Deltadalen Member, Vikinghøgda Formation, Svalbard Lower Triassic (Triassic of Norway)

Where: Norway (78.0° N, 22.0° E: paleocoordinates 42.0° N, 12.1° E)

• coordinate estimated from map

• local area-level geographic resolution

When: Deltadalen Member (Vikinghøgda Formation), Induan (252.2 - 251.2 Ma)

• member-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: deltaic; bioturbated, glauconitic, gray, green, silty sandstone and mudstone

• Deltaic coast

•Transgressive due to the transgressive sandstone bed, which also indicates rapid establishment of conditions favourable for bentic colonization.

•The repeated occurrences of siltstone and sandstone beds with hummockly lamination indicates a storm influence on a shelf above storm wave base.

• 68 meters thick

•Lower part of the Deltadalen member: sandstone and siltstone interbeds are abundant.

•Calcite concretions are the most abundant in the upper part of the Lusitaniadalen Member but do also occur in the Deltadalen member, but with different carbonate mineralogy.

•The basal sandstone of the Deltadalen member consits of 2-3 meter of medium to fine grained glauconitic grey-green sandstone, that occasionally shows faint cross bedding.

•The sandstone is moderately bioturbated and has a patchly chert cement

•Above the basal sandstone, the Deltadalen Member consits of silty shale with intervals dominated by siltstone or very fine grained sandstone beds.

•Several intervals enriched in sandy siltstone beds occur throughout the member, and several show hummockly lamination, the upper part parts of which are often rippled. Bioturbation is sparse.

•The top of the member consits of thin sandstone beds forming an upward-coarsing upward sequence.

Size classes: macrofossils, microfossils

Preservation: mold/impression, concretion

Collection methods: bulk, chemical, mechanical,

Primary reference: A. Mørk, G. Elvebakk, A.W. Forsberg, M.W. Hounslow, H.A. Nakrem, J.O. Vigran, and W. Weitschat. 1999. The type section of the Vikinghøgda Formation: a new Lower Triassic unit in central and eastern Svalbard. Polar Research 18(1):51-82 [C. Looy/W. Puijk/W. Puijk]more details

Purpose of describing collection: biostratigraphic analysis

PaleoDB collection 31367: authorized by Cindy Looy, entered by Wilma Puijk on 09.05.2003

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

unclassified
  -
Bivalvia
 Pectinida - Claraiidae
Claraia stachei Bittner 1901 scallop
bivalves
Gastropoda
 Murchisoniina - Phymatopleuridae
Worthenia sp. de Koninck 1883 snail
gastropods
 Bellerophontida - Euphemitidae
"Bellerophon borealis" = Warthia borealis
"Bellerophon borealis" = Warthia borealis Spath 1930 snail
gastropods
Cephalopoda
 Ceratitida - Otoceratidae
"Otoceras boreale" = Otoceras woodwardi
"Otoceras boreale" = Otoceras woodwardi Griesbach 1880 ceratite
ammonoid, quite large, badly preserved specimens
 Ceratitida - Xenodiscidae
Tompophiceras cf. gracile ceratite
ammonoids
Rhynchonellata
 Rhynchonellida - Rhynchonellidae
Rhynchonellidae sp. Gray 1848
brachiopods
 Life -
Filisphaeridium setasessitante Jansonius 1962 acritarchs
Cymatiosphaera sp. Wetzel 1933 acritarchs
Micrhystridium sp. Deflandre 1937 acritarchs
Lycopsida
  -
Lycopodiopsida
 Selaginellales -
Cycadopites
  -
Cycadopites nitidus de Jersey 1964
Lueckisporites
  -
Vittatina
  -
Vittatina spp. Wilson 1962
Lunatisporites
  -
Maculatasporites
  -
Crustaesporites
  -