USGS Science⌕ Search

Geology topics

J.F. Miller

Publications and source records attributed to J.F. Miller.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2008

The record of time in cratonic interior strata: Does exceptionally slow subsidence necessarily result in exceptionally poor stratigraphic completeness?

A newly constructed a high-resolution chronostratigraphic and lithostratigraphic framework for the Upper Cambrian and Lower Ordovician Sauk Sequence in the cratonic interior of North America provides insight into the long-standing question of how time is recorded in sedimentary packages deposited in shallow epeiric seas across regions with exceptionally slow subsidence. It reveals that time is recorded in these strata in a manner fundamentally similar to the way it is in a number of nearshore marine-dominated sedimentary packages that were deposited under conditions of markedly higher subsidence rates. The principal consequence of slow subsidence in the cratonic interior appears largely to be a pronounced shingling of chronostratigraphic units perpendicular to depositional strike. An evaluation of relative stratigraphic completeness of the Upper Cambrian and Lower Ordovician of this region suggests that a number of routine interpretations and assumptions must be re-evaluated. Our results are inconsistent with the common interpretation that: (1) cratonic interior sedimentary packages are exceptionally stratigraphically incomplete; and (2) that conditions of very slow subsidence and a bathymetrically shallow shelf by themselves preclude deposition of a relatively complete record of time. In refuting these conventional assumptions, our conclusions have implications for a variety of approaches that require a fundamental understanding of the stratigraphic record of time, such as efforts to construct eustatic sea level curves and evaluations of the fossil record of evolution.

Conference Paper↗
USGS2007

High-resolution sequence stratigraphy of lower Paleozoic sheet sandstones in central North America: The role of special conditions of cratonic interiors in development of stratal architecture

Well-known difficulties in applying sequence stratigraphic concepts to deposits that accumulated across slowly subsiding cratonic interior regions have limited our ability to interpret the history of continental-scale tectonism, oceanographic dynamics of epeiric seas, and eustasy. We used a multi-disciplinary approach to construct a high-resolution stratigraphic framework for lower Paleozoic strata in the cratonic interior of North America. Within this framework, these strata proved readily amenable to modern sequence stratigraphic techniques that were formulated based on successions along passive margins and in foreland basins, settings markedly different from the cratonic interior. Parasequences, parasequence stacking patterns, systems tracts, maximum flooding intervals, and sequence-bounding unconformities can be confidently recognized in the cratonic interior using mostly standard criteria for identification. The similarity of cratonic interior and foreland basin successions in size, geometry, constituent facies, and local stacking patterns of nearshore parasequences is especially striking. This similarity indicates that the fundamental processes that establish shoreface morphology and determine the stratal expression of retreat and progradation were likewise generally the same, despite marked differences in tectonism, physiography, and bathymetry between the two settings. Our results do not support the widespread perception that Paleozoic cratonic interior successions are so anomalous in stratal geometries, and constitute such a poor record of time, that they are poorly suited for modern sequence stratigraphic analyses. The particular arrangement of stratal elements in the cratonic interior succession we studied is no more anomalous or enigmatic than the variability in architecture that sets all sedimentary successions apart from one another. Thus, Paleozoic strata of the cratonic interior are most appropriately considered as a package that belongs in a continuum of variable stratigraphic packages reflecting variable controls such as subsidence and shelf physiography. Special conditions of exceptionally slow subsidence rate, shallow bathymetry, and nearly flat regional shelf gradient are manifest mostly by the presence of individual systems tracts of relatively long duration that extend for much greater distances across depositional strike than those that characterize successions deposited in more dynamic tectonic and physiographic settings. These results suggest that if other cratonic interior successions are as anomalous as reported, a low sediment supply may have played a primary role in development of their apparently condensed stratal architecture. The results also lead us to suggest that a nonvegetated lower Paleozoic landscape played a relatively insignificant role in the development of what are commonly perceived to be enigmatic stratigraphic features of sheet sandstones, particularly their widespread yet thin geometry, and a scarcity of shale and siltstone. ?? 2007 Geological Society of America.

Geological Society of America Bulletin↗
USGS2006

Proposed stratotype for the base of the highest Cambrian stage at the first appearance datum of Cordylodus andresi, Lawson Cove section, Utah, USA

We propose a candidate for the Global Standard Stratotype-section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the highest stage of the Furongian Series of the Cambrian System. The section is at Lawson Cove in the Ibex area of Millard County, Utah, USA. The marker horizon is the first appearance datum (FAD) of the conodont Cordylodus andresi Viira et Sergeyeva in Kaljo et al. [Kaljo, D., Borovko, N., Heinsalu, H., Khazanovich, K., Mens, K., Popov, L., Sergeyeva, S., Sobolevskaya, R., Viira, V., 1986. The Cambrian-Ordovician boundary in the Baltic-Ladoga clint area (North Estonia and Leningrad Region, USSR). Eesti NSV Teaduste Akadeemia Toimetised. Geologia 35, 97-108]. At this section and elsewhere this horizon also is the FAD of the trilobite Eurekia apopsis (Winston et Nicholls, 1967). This conodont characterizes the base of the Cordylodus proavus Zone, which has been recognized in many parts of the world. This trilobite characterizes the base of the Eurekia apopsis Zone, which has been recognized in many parts of North America. The proposed boundary is 46.7 m above the base of the Lava Dam Member of the Notch Peak Formation at the Lawson Cove section. Brachiopods, sequence stratigraphy, and carbon-isotope geochemistry are other tools that characterize this horizon and allow it to be recognized in other areas. ?? 2006 Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, CAS.

Palaeoworld↗
USGS2005

Cambro-ordovician sea-level fluctuations and sequence boundaries: The missing record and the evolution of new taxa

The evolution of early Palaeozoic conodont faunas shows a clear connection to sea-level changes. One way that this connection manifests itself is that thick successions of carbonates are missing beneath major sequence boundaries due to karstification and erosion. From this observation arises the question of how many taxa have been lost from different conodont lineages in these incomplete successions. Although many taxa suffered extinction due to the environmental stresses associated with falling sea-levels, some must have survived in these extreme conditions. The number of taxa missing in the early Palaeozoic tropics always will be unclear, but it will be even more difficult to evaluate the missing record in detrital successions of higher latitudes. A common pattern in the evolution of Cambrian-Ordovician conodont lineages is appearances of new species at sea-level rises and disappearances at sea-level drops. This simple picture can be complicated by intervals that consistently have no representatives of a particular lineage, even after extensive sampling of the most complete sections. Presumably the lineages survived in undocumented refugia. In this paper, we give examples of evolution in Cambrian-Ordovician shallowmarine conodont faunas and highlight problems of undiscovered or truly missing segments of lineages. ?? The Palaeontological Association.

Special Papers in Palaeontology↗
USGS1999

Iapetonudus (N. gen.) and Iapetognathus Landing, unusual Earliest Ordovician multielement conodont taxa and their utility for biostratigraphy

The Early Ordovician (Tremadocian) multielement conodont genus Iapetognathus is one of the oldest denticulate euconodont genera known. The ramiform-ramiform apparatus structure of Iapetognathus is not similar morphologically to other Late Cambrian to Earliest Ordovician denticulate multielement taxa, such as Eodentatus or Cordyloduts, because the major denticulate process has a lateral rather than a posterior orientation as it is in the other two examples. For this reason the genus is believed to have developed from the coniform-coniform apparatus Iapetonudus ibexensis (N.gen., n.sp.) through the development of the denticulate lateral processes. The two genera have a number of morphologic features in common and appear in stratigraphic succession. Iapetognathus aengensis (Lindstro??m) is redefined as a multielement taxon using topotype material and Ig. preaengensis Landing is placed in synonymy with it. Iapetognathus sprakersi, recently described by Landing in Landing and others (1996), is recognized as a multielement species and the new multielement species, Ig. fluctivagus, Ig. jilinensis and Ig. landingi n. spp. are described herein, based on type specimens from Utah (U.S.A.), Jilin (China) and Colorado (U.S.A.) respectively. Iapetonudus and Iapetognathus are important genera in defining the level of the Cambrian-Ordovician boundary. Iapetonudus is currently recognized only from Utah, Texas and Oklahoma, but Iapetognathus is cosmopolitan in its distribution.

Brigham Young University Geology Studies↗
USGS1997

Paleogeographic significance of Clavohamulus hintzei Miller (Conodonta) and other Ibexian conodonts in an early Paleozoic carbonate platform facies of the Argentine Precordillera

Pre-Tremadocian conodonts and trilobites and Tremadocian conodonts are reported from the Cambrian and Ordovician La Silla Formation in the Cerro La Silla section in east-southeast Ja??chal, San Juan Province, Argentina. A shallow marine conodont fauna contains elements of Clavohamulus hintzei Miller, a common species in North America, but reported for the first time from the early Paleozoic platform carbonates of the western Argentine Precordillera. The presence of this species suggests a correlation with the Clavohamulus hintzei conodont subbiozone of the Cordylodus intermedius conodont biozone in North America, considered Early Ordovician (Skullrockian Stage, Ibexian Series) in North America, but by South American and European standards, this biozone would be of latest Cambrian age. C. hintzei and associated conodonts of the La Silla Formation are typical of the tropical faunas of the North American Midcontinent Faunal Province; Late Cambrian trilobites from lower in the formation also are typical North American taxa. The presence of these faunas in the platform carbonates is consistent with plate reconstructions suggesting that the Precordillera was in a tropical or subtropical position close to Laurentia during the late Precambrian and early Paleozoic. These new paleontological data provide one more argument for recent models of the Precordillera as a displaced terrane derived from the Ouachita Embayment at the southern margin of Laurentia.

Geological Society of America Bulletin↗
USGS1986

Floods of April 1979, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia

A major storm April 11-13, 1979, following a series of storms in March and April, brought large amounts of rainfall over southeastern United States. Heaviest rain fell over north-central Mississippi and Alabama. A maximum of 21.5 inches was observed at Louisville, 14 SE, Mississippi. Floods in Mississippi and Alabama were the maximum of record at 60 streamflow gaging stations in the Coosa, Alabama, Tombigbee, Chickasawhay, Pearl, and Big Black River basins. On the Pearl River, peak discharges at main stem gaging stations generally approached or exceeded those of the great flood of 1874, and recurrence intervals generally were greater than 100 years. Nine lives were reported lost. Estimated damages totaled nearly $400 million. Seventeen thousand people were driven from their homes in Jackson, Mississippi. This report presents analyses of the meterological settings of the storms, summaries of flood stages and discharges at 221 streamflow gaging stations, stages and contents of 10 reservoirs, flood-crest stages and hydrograph data consisting of gage height, discharge, and accumulated runoff at selected times, at 46 gaging stations, groundwater fluctuations in 11 observation wells, and water salinity and temperature at 22 sites along the Intracoastal Waterway in Mobile Bay. (USGS)

Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi↗