Structural inversion and origin of a Late Ordovician (Trenton) carbonate buildup: evidence from the Tanglewood and Devils Hollow members, Lexington Limestone, central Kentucky (USA)

Abstract

Throughout east–central United States, Lexington/Trenton limestones are largely Late Ordovician (Chatfieldian; mid-Caradoc), argillaceous, skeletal calcarenites, which are transgressive upward into Late Ordovician (late Chatfieldian–Edenian; mid-late Caradoc) shales and interbedded micrograined limestones. In central Kentucky, however, the same sequence is partially truncated by an unconformity and passes upward into a thicker, younger (Edenian; late Caradoc), regressive shoal complex of coarse calcarenites and calcirudites that is not generally typical of the Lexington/Trenton sequence elsewhere. The shoal complex is interpreted to have been a carbonate buildup and is partially bound by extant faults with basement precursors. Comparison of isopachous maps for pre- and postunconformity buildup units with basement structural lineaments suggests that the buildup is related to reactivation—and in one prominent case, inversion—of the basement structures. The coincidence of structural reactivation, inversion, and buildup development with other major regional, cratonic changes may reflect a reorganization of cratonic, far-field forces accompanying a nearly coeval reversal in the polarity of Taconic subduction.