A fault-controlled trough through a carbonate platform: The Middle Cambrian House Range embayment

Abstract

Research Article| September 01, 1986 A fault-controlled trough through a carbonate platform: The Middle Cambrian House Range embayment M. N. REES M. N. REES 1Department of Geology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045 Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Author and Article Information M. N. REES 1Department of Geology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045 Publisher: Geological Society of America First Online: 01 Jun 2017 Online ISSN: 1943-2674 Print ISSN: 0016-7606 Geological Society of America GSA Bulletin (1986) 97 (9): 1054–1069. https://doi.org/10.1130/0016-7606(1986)97<1054:AFTTAC>2.0.CO;2 Article history First Online: 01 Jun 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Permissions Search Site Citation M. N. REES; A fault-controlled trough through a carbonate platform: The Middle Cambrian House Range embayment. GSA Bulletin 1986;; 97 (9): 1054–1069. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/0016-7606(1986)97<1054:AFTTAC>2.0.CO;2 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietyGSA Bulletin Search Advanced Search Abstract During the Cambrian, part of western North America was a rapidly subsiding, passive continental margin. A belt of carbonate deposition dominated the central shelf during Middle Cambrian time. The belt was bounded by fine-grained terrigenous sediments that accumulated in deeper water to the west and in a coastal setting to the east. Rapid and possibly repeated movement along a northeast-southwest–oriented fault produced a conspicuous eastward re-entrant into the carbonate belt, the House Range embayment, in Nevada and Utah during the middle Middle Cambrian. The embayment was an asymmetrical trough that deepened and widened as it extended ∼400 km westward across the shelf toward the edge of the continent. The trough axis lay near its abrupt southern margin which was a normal fault separating an area of continuous shallow-water accumulation to the south from deep-water deposition. The northern flank of the embayment was initially a drowned platform that formed a southward-sloping ramp.Facies within the embayment represent deposition in an anoxic basin, on a deep ramp that was locally steepened, and on a shallow, low-energy ramp. The facies rapidly prograded basinward across the northern flank, and through vertical accretion, a broad carbonate platform was re-established there. In contrast to the northern flank, a continuous sequence of deep-water lithofacies accumulated throughout the late Middle Cambrian in the trough axis of the embayment. This region seemingly subsided more rapidly than did that of the northern flank, and it may have functioned as a sediment bypass zone. Although a source of periplatformal carbonates was nearby, sedimentation rates in the trough were thus inadequate to re-establish a shallow-water depositional setting. First Page Preview Close Modal You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.