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Basin history deduced from subtle changes in fluvial style: a study of distal alluvium from the Devonian of southwest Ireland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

John R. Graham ,
Andrea James  and
Kenneth J. Russell
John R. Graham
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Andrea James
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Kenneth J. Russell
Affiliation:
Lomond Associates, De Quincey House, 48 West Regent Street, Glasgow, Scotland, U.K.
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Abstract

Two detailed sections through 4 km of distal alluvium of the Upper Devonian Old Red Sandstone in the Munster Basin, southern Ireland, display a limited number of lithofacies. There is little ordering of these lithofacies on a small scale but changes in the proportions of lithofacies through time define a sequence of stages of basin evolution. The depositional environments changed progressively from sheetflood dominant, via mobile ephemeral channels and floodplains to a more fixed channel–overbank system and eventually to a coastal plain. On the basis of the sedimentary record a progressive reduction in subsidence rate with time is deduced as the main control on the evolution of the basin fill. This deduction is consistent with predictions from previously applied extensional basin models, but is insufficiently refined at present to distinguish between the different models.

Keywords

Old Red Sandstonesheetfloodsephemeral channelsMunster Basinsubsidence rates.
Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 83 , Issue 4 , 1992 , pp. 655 - 667
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1992

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