Sedimentology and stratigraphy of the Lower Silurian Grimsby formation, in subsurface, Lake Erie and Southwestern Ontario

Since the first offshore Lake Erie well was drilled in 1941, the Grimsby and Thorold formations of the Cataract Group have been economically important to the oil and gas industry of Ontario. The Cataract Group provides a significant amount of Ontario's gas production primarily from wells located on Lake Erie. The Grimsby - Thorold formations are the result of nearshore estuarine processes influenced by tides on a prograding shelf and are composed of subtidal channel complexes, discrete tidal channels, mud flats and non-marine deposits. Deposition was related to a regressive - transgressive cycle associated with eustatic sea level changes caused by the melting and resurgence of continental glaciation centred in Africa in the Late Ordovician/Early Silurian. Grimsby deposition began during a regression with the deposition of subtidal channel complexes incised into the marine deposits of the Cabot Head Formation. The presence of mud drapes and mud couplets suggest that these deposits were influenced by tides. These deposits dominate the lower half of the Grimsby. Deposition continued with a change from these subtidal channel complexes to laterally migrating, discrete, shallow tidal channels and mud flats. These were in turn overlain by the non-marine deposits of the Thorold Formation. Grimsby - Thorold deposition ended with a major transgression replacing siliciclastic deposition with primarily carbonate deposition. Sediment was sourced from the east and southeast and associated with a continuation of the Taconic Orogeny into the Early Silurian. The fluvial head of the estuary prograded from a shoreline that was located in western New York and western Pennsylvania running NNE-SSW and then turning NW-SE and paralleling the present day Lake Erie shoreline. iii The facies attributed to the Grimsby - Thorold formations can be ascribed to the three zones within the tripartite zonation suggested by Dalrymple et ale (1992) for estuaries, that is, a marine-dominated facies, a mixed energy facies, and a facies that is dominated by fluvial processes. Also, sediments within the Grimsby - Thorold are commonly fining upwards sequences which are common in estuarine settings whereas deltaic deposits are normally composed of coarsening upwards sequences in a vertical wedge shape with coarser material near the head. The only coarsening observed was in the Thorold Formation and attributed to non-marine deposition by palynological evidence. The presence of a lag deposit at the base of the sediments of the Grimsby Thorold formations suggests that they were incised into the Cabot Head Formation. Further, the thickness of Early Silurian sediments located between the top of the Queenston Formation, where Early Silurian sedimentation began, to the top of the Reynales - Irondequoit formation are constant whether the Grimsby - Thorold formations are present or not. Also, cross-sections using a sand body located in the Cabot Head Formation for correlation further imply that the Grimsby Formation has been incised into the previous deposits of the Cabot Head.

The sedimentology of the lower Silurian whirlpool sandstone in subsurface Lake Erie, Ontario

The lower Silurian Whirlpool Sandstone is composed of two main units: a fluvial unit and an estuarine to transitional marine unit. The lowermost unit is made up of sandy braided fluvial deposits, in shallow valleys, that flowed towards the northwest. The fluvial channels are largely filled by cross-bedded, well sorted, quartzose sands, with little ripple crosslaminated or overbank shales. Erosionally overlying this lower unit are brackish water to marine deposits. In the east, this unit consists of estuarine channels and tidal flat deposits. The channels consist of fluvial sands at the base, changing upwards into brackish and tidally influenced channelized sandstones and shales. The estuarine channels flowed to the southwest. Westwards, the unit contains backbarrier facies with extensive washover deposits. Separating the backbarrier facies from shoreface sandstone facies to the west, are barrier island sands represented by barrier-foreshore facies. The barrier islands are dissected by tidal inlets characterized by fining upward abandonment sequences. Inlet deposits are also present west of the barrier island, abandoned by transgression on the shoreface. The sandy marine deposits are replaced to the west by carbonates of the Manitoulin Limestone. During the latest Ordovician, a hiatus in crustal loading during the Taconic Orogeny led to erosional offloading and crustal rebound, the eroded material distributed towards the west, northwest and north as the terrestrial deposits of the fluvial Whirlpool. The "anti-peripheral bulge" of the rebound interfered with the peripheral bulge of the Michigan Basin, nulling the Algonquin Arch, and allowing the detritus of the fluvial Whirlpool to spread onto the Algonquin Arch. The Taconic Orogeny resumed in the earliest Silurian with crustal loading to the south and southeast, and causing tilting of the surface slope in subsurface Lake Erie towards the ii southwest. Lowstand terrestrial deposits were scoured into the new slope. The new crustal loading also reactivated the peripheral bulge of the Appalachian Basin, allowing it to interact with the bulge of the Michigan Basin, raising the Algonquin Arch. The crustal loading depressed the Appalachian basin and allowed transgression to occur. The renewed Algonquin Arch allowed the early Silurian transgression to proceed up two slopes, one to the east and one to the west. The transgression to the east entered the lowstand valleys and created the estuarine Whirlpool. The rising arch caused progradation of the Manitoulin carbonates upon shoreface facies of the Whirlpool Sandstone and upon offshore facies of the Cabot Head Formation. Further crustal loading caused basin subsidence and rapid transgression, abandoning the Whirlpool estuary in an offshore setting.

Dinocyst biochronology and palynofacies : inferred systems tract character of Miocene sequences from New Jersey mid-Atlantic transect (ODP legs 174A and 174AX) /

One of the main objectives of the mid-Atlantic transect is to improve dating resolution of sequences and unconfonnity surfaces. Dinoflagellate cysts from two Ocean Drilling Program boreholes, the onshore Leg 174AX Ocean View Site and Leg 174A continental shelf Site 1071, are used to provide age estimates for sequences and unconfonnities fonned on the New Jersey continental margin during the Miocene epoch. Despite the occasional lack of dinocysts in barren and oxidized sections, dinocyst biochronology still offers greater age control than that provided by other microfossils in marginal marine environments. An early Miocene to late Miocene chronology based on ages detennined for the two study sites is presented. In addition, .palynofacies are used to unravel the systems tract character of the Miocene sequences and provide insight into the effects of taphonomy and preservation of palynomorphs in marginal marine and shelf environments under different ~ea level conditions. More precise placement of maximum flooding surfaces is possible through the identification of condensed sections and palynofacies shifts can also reveal subaerially exposed sections and surfaces not apparent in seismic or lithological analyses. The problems with the application of the pollen record in the interpretation of Miocene climate are also discussed. Palynomorphs provide evidence for a second-order lowering of sea level during the Miocene, onto which higher order sea level fluctuations are super-imposed. Correlation of sequences and unconfonnities is attempted between onshore boreholes and from the onshore Ocean View borehole to offshore Site 1071.

Significado sedimentológico de los niveles con Assilinas de la Formación Armancies (Eoceno medio) y sus equivalentes laterales

In this paper we show some sedimentological characteristics of Assilina beds from Armancies Fm. (middle Eocene) and their lateral equivalents that let us to remark some aspects of their genesis. We arrive to the conclusion that, in occidental sector (Bagá-Campdevanol), ‘las barras de Assilinas’ from the Armancies Fm. are grain flow channels, first sedimented at W of Terrades and after slided, from E to W in a turbidite basin, without any coarse clastic

Métodos de reconocimiento del subsuelo

The aim of this workshop is to present the main methods of subsoil studies (namely mechanical and geophysical methods) to the Earth Sciences professorate. These methods frequently involve the use of specific material. The different methods are usually taught in the classroom where there is no real contact between the students and the equipment. Several activities, all of them taking place in surrounding areas of the university campus of Girona, will provide the assistants to the workshop with the opportunity of making measurements with different equipment. These activities will be made in the field so as to contribute to the resolution of a problem which will have been previously proposed. The problems presented are situations, most of them real, when subsoil investigation techniques are usually used. These cases have been employed as teaching-learning strategies with university and second grade students in the area of Girona. Finally, some examples of exercises involving the treatment of data obtained through subsoil investigation techniques are also presented to complement the workshop

El paleozoic del massís de Begur (Girona)

The Paleozoic materials of Massís de Begur are described from a stratigraphical point of view. We distinguish two units: the lower one, present phillites with carbonate layers of cambro-ordovician age. The upper one is composed by volcanic rocks, carbonate schists and black slates, bring from caradocian and ashgillian age

El paleogen del massís de Begur (Girona)

Stratigraphic series concerning the paleogenic materials of the 'Massis de Begur' are described. We note the presence of some diferences between its northem and westem margins

Sedimentologia e correlação cronoestratigráfica dos turbiditos da formação Rio do Sul (Grupo Itararé) na faixa aflorante do centro catarinense

Pós-graduação em Geologia Regional - IGCE

Mapeamento geológico - estrutural do astroblema de cerro do Jarau - RS Brasil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Bivalves da Formação Taciba, Cisuraliano, Grupo Itararé, Bacia do Paraná, e seu significado bioestratigráfico e paleoambiental no contexto da glaciação neopaleozóica no Gondwana central

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Análise faciológica e estratigráfica das formações Taciba (parte superior) e Rio Bonito (membro Triunfo) em poços testemunhados da área de Monte Alegre (PR)

The Triunfo Member, from Rio Bonito Formation, is a potential reservoir for hydrocarbons and water, and contains coal deposits in the northern state of Paraná. On the eastern edge of the Paraná Basin, the Triunfo Member has two depocenters in Santa Catarina and offlap to the North of Paraná; here in two adjacent areas characterized his final lapout. These areas have a number of wells core/logged with the initials MA and NF, Monte Alegre and Figueira North, which were drilled by the Companhia de Pesquisa e Recursos Minerais (CPRM), in order to research for coal in the Rio Bonito Formation. In this study, three wells in the MA area, and they were MA-4, MA-6 and MA-7 was subjected to vertical facies analysis (1D), from the description of wells and processing of data, so that later it was possible to chronocorrelate thereof, together with MA-5 well, through cycles facies (2D). This is a thesis which has never been developed in these wells mentioned above, it was possible to observe the development of part of the Member Taciba (top) and the Member Triunfo as a whole, can be determined three cycles facies to the latter, as well as their depositional environments. Finally, the chronocorrelate showed that there is a tabular architecture between the wells studied, this occurred because of subsidence uniform

A cunha do ciclo de fácies do Grupo Guatá (Eopermiano) na margem sub-aflorante do norte paranaense

A wedge facies cycle it‟s a body of sedimentary rock, bounded above and below by unconformity and which represents a transgressive-regressive cycle of deposition. This cycle is formed by the following succession of facies: non-marine (N), transitional-coarse texture, and marine-fine texture; The objective of this study have been members of the sandstones and Triumph Siderópolis, seconded by rare calcareous sandstones and very thin limb Paraguaçu. Through analysis of facies in wells testified by CPRM, it was possible to group on facies successions and set the standard stacking. The Triunfo Member consists of three cycles of facies, lithology whose standard indicates a vertical arrangement ''type'' tuning up, other words, a component sandy bottom in the form of '' box'', followed by components sandy-clayey and clayey-carbonaceous (1st and 2nd cycle) and / or shale and limestone (3rd cycle), represented by the base member Paraguaçu. The first cycle only occurs on NF-5 wells and NF-6 in the form of Onlap channel dug in post-Itararé group. The cycle II also reaches wells NF-4 and NF-3 to the north, while the cycle III reaches the southern area, well NF-9. The member Paraguaçu, well PP-25 is predominantly clay-síltico, also stand out limestones and sandstones. The limestones are not coastal marine organisms probably connected with the algae and cyanobacteria, the sandstones are fine-textured, very thin and coastal deposition environment. The member Siderópolis, well NF-2 consists of a sandstone fluvial-estuarine deployed in the valley section, and succeeded by sandstones and siltstones bioturbed, they have linked the transgression of the Fm. Palermo

Sucessão estratigráfica e paleoambientes dos microbialitos proterozóicos do membro sumidouro, formação lagamar, grupo Vazante, na fazenda Sumaré, em Lagamar - MG

Microbialites (irregular agglutinated grains, laterally continuous mats and stromatolites) occur in small, nearly continuous outcrops over a ~60 m-thick carbonate interval of the Sumidouro Member, Lagamar Formation, Vazante Group, Meso-Neoproterozoic, on the Sumaré Farm, in Lagamar (MG, Southeastern Brazil). Diversified stromatolites formed under shallow, high energy conditions predominate and exhibit frequent lateral and vertical changes, including probable bioherm borders. In the lower part of the interval, coniform columnar stromatolites (Conophyton), representative of the deepest and/or calmest settings, are common. Higher up, narrow subcylindrical unbranched forms become abundant and may grade to forms with subparallel dichotomous or multiple divergent branches. The microbialites are apparently organized in shallowing upward cycles

Litofácies e relações estratigráficas da formação Aquidauana no nordeste da Bacia do Paraná - São Sebastião do Paraíso (MG)

The Aquidauana Formation is characterized by sandstones of variable granulation, mudstones and diamectites abundant in clay, typical colors like brick red (vermelho tijolo) of glacial, fluvial and lacustrine origin. It’s chronostratigraphic equivalent to the Itarará group from the Neo Carboniferous age, that under the exploratory view, such units represent important intervals in the basin, occurring together with them minerals as well as energy resources as petroleum, underground water and coal – what requires a great paleogeography and stratigraphy knowledge for its exploration. By gathering information from the columnar sections of the area, it was possible to characterize the sedimentary facies, the stacking pattern as well as the association. It was also made an attempt of stratigraphic correlation, which showed great difficulties since glacial environments present a great lateral discontinuity of the facies besides the complex relationship process of formation. As a result, it was obtained 8 sedimentary facies, the lateral and vertical relations and genesis process. It is proposed that the sedimentary environment in the study area is the fluvio glacial, characterized by alluvial systems formed by defrosted water which transport the sediments that are deposited in plains in front of the glacier (distal outwash). Petrographic thin section analysis showed that the transportation process was ineffective. The grains present punctual to lobular contacts, characterizing good porosity and permeability to the rock, varying these qualities according to more or less existence of matrix. The presence of Iron Oxide deposited between the recrystallization border and feldspathic mineral indicates that this rock has possibly presented a primary rubefaction, intensified by alkaline fluid percolation

Análises tectono-estratigráfica e faciológico-diagenética da coquina-reservatório Lagoa Feia, Campo de Linguado, Bacia de Campos

A tectono-stratigraphic study of bivalve coquina-reservoir of Linguado Field allowed to identify two trends of permoporosity development. The delineation of these depositional-diagenetic traps were made through structural and stratigrafic cross-sections and maps. It resulted in the identification of shelf-ramp systems (tilted to SSE), it tickens from 60 to 70 meters and ends against an antithetic fault. The main coquina is bounded by fine siliciclastic units, white clay (low Gamma Ray values) or shale (high Gamma Ray values) lithologies, influencing diagenesis of basal or top coquina limestones (cimented, non-porous). Also in the middle of coquina-reservoir the “clayer” material is also associated with cemented carbonates, with also compartimentalize the reservoir into two subzones. The coquina porosity of the subzones is taken from density-neutron logs, while induction log estimates permeabilities and fluid saturations. It’s noticed the porosity development into pairs, good one followed by a regular/poor one and vice versa. These pairs form verticals succession, pair cycles where porosity improves or decreases upwards. These two scales of pore heterogeneity impose strong layering to the reservoir, and influences fluid saturations, oil-water contacts and porosity cut-offs. In a cross-section with density and induction logs, it can be observed the porosity variation along the shelf-ramp coquina (between 3LI_0004_RJS e 3RJS_0157C_RJ), the porosity is better developed in a downdip direction in the case of the two shelf wells, and also be the three ramp wells. The southern west downdip, 3RJS_0157C_RJ well, has best porosity pairs-cycles; however, its lowest structural conditions favour water saturation. Therefore it is fundamental for reservoir fluid evaluation a cross-plot analysis of RHOB-NPHI and Induction logs