CPR
Data: The goal of this assignment is to report and interpret the data collected from the
outcrop near Newport Ohio that contains cyclic sedimentation.
The source material includes the data collected during our fieldtrip to the stratigraphic
section west of Newport, Ohio, descriptions of cyclothems in your textbook, particularly
chapter 11, and a website that does a nice job describing the climate during the
carboniferous and relates it to the rocks and fossils found in West Virginia.
https://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/Carboniferous_climate.html
Student Instructions
Have your lab notes from the field trip and review the information on cyclothems in your
text. Read the website on Carboniferous climate. While reading these sources contemplate
the layers of strata we observed at the outcrop and how we saw both terrestrial and marine
rocks. Coal, shale with abundant plant fossils, and crossbedded sandstone are terrestrial
deposits. Limestone and dark grey shales with marine fossils are marine rocks. Shales
interebedded with silt and sandstones that coarsen upward are delta deposits that indicate
that the water depth is slowly shallowing during a regression. This shallowing may be
caused by lowering the sea level or silting up the area with sediments from the southeast
and prograding into the area.
Write a second part of your essay describing the layers we observed at the
outcrop and their cyclic nature. Give an interpretation that tells which
stratigraphic sequence model is most similar to the data you described.
15. Describe each layer independent from any interpretation. It is OK to describe the layers
as a list. Number them 112. For each give the color, rock type, fossils and sedimentary
structures, any other information you observed or that you were told to make note of.
16. Did you observe any repetition of strata or rock types?
17. What are your environmental interpretations for each layer? Give an interpretation
that tells which stratigraphic sequence model is most similar to the data you
described.
If you think it is a meandering river sequence, explain by describing the
characteristics from the meandering river sequence that compare favorably with your
data and which characteristics from the prograding delta sequence contrast with your
data.
If you think it is a prograding delta sequence, explain by describing the
characteristics from the prograding delta sequence that compare favorably with your
data and which features from the meandering river sequence contrast with your
data.
18. Which layers that we observed are part of the transgressions and which are part of the
regressions?
19. Define what cylothem is and what causes them?
20. describe how your data are indicative of at least 2 full cyclothem cycles. discuss the
climate of the area during the Carboniferous, and based on your reading from the textbook
and website, conclude what probably caused the cyclicity observed