| dc.description.abstract | Owing to their intermediate position within the facies tract, carbonate slopes connecting platforms to the basin floor are continuous subaqueous sensitive sedimentologic recorders of changes in sea level and ocean chemistry. This work integrates a novel outcrop approach combining a 3-D LiDAR model with detailed X-Ray Fluorescence data to analyze 4th- and 5th- order sequences for the classic Late Guadalupian strata of McKittrick Canyon, West Texas. Two detailed outcrop sections along slope sections were systematically investigated. The results show that the stratigraphic sequences of late Guadalupian age were divided into five 4th order sequences and further subdivided into fifteen high-frequency cycle sets and twenty possible 5th-level high-frequency cycles. Depositional settings and paleoenvironments owing to oscillations in sea level show pronounced differences in the study area. Two types of onlap and downlap were observed in 3D LiDAR model. The bedding terminations and boundaries are observed through the digital 3D LiDAR model. A hierarchical cluster analysis of 27 element variations shows six major clusters and then grouped in siliciclastic proxies of Si,Ti, Zr, Al, Si/Ti, K, carbonate proxies of Ca, Sr, and redox proxies of U, Mo, V, Ni and Cu. Twelve chemostratigraphic packages are defined based on the variations of elemental proxies. Enrichment of Mo, U and Mo-U Ratios show the foreslope deposits were mostly deposited under oxic to suboxic conditions while toe-of-slope deposits was mostly deposited under suboxic to anoxic conditions. This is interpreted to be associated with the water mass circulation variations caused by relative sea level changes through the Hovey Channel. | en_US |
