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A. R. Palmer

Publications and source records attributed to A. R. Palmer.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2008

The record of time in cratonic interior strata: Does exceptionally slow subsidence necessarily result in exceptionally poor stratigraphic completeness?

A newly constructed a high-resolution chronostratigraphic and lithostratigraphic framework for the Upper Cambrian and Lower Ordovician Sauk Sequence in the cratonic interior of North America provides insight into the long-standing question of how time is recorded in sedimentary packages deposited in shallow epeiric seas across regions with exceptionally slow subsidence. It reveals that time is recorded in these strata in a manner fundamentally similar to the way it is in a number of nearshore marine-dominated sedimentary packages that were deposited under conditions of markedly higher subsidence rates. The principal consequence of slow subsidence in the cratonic interior appears largely to be a pronounced shingling of chronostratigraphic units perpendicular to depositional strike. An evaluation of relative stratigraphic completeness of the Upper Cambrian and Lower Ordovician of this region suggests that a number of routine interpretations and assumptions must be re-evaluated. Our results are inconsistent with the common interpretation that: (1) cratonic interior sedimentary packages are exceptionally stratigraphically incomplete; and (2) that conditions of very slow subsidence and a bathymetrically shallow shelf by themselves preclude deposition of a relatively complete record of time. In refuting these conventional assumptions, our conclusions have implications for a variety of approaches that require a fundamental understanding of the stratigraphic record of time, such as efforts to construct eustatic sea level curves and evaluations of the fossil record of evolution.

Conference Paper↗
USGS2007

High-resolution sequence stratigraphy of lower Paleozoic sheet sandstones in central North America: The role of special conditions of cratonic interiors in development of stratal architecture

Well-known difficulties in applying sequence stratigraphic concepts to deposits that accumulated across slowly subsiding cratonic interior regions have limited our ability to interpret the history of continental-scale tectonism, oceanographic dynamics of epeiric seas, and eustasy. We used a multi-disciplinary approach to construct a high-resolution stratigraphic framework for lower Paleozoic strata in the cratonic interior of North America. Within this framework, these strata proved readily amenable to modern sequence stratigraphic techniques that were formulated based on successions along passive margins and in foreland basins, settings markedly different from the cratonic interior. Parasequences, parasequence stacking patterns, systems tracts, maximum flooding intervals, and sequence-bounding unconformities can be confidently recognized in the cratonic interior using mostly standard criteria for identification. The similarity of cratonic interior and foreland basin successions in size, geometry, constituent facies, and local stacking patterns of nearshore parasequences is especially striking. This similarity indicates that the fundamental processes that establish shoreface morphology and determine the stratal expression of retreat and progradation were likewise generally the same, despite marked differences in tectonism, physiography, and bathymetry between the two settings. Our results do not support the widespread perception that Paleozoic cratonic interior successions are so anomalous in stratal geometries, and constitute such a poor record of time, that they are poorly suited for modern sequence stratigraphic analyses. The particular arrangement of stratal elements in the cratonic interior succession we studied is no more anomalous or enigmatic than the variability in architecture that sets all sedimentary successions apart from one another. Thus, Paleozoic strata of the cratonic interior are most appropriately considered as a package that belongs in a continuum of variable stratigraphic packages reflecting variable controls such as subsidence and shelf physiography. Special conditions of exceptionally slow subsidence rate, shallow bathymetry, and nearly flat regional shelf gradient are manifest mostly by the presence of individual systems tracts of relatively long duration that extend for much greater distances across depositional strike than those that characterize successions deposited in more dynamic tectonic and physiographic settings. These results suggest that if other cratonic interior successions are as anomalous as reported, a low sediment supply may have played a primary role in development of their apparently condensed stratal architecture. The results also lead us to suggest that a nonvegetated lower Paleozoic landscape played a relatively insignificant role in the development of what are commonly perceived to be enigmatic stratigraphic features of sheet sandstones, particularly their widespread yet thin geometry, and a scarcity of shale and siltstone. ?? 2007 Geological Society of America.

Geological Society of America Bulletin↗
USGS1998

Origin of a classic cratonic sheet sandstone: Stratigraphy across the Sauk II-Sauk III boundary in the Upper Mississippi Valley

The origin of cratonic sheet sandstones of Proterozoic and early Paleozoic age has been a long-standing problem for sedimentologists. Lower Paleozoic strata in the Upper Mississippi Valley are best known for several such sandstone bodies, the regional depositional histories of which are poorly understood. We have combined outcrop and subsurface data from six states to place the Upper Cambrian Wonewoc (Ironton and Galesville) Sandstone in a well-constrained stratigraphic framework across thousands of square kilometers. This framework makes it possible for the first time to construct a regional-scale depositional model that explains the origin of this and other cratonic sheet sandstones.

Geological Society of America Bulletin↗
USGS1984

Middle Cambrian fossils from the Doonerak anticlinorium, central Brooks Range, Alaska

Middle Cambrian fossils collected near Wolf Creek in the Wiseman quadrangle, northern Alaska, include trilobites and paraconodonts. Trilobites date the strata as early Middle Cambrian, correlative with the Amgan Stage of Siberia. The assemblage includes: Kootenia cf. K. anabarensis Lermontova, cf. 'Parehmania' lata Chernysheva and Pagetia sp. Specimens of the paracondont genus Westergaardodina, from the same sample as the megafossils, record the earliest known occurrence of this taxon. These fossils, the first to establish an age for part of the sedimentary sequence in the Doonerak Anticlinorium, are the oldest fossils yet taken from the central and western Brooks Range.

Journal of Paleontology↗