Sequence Stratigraphy and Depositional Systems of the Lower Silurian Medina Group, Northern Appalachian Basin

Abstract

Detailed sedimentological analysis of 3500 ft of continuous core from 44 wells in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Ontario, New York, and West Virginia, combined with regional study of geophysical logs, results in new interpretations of sequence stratigraphy and depositional systems in Lower Silurian siliciclastic rocks of the northern Appalachian basin. Above a type-1 sequence boundary at the base of the Medina Group are a lowstand systems tract and a transgressive systems tract that are represented, respectively, by the Whirlpool Sandstone and by the overlying Cabot Head Shale. The thickest sandstones in the Medina Group occur in the Grimsby Sandstone, which is interpreted as a highstand systems tract with basinward-prograding parasequences. Sea level rise after Grimsby parasequence deposition is represented by marine-shelf shale in the uppermost part of the Medina Group. Based on facies successions in the cores, four mappable depositional systems are interpreted for the Grimsby Sandstone and correlative sandstone units; (1) wave-dominated middle shelf, (2) wave- and tide-influenced inner shelf, (3) tide dominated shoreline, and (4) fluvial. The wave-dominated middle-shelf system, which includes very fine-grained shelf-ridge sandstones encased in marine shale, is the most basinward system, occurring from Ontario through parts of eastern Ohio. Shoreward, across the northern Appalachian basin, themore » influence of tidal processes relative to wave processes generally increased, which may have been related to distance across the shelf, water depth, and shoreline configuration. The shoreline may have been deltaic in some areas and straight in other areas.« less