JDJCSET | Our Global Environment: Past, Present and Future - Geosciences Seminar
Academic Level at Time of Presentation
Graduate
Major
Geosciences
Minor
None
List all Project Mentors & Advisor(s)
Dr. Haluk Cetin
Presentation Format
Poster Presentation
Abstract/Description
Following a mass extinction nearly 365 million years ago, bryozoans and crinoids replaced corals and stromatoporoids as the dominant framework organisms in reefs and, during the very earliest part of the Carboniferous period, they built reef-like structures that are known from Europe, North America and Africa. They are characterized by large size, a matrix of carbonate mud, and their major framework organisms.
Waulsortian-like mounds occur in geographically isolated patches in outcrop and in the subsurface of central Tennessee and Kentucky where they are associated with hydrocarbon production. These mounds have the same characteristic organisms as the European mounds and do possess a capping bed of carbonate, but they differ in that the matrix is almost always comprised of fine-grained clastic material instead of carbonate mud.
Combining geographic information system (GIS) analysis and previously conducted field studies show a predictable trend to the Waulsortian-like mounds found within Tennessee and Kentucky. The mounds are always found within rocks of Early Mississippian age, and are within lithologic units mapped as clastic material, such as shale and siltstone. These mounds are also closely associated with mapped carbonate units, such as limestone and dolostone, due to the capping bed normally associated with the mound. The mounds provided in this study are mostly associated with lake margins within the rock units of interest. This is due to the fact that lakes provide a “window” into the older subsurface units that are not normally exposed at the surface, and allow for further study of these mounds.
Location
Classroom 211 & Front-South Lobby, Waterfield Library
Start Date
18-11-2016 12:30 PM
End Date
18-11-2016 2:30 PM
Affiliations
Geosciences
A GIS Analysis of Waulsortian-like Mounds in the Mississippian of Kentucky and Tennessee
Classroom 211 & Front-South Lobby, Waterfield Library
Following a mass extinction nearly 365 million years ago, bryozoans and crinoids replaced corals and stromatoporoids as the dominant framework organisms in reefs and, during the very earliest part of the Carboniferous period, they built reef-like structures that are known from Europe, North America and Africa. They are characterized by large size, a matrix of carbonate mud, and their major framework organisms.
Waulsortian-like mounds occur in geographically isolated patches in outcrop and in the subsurface of central Tennessee and Kentucky where they are associated with hydrocarbon production. These mounds have the same characteristic organisms as the European mounds and do possess a capping bed of carbonate, but they differ in that the matrix is almost always comprised of fine-grained clastic material instead of carbonate mud.
Combining geographic information system (GIS) analysis and previously conducted field studies show a predictable trend to the Waulsortian-like mounds found within Tennessee and Kentucky. The mounds are always found within rocks of Early Mississippian age, and are within lithologic units mapped as clastic material, such as shale and siltstone. These mounds are also closely associated with mapped carbonate units, such as limestone and dolostone, due to the capping bed normally associated with the mound. The mounds provided in this study are mostly associated with lake margins within the rock units of interest. This is due to the fact that lakes provide a “window” into the older subsurface units that are not normally exposed at the surface, and allow for further study of these mounds.