Event Title
Evidence for Liquefaction Resulting in Ball-and-Pillow Structures During an Ordovician Seismic Event: Fairview Formation of Northern Kentucky
Presentation Type
Poster/Portfolio
Presenter Major(s)
Geology, Earth Science
Mentor Information
Patricia Videtich
Department
Geology
Location
Kirkhof Center KC60
Start Date
11-4-2012 9:00 AM
Keywords
Environment, Physical Science
Abstract
The Fairview Formation of northern Kentucky contains Late Ordovician ball-and-pillow structures, interpreted in the literature to be seismites, and is composed of interbedded skeletal packstone, cacisiltite, shale, and rarely fine-grained skeletal grainstone. The Fairview is overlain by the Grant Lake Limestone and underlain by the Kope Formation, neither of which contain seismites. For an unbiased analysis of thin sections from the Fairview, we used the point count method and a petrographic microscope to determine the composition and porosity of two representative ball-and-pillow structures and three undeformed samples. We will look for evidence of liquefaction in the ball-and-pillow samples such as preferred orientation of grains and low porosity compared to samples which are not part of the ball-and-pillow structures. We will also determine the lithologies of all samples to see if deformed and undeformed samples are different.
Evidence for Liquefaction Resulting in Ball-and-Pillow Structures During an Ordovician Seismic Event: Fairview Formation of Northern Kentucky
Kirkhof Center KC60
The Fairview Formation of northern Kentucky contains Late Ordovician ball-and-pillow structures, interpreted in the literature to be seismites, and is composed of interbedded skeletal packstone, cacisiltite, shale, and rarely fine-grained skeletal grainstone. The Fairview is overlain by the Grant Lake Limestone and underlain by the Kope Formation, neither of which contain seismites. For an unbiased analysis of thin sections from the Fairview, we used the point count method and a petrographic microscope to determine the composition and porosity of two representative ball-and-pillow structures and three undeformed samples. We will look for evidence of liquefaction in the ball-and-pillow samples such as preferred orientation of grains and low porosity compared to samples which are not part of the ball-and-pillow structures. We will also determine the lithologies of all samples to see if deformed and undeformed samples are different.