Date of Award
12-1981
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Geological and Environmental Sciences
First Advisor
Dr. William B. Harrison III
Second Advisor
Dr. John D. Grace
Third Advisor
Dr. W. Thomas Straw
Access Setting
Masters Thesis-Open Access
Abstract
The Rockport Quarry Limestone of the Lower Traverse Group represents a sequence of laterally contemporaneous carbonate platform sediments characterized in outcrop by four facies: (l) stromatoporoid biolithite, (2) organic-mud packstone, (3) biolithite-micrite transition, and (4) micrite. In facies (l), (2) and (3) dark brown 4-micron microspheres are found grouped or singly in wispy seams of brown carbonaceous material. Three species of filamentous blue-green algae were discovered in insoluble residues of facies (l) and (2). Numerous lamellar stromatoporoids and solitary corals occur with the carbonaceous-rich sediment in facies (l). Coalescing lenses of crinoid and bryozoan debris occur with the carbonaceous sediment in facies (2). Algal-laminated sediments* calcareous red algae, and calcareous blue-green algae are present in facies (4), as well as two new foraminifers in facies (l) and (3). The size range and morphology of the non-nueleated microspheres suggest that they are coccoid blue-green algae. The kerogenous material composing the seams probably represents fossilized sheath material secreted by the algae. The carbonaceous seams, microspheres, and algal filaments are interpreted as subtidal algal mats that provided a firm substrate upon which stromatoporoids could grow.
Recommended Citation
Spruit, Jeffrey Dean, "The Paleoecology of Carbonaceous (Algal) Material in the Middle Devonian Rockport Quarry Limestone of the Northeastern Portion of Michegan's Lower Peninsula" (1981). Masters Theses. 1820.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/1820