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Coals peripheral to opening and closure of the northern Western Interior Seaway: depositional signatures recording interplay between Milankovitch orbital forcing and salt dissolution collapse-subsidence structures with responsiveness to craton deformation and eustatic sea-level

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Abstract

Aptian paralic and Paleocene intracratonic mires that bracket the northern reaches of the Western Interior Seaway preserve Milankovitch orbital forcing cycle signals and record the dynamic interplay with craton-linked salt dissolution tectonism in the Alberta Basin foreland and the adjoined intracratonic Williston Basin to the southeast. These mires, now lignite-bearing strata, along the northern Seaway provide a proxy record for Milankovitch orbital signals that would not have been otherwise recorded because of the voluminous clastic sediments accumulated along the western Canadian portion of the Cretaceous Seaway, in contrast to pervasive orbital forcing signals recorded by organic-rich cyclic carbonate deposits accumulated along the central and southern reaches of the Seaway. Prior to opening of the northern segment of the Seaway, the base levels of the paralic mires of the lower McMurray Formation (Aptian) were hydraulically linked to the rising sea-level fluctuations resulting from southward transgression of the Boreal Sea. In contrast, inland fluvial-margin peats of the Paleocene Ravenscrag and Fort Union formations accumulated following the closure of the Cretaceous Seaway. These mires were increasingly sensitive to aquifer-eustatic controls on the water table–mire relationship. Orbital forcing signals were preserved in the central Williston Basin mires in contrast to their masking by salt dissolution collapse-subsidence structures that exerted dominant control on peat mire configurations across the northern Williston Basin. Paralic mires accumulated at the top of the lower McMurray Formation record short-term orbital forcing, possibly representing an obliquity cycle recorded by lithotype sequencing in petrographic profiles. Mires accumulated along the coastal areas during the transition from a lowstand system tract to an early transgressive system tract. The linkage of sea level with coastal water table fluctuations permitted pervasive accumulations of paralic mires at the top of the lower McMurray Formation. Internal mire cycles resulted in coal lithotype profiles responsive to Milankovitch fifth-order and higher sub-cycles. In contrast, concurrent cataclysmic sinkhole collapses and differential fault block displacements were responsive to underlying salt removal patterns. The sea level/water table linkage was punctuated by the salt tectonism and orbital forcing signals were masked, resulting in sinkholes infilled with different coal lithotype sequences. Following the closure of the Western Interior Seaway, inland Paleocene fluvial-margin mires across the northern intracratonic Williston Basin were responsive to larger scale salt removal events in the subsurface. The collapse-subsidence structures were propagated several km up-section, diffused but sufficient to control mire configurations and mask orbital forcing signals. Southward into the central and southwestern Williston Basin, these strong salt dissolution tectonism patterns were out-of-phase with the repetitive mire accumulations, permitting the recognition of the markedly weaker signals of the 100 kyr orbital eccentricity cycle.

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Fig. 1

Modified from Broughton (1985) and Horner et al. (2019a, b)

Fig. 2

Modified from Broughton (2015, 2018)

Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Modified from Nichols and Ott (1978)

Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Modified from De Mille et al. (1964), Smith and Pullen (1967), Holter (1969) and Broughton (1985)

Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Modified from Broughton (2013)

Fig. 10

Modified from Rinke-Hardekopf et al. (2019)

Fig. 11

Modified from Whitaker et al. (1978) and Broughton (1985)

Fig. 12

Modified from Broughton (1985)

Fig. 13

Modified from Whitaker et al. (1978) and Broughton (1985)

Fig. 14
Fig. 15

Modified from Noorbergen et al. (2018)

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Broughton, P.L. Coals peripheral to opening and closure of the northern Western Interior Seaway: depositional signatures recording interplay between Milankovitch orbital forcing and salt dissolution collapse-subsidence structures with responsiveness to craton deformation and eustatic sea-level. Carbonates Evaporites 36, 18 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13146-021-00679-9

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