Borings in Quartzite Surf Boulders from The Upper Cambrian Basal Deadwood Formation, Black Hills of South Dakota

Publication Date

2010

Document Type

Article

Issue

1

Abstract

Shallow, semi-spherical borings occur in clusters with densities of 1-3.5/cm2 in quartzite boulders and in vein quartz from the localized basal conglomerate of the Cambrian-Ordovician Deadwood Formation in the east-central Black Hills of South Dakota. Some borings are superimposed on primary but enigmatic semi-circular structures, 2.5-5 cm in diameter, which are softsediment trace fossils formed prior to lithification. The macroborings are the first to be recorded from quartzite and vein quartz. Host boulders were eroded from near vertically dipping Paleoproterozoic quartzites from several different stratigraphic units. The thin boulder conglomerate grades were abruptly changed to sandstone through a layer 2 mthick in the Marjuman transgression (regionally correlated to the Cedarina dakotaensis trilobite zone). This transgression occurred prior to the start of the globally recognized Upper Cambrian Paibian Stage. Physically similar rocky-shore settings are widely known from quartzite islands of Cambrian age in Wisconsin, Middle Ordovician age on Ontario's Manitoulin Island, Ordovician-Silurian age in Manitoba, and Devonian age in western Australia. Erosion of quartzite surf boulders of equal or larger size occurred in all those regions, but the Black Hills of South Dakota is the only region where borings in quartzite are documented. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Keywords

Island monadnocks, Paleotopography, Quartzite rocky shores, Trypanites borings

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