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Age, facies, and geometry of the Sandbian/Katian (Upper Ordovician) pelmatozoan-bryozoan-receptaculitid reefs of the Vasalemma Formation, northern Estonia

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Abstract

The Vasalemma Formation (early Katian, Late Ordovician) of northern Estonia consists of a succession of biodetrital grainstones up to 15 m thick with numerous intercalated reef bodies, which reach diameters of more than 50 m. Four dominant facies types are distinguished within the reef core limestones: (1) a bryozoan framestone—bindstone, (2) an echinoderm bindstone, (3) a receptaculitid-bryozoan-microbial framestone, and (4) a tabulate bafflestone. A linking theme between the different reef-core limestones is the presence of clotted microbial bindstone, which in some places contains spicules. Except for the tabulate bafflestone, all facies types occur in the youngest and oldest intervals of reef growth. Generally, a tendency can be observed with a dominance of echinoderm framestone low in the formation and at the base of individual reefs, towards a more receptaculitid dominated facies at the top of the formation. The reefs developed in a narrow, ca. 20-km-long and max. 5-km-wide band on a shallow NE–SW-directed platform in the central part of the North Estonian Confacies Belt. Reef growth can be constrained toward the latest Keila age, representing the rising limb and the peak interval of the Guttenberg Isotopic Carbon Excursion (GICE). Reef termination falls within a second-order sea-level lowstand, the Frognerkilen Lowstand Event, which led to partial subaerial exposure of the reefs. The dead reefs subsequently and rapidly drowned during the Nakkholm Drowning Event at the Oandu/Rakvere Stage. This timing is nearly equivalent to a phase of enhanced reef development elsewhere in Baltica and probably is related to locally increased nutrient availability during the GICE interval.

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Acknowledgments

The general support of Mare Isakar from Tartu University, and Ursula Toom, Mari-Ann Mõtus and Jaak Nolvak from Tallinn University of Technology during fieldwork is highly acknowledged. We thank Michael Joachimski and Daniele Lutz (Erlangen) for running the carbon isotope samples in the stable isotope lab at GeoZentrum Nordbayern (Erlangen). This paper is a result of the DFG project “Processes of reef diversification during the Ordovician Radiation” and BK is indebted for the support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (grant KR 2095/7-1). LH was supported by the Estonian Research Council (projects SF0140020s08). LH is grateful to Mare Kukk and Maie Pärnamäe, Tallinn, for their help during work with the reports of the Estonian Geological Survey. OL is also very grateful for financial support of the core studies in central Sweden by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG project LE 867/8-1) in the frame of the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (SPP 1006) and Swedish Scientific Drilling Program (SSDP). The reviews of an earlier version of the manuscript by Leho Ainsaar (Tartu University) and Gregory E. Webb (University of Queensland) helped significantly to improve the quality of the paper and we are grateful of their constructive critics. This paper is a contribution to the IGCP 591 project “The Early to Middle Paleozoic Revolution”.

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Kröger, B., Hints, L. & Lehnert, O. Age, facies, and geometry of the Sandbian/Katian (Upper Ordovician) pelmatozoan-bryozoan-receptaculitid reefs of the Vasalemma Formation, northern Estonia. Facies 60, 963–986 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10347-014-0410-8

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