Sandstone-body structures and ephemeral stream processes in the Dinosaur Canyon Member, Moenave Formation (Lower Jurassic), Utah, U.S.A.

Abstract

Studies of fluvial sandstone-body structures in the Lower Jurassic Dinosaur Canyon Member suggest a threefold subdivision of the ephemeral stream deposits. Sandstone-sheets with interbedded siltstones are less than 1 m thick and laterally extensive for hundreds of metres. They are interpreted as sheetflood deposits. Simple channel sandstone-bodies are a few metres thick and a few tens of metres wide. They reflect solitary channel incision, episodic migration and plugging. Multistorey channel sandstone-bodies are a few metres thick and laterally extensive for hundreds of metres. They are composed of several channel-shaped storeys and exhibit only local incision. The multistorey sandstone-bodies are interpreted as braided ephemeral stream deposits. Two sandstone-sheet subtypes with grooves and mounds, respectively, are interpreted as intermediate between the sheetflood deposits and solitary incised channel deposits on one hand and between sheetflood deposits and braided stream deposits on the other hand. The solitary channels and braided streams are accordingly interpreted to be initiated from sheetfloods through differential erosion and differential deposition, respectively. This model of channel evolution from sheetfloods is probably applicable to other semiarid and arid fluvial environments dominated by surface runoff.