Petrographic Reconstruction: The Analyses of a Fort Payne Channel

Abstract

Paleochannel complexes hold a wide variety of facies that can be used to reconstruct the depositional cycle of a channel. The Fort Payne Formation is approximately 100 to 275 feet in thickness and is composed predominately of carbonate and siliciclastic rocks that are Mississippian in age. The formation is located in the southeasten region where it runs from northern Tennessee to southern Kentucky. The outcrop itself runs parallel to a fresh road cut along Highway 52 just south of Celina, TN.

Within the outcrop are seven lithological facies used to characterize within and below the channel. The lithofacies include: four carbonate facies, two transitional facies, and one mudstone facies. Petrographic analyses of the facies show variability in percentage ratios of carbonate material and clay. Diagenesis is prevelant in the Fort Payne evident by siliciclastic and carbonate replacement. The carbonate skeletal debris throughout the Fort Payne is predominately disaggregated with crinoids, the dominant allochem, showing alignment to bedding and imbrication.