Single-Client Field Courses STRATIGRAPHY AT ITS BEST .... ON THE ROCKS ANCIENT: Cretaceous Transgressive-Regressive Cycles and Foreland Basin Tectonics in Utah ANCIENT: Ferron Deltas MODERN: Fluvio-Deltaic and Barrier Island Depositional Settings, Coastal Plain Texas
Field
courses are offered on a single-client basis. Each course is designed
according to client goals and needs. The ancient courses utilize the superb Cretaceous
outcrops of Utah; the modern course visits localities along and near the coastline in east Texas.
Transgressive-Regressive Cycles and Foreland Basin Tectonics in Utah is a broader-focus
course. It begins with facies analysis and sequence stratigraphy at outcrop scale
and advances to the relationships between patterns of foreland basin subsidence
and facies architecture. Examples are drawn from the Indianola Group, the
Ferron Sandstone, the Dakota Sandstone, and the Straight Cliffs Formation. The
complex relationships between subsidence and uplift, sediment supply,
transgression and regression, and the development of unconformities are treated
in detail. Different interpretations regarding the origin of a
sequence boundary in the Straight Cliffs Formtion, one focused on
sea-level changes and the other on tectonics, are considered and
criteria established to help determine which is more likely correct.
Field trip party in Ferron strata in Muddy Creek Canyon. These outcrops afford the opportunity to study the facies of four parasequences in detail over a distance of about 3 km along the western canyon wall. The same strata have been cored just behind the outcrop.
Ferron Deltas addresses deltaic facies of the
Ferron Sandstone in central Utah.
The full spectum of shoreline types, from river-dominated delta front to
shoreface are examined. Vertical and lateral facies variations and
parasequence-level stratigraphy are analyzed at a high level of
detail. The course ends in the UtahGeologicalSurveyCoreResearchCenter with a day
examining cores from immediately behind outcrops visited the previous day
in the field. Team building is an important aspect of all the
courses. The rigors of hiking and climbing during long days in the field
and absence of the day-to-day distractions everybody faces in the office
foster the building of strong interpersonal relationships. Better
understanding between team members and better teamwork are the result.
Five cores cut by The ARIES Group behind outcrops of the Ferron in the southern part of Muddy Creek Canyon are stored by the UGS. Core holes are spaced at about quarter-mile intervals and the slabbed cores average about 180 ft each in length. Ferron parasequence Kf-2, the subject of the coring program, which was funded by BP, consists of four parasequences in this area. Between the nearby outcrops and the cores, most of the important depositional facies of the Ferron are represented.
The Modern Fluvio-Deltaics and Barrier Island Depositional Settings field trip visits a variety of localities along the east Texas coast and on the adjacent coastal plain. Unlike the ancient field courses, this in an introductory-level course designed to suit the needs of non-geologists as well as geologists. The emphasis is on geomorphology, sediment grain-size distributions, depositional facies, sedimentary structures, and lateral relationships between the various facies.
Trinity River valley
Trinity River bay-head delta
Trinity Bay estuary
Bolivar Peninsula barrier island
Galveston Island and tidal inlet
San Luis Pass tidal inlet
Coastal erosion at Surfside Beach
"Old" and "New" Brazos deltas
Abandoned channel belt of Oyster Creek
Oxbow lakes of Brazos River
Rainbow ends on outcrops of the Jurassic Carmel Formation, San Rafael Swell, Utah. Come to the field and we'll look for that pot of gold together.
