Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Upper Devonian shoal-water delta integrated with cyclic back-reef facies off the Mowanbini Archipelago (Canning Basin), Western Australia

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Facies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The Oscar Range in Western Australia’s Canning Basin exhibits folded Proterozoic, quartzite, quartzite conglomerate, phyllite, and metavolcanic rocks that survive with positive relief. Facies of the Pillara Limestone were deposited around this relief during Late Devonian (Frasnian) time. A segment of the Great Devonian Barrier Reef with a linear reef margin strikes parallel to the outer paleoislands in the Mowanbini Archipelago. A more sheltered strait separates inner islands from the cratonic Devonian mainland on the Kimberley Block. Large fan-deltas emanated from the craton, but locally small shoal-water deltas prograded from a drainage basin on one of the larger paleoislands in the Oscar Range. That island is expressed today by local topography exhumed from beneath a cover of former Devonian, Carboniferous, and Permian strata. The Devonian shoal-water delta rests unconformably on tilted Proterozoic phyllite and incorporates abundant phyllitic debris accumulated under fluvial to shoreface conditions. Some quartzite pebbles and hydrothermal quartz were derived from a source more than a kilometer away. Rare gastropods and stromatoporoid fragments in the deltaic sediments were abraded from the adjacent reef margin. The clast-supported conglomerate in the exposed shoal-water delta is mapped over a distance of 130 m to within 15 m of the inner reef margin, exposed nearby on steeply dipping phyllite. A cyclic succession of mixed clastic and carbonate parasequences, 31.5 m in thickness, follows above a disconformity surface on the delta-top facies. The overall succession represents a minor fall in relative sea level associated with erosion of delta facies and a major transgression characterized by a retrograde parasequence stacking pattern. The succession shifts through siliciclastic-rich shoreface to intertidal distal back-reef facies, ending with a subtidal, siliciclastic-poor proximal back-reef facies. The study demonstrates how variability in sedimentary cycles is influenced by local paleogeographic constraints in an island system dominated by quartzite highlands and phyllite lowlands.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Backus DH, Johnson ME, Riosmena-Rogríguez R (2012) Distribution, sediment source, and coastal erosion of fan-delta systems on Isla Cerralvo (Lower Gulf of California, Mexico). J Coast Res 28:210–224

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brownlaw RLS, Hocking RM, Jell JS (1996) High frequency sea-level fluctuations in the Pillara Limestone, Guppy Hills, Lennard Shelf, northwestern Australia. Hist Biol 11:187–212

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brownlaw RLS, Hearn SJ, Jell JS (1998) Spectral analysis of the back-reef limestones of the ‘Devonian Great Barrier Reef’, Western Australia. Proc R Soc Qld 107:99–107

    Google Scholar 

  • Dott RH Jr (1974) Cambrian tropical storm waves in Wisconsin. Geology 2:243–246

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Emery KO, Tracey JIJ, Ladd HSA (1954) Geology of Bikini and nearby atolls. U.S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Pap. 260, p 265

  • Flügel E (2010) Microfacies of carbonate rocks: analysis, interpretation and application, 2nd edn. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, p 984

    Google Scholar 

  • Frankel E (1968) Rate of formation of beach rock. Earth Planet Sci Lett 4:439–440

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ginsburg RN (1971) Landward movement of carbonate mud: new model for regressive cycles in carbonates. Am Assoc Pet Geol Bull 55:340

    Google Scholar 

  • Hocking RM, Playford PE (1998) Oscar Range area geological map, Devonian reef complexes of the Canning Basin. Geol Surv West Aust Bull. 145, plate 2, scale 1:100,000

  • Holmes AE, Christie-Blick N (1993) Origin of sedimentary cycles in mixed carbonate-siliciclastic systems: an example from the Canning Basin, Western Australia. Am Assoc Pe Geol Memoir 57:181–212

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson ME, Webb GE (2007) Outer rocky shores of the Mowanbini Arachipelago, Devonian Reef complex, Canning Basin, Western Australia. J Geol 115:583–600

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson ME, Skinner DF, MacLeod KG (1988) Ecological zonation during the carbonate transgression of a Late Ordovician rocky shore (northeastern Manitoba, Hudson Bay, Canada). Palaeogeogr Paeoclimatol Palaeoecol 65:93–114

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson ME, Wilson MA, Redden JA (2010) Borings in quartzite surf boulders from the Upper Cambrian Basal Deadwood Formation, Black Hills of South Dakota. Ichnos 17:48–55

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kerans C (1985) Petrology of Devonian and Carboniferous carbonates of the Canning and Bonaparte Basins, Western Australia. West Aust Mining Pet Res Inst Rep 12:1–223

    Google Scholar 

  • Lochman-Balk C (1964) Paleo-ecological studies of the Deadwood Formation (Cambrian-Ordovician). In Sundaram RK (ed) Paleontology and stratigraphy. Proceedings of Section 8, 22nd International Geological Congress, India, 25–38

  • McLean DJ, Mountjoy EW (1994) Allocyclic control on Late Devonian buildup development, southern Canadian Rocky Mountains. J Sediment Res B64:326–340

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson SJ, Johnson ME (2002) Jens Munk Archipelago: Ordovician–Silurian islands in the Churchill areas of the Hudson Bay Lowlands, Northern Manitoba. J Geol 110:577–589

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Playford PE (1980) Devonian “Great Barrier Reef” of the Canning Basin, Western Australia. Am Assoc Pet Geol Bull 64:814–840

    Google Scholar 

  • Playford PE (2002) Palaeokarst, pseudokarst, and sequence stratigraphy in Devonian reef complexes of the Canning Basin, Western Australia. In Keep M, Moss SJ (eds) The sedimentary basins of Western Australia 3. Proceedings Pet. Exploration Soc. of Australia, Perth, Western Australia, pp 763–793

  • Playford PE, Hocking RM (1999) Lennard Shelf geological map, Devonian reef complexes of the Canning Basin. Geol Surv West Aust Bull 145, plate 7, scale 1:250,000

  • Playford PE, Lowry DC (1966) Devonian reef complexes of the Canning Basin, Western Australia. Geol Surv West Aust Bull 118, p 150

  • Playford PE, Cockbain AE, Druce EC, Wray JL (1976) Devonian stromatolites from the Canning Basin, Western Australia. In: Walter MR (ed) Stromatolites. Developments in sedimentology, vol 20. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 543–564

  • Playford PE, Hurley NF, Kerans C, Middleton MF (1989) Reefal platform development, Devonian of the Canning Basin, Western Australia. In: Crevello PD, Wilson JL, Sarg JF, Read JF (eds) Controls on carbonate platform and basin development. SEPM Spec. Publ. 44:187–202

  • Playford PE, Hocking RM, Cockbain AE (2009) Devonian reef complexes of the Canning Basin, Western Australia. Geol Surv West Aust Bull 145:403

    Google Scholar 

  • Postma G (1995) Sea-level-related architectural trends in coarse-grained delta complexes. Sediment Geol 98:3–12

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Powers MC (1953) A new roundness scale for sedimentary particles. J Sediment Pet 23:117–119

    Google Scholar 

  • Pratt BR, James NP (1986) The St George Group (Lower Ordovician) of western Newfoundland: tidal flat island model for carbonate sedimentation in shallow epeiric seas. Sedimentology 33:313–343

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Read JF (1973a) Carbonate cycles, Pillara Formation (Devonian), Canning Basin, Western Australia. Can Pet Geol Bull 21:38–51

    Google Scholar 

  • Read JF (1973b) Paleo-environments and paleogeography, Pillara Formation (Devonian), Western Australia. Can Pet Geol Bull 21:344–394

    Google Scholar 

  • Riding R (1992) Temporal variation in calcification in marine cyanobacteria. J Geol Soc Lond 149:979–989

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Riding R (1993) Phanerozoic patterns of marine CaCO3 precipitation. Naturwissenschaften 80:513–516

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Riding R, Liang L (2005) Geobiology of microbial carbonates: metazoan and seawater saturation state influences and secular trends during the Phanerozoic. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 219:101–115

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shen JW, Webb GE, Jell JS (2008) Platform margins, reef facies, and microbial carbonates; a comparison of Devonian reef complexes in the Canning Basin, Western Australia, and the Guilin region, South China. Earth-Sci Rev 88:33–59

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vousdoukas MI, Velegrakis AF, Plomaritis TA (2007) Beachrock occurrence, characteristics, formation mechanisms and impacts. Earth-Sci Rev 85:23–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Webb GE (2001a) Biologically induced carbonate precipitation in reefs through time, Chapter 5. In Stanley G (ed) The history and sedimentology of ancient reef systems. Topics in Geobiology 17. Kluwer Academic, New York, pp 159–203

  • Webb GE (2001b) Famennian mud-mounds in the proximal fore-reef aslope, Canning Basin, Western Australia. Sediment Geol 145:295–315

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Webb GE, Brownlaw RLS (2000) Cyclicity at a carbonate platform margin, Menyous Gap, Pillara Range, Canning Basin, Western Australia: implications for reef development and palaeobathymetry. Geol Soc Aust Abstr 59:525

    Google Scholar 

  • Whalen MT, Day J, Eberli GP, Homewood PW (2002) Microbial carbonates as indicators of environmental change and biotic crises in carbonate systems: examples from the Late Devonian, Alberta basin, Canada. Paleogeogr Palaeoclimatol Paleoecol 181:127–151

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilkinson BH, Drummond CN, Rothman ED, Diedrich NW (1997) Stratal order in peritidal carbonates. J Sediment Res 67:1068–1082

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the elders of the Bunaba people, and in particular, Joe Ross, Selena Middleton and June Oscar for their support, advice and hospitality during our field work. We also thank O. Lehnert, C. Kerans, and R. Hocking for their comments on previous versions of the manuscript. This project was carried out under sponsorship of the National Geographic Society (grant #8683-09 to ME Johnson) and the Sperry Fund of Williams College (in support of undergraduate fieldwork in geology).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geosciences, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 01267, USA

    Markes E. Johnson, B. Gudveig Baarli & Daniel R. Walsh

  2. School of Earth Sciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia

    Gregory E. Webb

Authors
  1. Markes E. Johnson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Gregory E. Webb
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. B. Gudveig Baarli
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Daniel R. Walsh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Markes E. Johnson.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Johnson, M.E., Webb, G.E., Baarli, B.G. et al. Upper Devonian shoal-water delta integrated with cyclic back-reef facies off the Mowanbini Archipelago (Canning Basin), Western Australia. Facies 59, 991–1009 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10347-012-0348-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10347-012-0348-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation