge trajectories. We define flat to
Lewis system and for a number of ancient and 121 m, and areas between 1387 and 2580 falling or slightly rising shelf-edge growth tra-
shelf margins in which clinoform amplitudes km2. On the basin floor, they are rarely inter- jectory by a progradation versus aggradation
are ⬍1000 m (Table 1). The average progra- bedded with shales (⬍3 m), but shale layers (P/A) average ratio of 0.22 ⫻ 103 ⫺1.27 ⫻
dation and aggradation rates for the Lewis increase in number and thickness toward the 103, or negative values, and a maximum shelf-
shelf margin were 47.8 km/m.y. and 267 m/ toe-of-slope and fan-fringe areas (e.g., ⬃10 edge progradation distance of 10–15 km (cli-
m.y., respectively. These are conservative es- m). nothems 4, 6, 10, and 12). These clinothems
timates, as they do not consider the progra- contain fans with a maximum thickness from
dation and aggradation of the shelf margin SLOPE SANDSTONES 102 to 121 m (average ⫽ 110 m) and an area
prior to shelf edge 4 (Fig. 1; Table 1) because Slope sandstones, in contrast to basin-floor from 2212 to 2580 km2 (average 2359 km2).
we do not have data on the early shelf-edge fans, are typically ⬍12 m thick and may occur
In contrast, more steeply rising shelf-margin
positions. Despite this, the Lewis margin ag- vertically stacked with intervening shale lay-
growth has a P/A ratio between 0.07 ⫻ 103
gradation and progradation rates are high ers. Their log patterns tend to be blocky to
and 0.25 ⫻ 103 and maximum progradation
compared to other margins, indicating that it serrate and spiky, and some have an upward-
distance of 5–8 km (clinothems 5, 7, 8, 9, and
was supply dominated. fining cap. Commonly these sandstones are
11). In these clinothems, fan maximum thick-
laterally discontinuous or show drastic lateral
LEWIS DEEP-WATER FANS ness ranges from 52 to 91 m (average ⫽ 68
thickness changes. We interpret the slope
A main result of our analysis is that all the sandstone bodies as channel fills and inner le- m) and fan area ranges from 1387 to 2234 km2
Lewis clinothems (for which we have enough vee deposits, in some cases forming multisto- (average ⫽ 1830 km2). Thus, both flattish and
basin floor and slope data) contain thick and ry and multilateral channel belts. These chan- rising shelf-margin growth produces fans, but
aerially extensive deep-water fans. We have nels acted as conduits through which sand was there is a clear tendency for steeper shelf-
focused our analysis on clinothems 4 through transported to the basin floor. margin accretion (and accompanying greater
12 because in these cases we have access to storage of the sediment budget on the shelf)
nearly complete clinothems and can measure FAN DIMENSIONS AND SHELF-EDGE to associate with smaller volumes of sand de-
most of the variables described in the follow- TRAJECTORY livery into the deep-water slope and basin
ing. Fans in these clinothems are on the basin In our data set, clinothems with either rising floor.
floor and toe of slope, although turbidite sand- or with flattish shelf-edge trajectories parti-
stones are also present on the upper slope. The tioned significant volumes of sandstone into DISCUSSION: FANS DURING RISING
fans (Figs. 1 and 2) form a southward- and deep-water areas (Figs. 2 and 3). However, fan RELATIVE SEA LEVEL
The shelf-edge trajectory, whether rising,
Figure 4. Schematic mod- flat, or falling, reflects the degree of aggra-
els for sand delivery to dation or degradation at the shelf edge. This
deep water. In A, fan is trajectory is largely controlled by the imbal-
formed during relative
sea-level fall (or still- ance between the rate of relative sea-level
stand), leading to gen- change and the rate of sediment supply; a flat,
eration of sequence highly prograding shelf-edge trajectory re-
boundary (SB), greater flects stillstand to slightly falling relative sea
sediment bypass, thinner
shelf aggradation, longer level and implies that much of the sediment
shelf-edge progradation, budget reaching the shoreline bypassed the
and thicker fan. In B, shelf edge and was delivered into deep water.
there is rise in relative This scenario favors the generation of a se-
sea level but fan is still
formed due to high sed-
quence boundary and the deposition of thicker
iment supply. MFS— and more extensive deep-water fans, as hap-
maximum flooding sur- pens in the Lewis clinothems (Figs. 3 and 4).
face. Low accommodation therefore drives the pro-

GEOLOGY, August 2006 667

gradation of the shelf margin and delivery of tance, reflecting times of bypass of larger vol- McMillen, K.M., and Winn, R.D., Jr., 1991, Seismic
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However, fans are also present in all cases oming, in Weimer, P., and Link, M.H., eds., Seis-
of rising shelf-edge trajectory (contrast with ACKNOWLEDGMENTS mic facies and sedimentary processes of
We thank Devon Energy Corporation (Dale Reitz) submarine fans and turbidite systems: New York,
Johannessen and Steel, 2005), implying that and A2D Technologies (John French and Bill Ross) for Springer-Verlag, p. 273–287.
they were generated when deltas arrived at the their support. Additional support was provided by the Mutti, E., 1985, Turbidite systems and their relations to
shelf edge even under conditions of rising rel- Jackson School of Geosciences (Geology Foundation) depositional sequences, in Zuffa, G.G., ed., Prov-
at the University of Texas at Austin. Suggestions from enance of arenites: NATO ASI Series C: Mathe-
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668 GEOLOGY, August 2006