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Facies trend and statistical characterization of deepwater systems during remnant ocean-early foreland transition: lower Pennsylvanian of the Ouachita Mountains, USA
Hou, Pengfei
Hou, Pengfei
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2020
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Abstract
Submarine fan deposits at remnant ocean-foreland basin transitional settings are important to understand the stratigraphic, tectonic, and paleogeographic evolution of collisional continental margins, but they are often subject to significant structural complexity and low preservation potential. The Lower Pennsylvanian Jackfork Group and the lower Atoka formation in the Ouachita Mountains, United States, are one of the few precious deepwater outcrop examples that record such a transition during the Ouachita Orogeny. This study systematically documents the two submarine fan systems with conventional facies analysis and integrated statistical characterization, illustrated in three chapters. Chapter 2 recognizes the unique patterns in facies distribution in the foredeep, wedge-top, and foreland structural-depositional zones of the lower Atoka formation. These patterns are interpreted to be dominantly controlled by variable combinations of local structural regimes and sediment supplies. Chapter 3 integrates four statistical methods for depositional interpretation and tests them with the lower Atoka outcrop dataset. These methods include the Hurst Statistics, bed thickness frequency distributions, Markov Chains stratal order analysis, and time series analysis. The results reveal stronger lateral confinement in the southeastern region in the Ouachita Mountains, the prevalence of stratigraphic orderness in the lower Atoka outcrops, and the interactions of intrinsic and extrinsic controls in different regions, which supports and greatly extends the conclusions of Chapter 2. Chapter 4 uses the integrated methods from Chapters 2 & 3 to compare the compiled outcrop datasets of the Jackfork and the lower Atoka. The increasing structural complexity from Jackfork to lower Atoka is expressed by the increase in lateral confinement in the southeastern region, isolation of the northwestern region, and the influence of intra-basinal structures. The results of this study have implications for the other foreland basins along the Appalachian-Ouachita-Marathon fold and thrust belt and other analogous basins. The integrated statistical methods can be used to enhance the depositional interpretations of outcrop and subsurface datasets.
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