Abstract
Storm related processes were a principle agent of stratification in Paleozoic shelf environments. During peak storm conditions the shallow sea floor was eroded, coarse materials including shells formed winnowed lags, while fine sand, silt and clays were put into suspension. As storms waned, the fine sand and silt settled out of suspension rapidly. Some infiltrated the upper portions of the coarse grained winnowed lag deposits and the bulk formed laminated, weakly graded beds with distinctive wave generated structures. Shell beds formed by these processes contain reworked but untransported fossils. Biases of preservation resulting from such activity include the destruction of preserved community succession, under-representation of originally aragonitic fossils and an enhanced preservation of whole, uncorroded fossils.
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Kreisa, R.D., Bambach, R.K. (1982). The Role of Storm Processes in Generating Shell Beds in Paleozoic Shelf Environments. In: Einsele, G., Seilacher, A. (eds) Cyclic and Event Stratification. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-75829-4_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-75829-4_15
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