Eocene Paleoseismic Record of the Green River Formation, Fossil Basin, Wyoming, USA: Implications of Synsedimentary Deformation Structures In Lacustrine Carbonate Mudstones

Laterally extensive intervals containing sedimentary deformation features are identified in outcrops of lacustrine deposits of the Eocene (~ 52-51 Ma) Green River Formation in Fossil Basin, southwestern Wyoming. Fossil Basin is the smallest of the paleo-lakes in the Green River system and is located in the Sevier Fold and Thrust Belt, which was tectonically active during deposition. Deformation structures include convolute lamination, load structures, hybrid brittle-ductile features, sedimentary dikes, microfaults, fluid-escape features such as cusps and pipes, oil-shale breccias, and mass-transport deposits. In most cases these structures are hosted by finely laminated, variably organicrich carbonate mudstones that accumulated in a low-energy profundal lacustrine environment. Deformed intervals range from a few centimeters to 5 m in thickness and are bound above and below by undeformed strata of the same facies, which demonstrates the early post-depositional timing of deformation. The distribution of these features indicates a primary control exerted by sediment rheology, resulting from variation in grain size, clay and organic content, and degree of lithification, which in turn were governed by the depositional environment and early diagenesis.