Autocyclic progradation and allocyclic ravinement of a shoreface: Sedimentology and sequence stratigraphy of the Panther Sandstone Tongue (Upper Cretaceous, Campanian), Wasatch plateau, Utah, U. S. A

The Panther Sandstone Tongue of the Star Point Formation exposed in the vicinity of Helper, Utah reflects a coarse-grained, clastic wedge that penetrated the Mancos Shale basin in Early Campanian (Late Cretaceous) time. Panther Sandstone rocks may be grouped into six lithofacies: (1) thin-bedded, bioturbated and rippled, mudstone and very fine-grained sandstone; (2) thin- to medium-bedded, bioturbated, rippled and parallel laminated, mudstone and very fine-grained sandstone; (3) thick- to very thick-bedded HCS and parallel-laminated, mudstone and fine- to medium-grained sandstone; (4) medium- to thick-bedded, Ophiomorpha bioturbated, medium- to coarse-grained sandstone; (5) medium- to very-thick bedded, current bedded and hydroplasticly deformed sandstone, and (6) medium- to thick-bedded, trough cross-stratified and bundle-laminated, fine grained sandstone. Lithofacies are arranged in definable vertical and lateral successions. L. 1, 2 and 3 are upward coarsening and shoaling and are common in the Helper area. L. 5 and 6 are common to the west. L. 4 is a transgressive and ravinement lag that rests on all other lithofacies. Interpreted environments reflect a storm modified, microtidal, strandplain system. Rocks, except L. 4, are contained in a parasequence system that built into the basin during relative sea-level fall. This system prograded episodically suggesting varying sediment supply and event-controlledmore » sediment reworking -- responses associated with autocyclic forcing. In contrast, ravinement decapitated the parasequence intersecting progressively shallower lithofacies. These responses suggest that ravinement was driven by allocyclic forcing, perhaps in response to tectonism in the foreland.« less