Date of Defense
4-11-2019
Date of Graduation
4-2019
Department
Environmental Studies
First Advisor
Peter Voice
Second Advisor
William Harrison
Third Advisor
Stephen Kaczmarek
Abstract
The Amherstburg Formation is a unit that stretches from Ontario to Michigan and was deposited during the Devonian Period. The goal of this project was to determine the depositional environment of the Amherstburg Formation. Facies associations were defined based on observations from three cores in northern and southeastern Michigan and later grouped into facies associations. The four facies associations were reef rubble, lagoonal, lagoonal and reef-rubble, and lagoonal and peritidal environments. These environments were deposited as laterally adjacent environments along a ramp shelf in a humid tropical climate. Sea level was relatively high during the deposition of the Amherstburg Formation. During this period, the Michigan Basin was covered by open marine waters where a diverse fauna flourished in reefs and adjacent lagoons. There was a regression following the deposition of the Amherstburg Formation, as the overlying Lucas Formation consists of shallow-water to emergent facies deposited in a semi-arid carbonate shelf.
Recommended Citation
Gaines, Elizabeth, "Determining the Depositional Environment of Amherstburg Formation" (2019). Honors Theses. 3107.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/honors_theses/3107
Access Setting
Honors Thesis-Open Access
Defense Presentation