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Environmental Controls on Shell-Rich Facies in Tropical Lacustrine Rifts: A View From Lake Tanganyika's Littoral

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dc.creator Mcglue, Michael M.
dc.creator Soreghan, Michael J.
dc.creator Michel, Ellinor
dc.creator Todd, Jonathan A.
dc.creator Cohen, Andrew S.
dc.creator Mischler, John
dc.creator O'connell, Christine S.
dc.creator Castañeda, Oceana S.
dc.creator Hartwell, Richard J.
dc.creator Lezzar, Kiram E.
dc.creator Nkotagu, Hudson H.
dc.date 2016-09-21T16:34:13Z
dc.date 2016-09-21T16:34:13Z
dc.date 2010-07
dc.date.accessioned 2018-03-27T08:57:54Z
dc.date.available 2018-03-27T08:57:54Z
dc.identifier McGlue, M.M., Soreghan, M.J., Michel, E., Todd, J.A., Cohen, A.S., Mischler, J., O'CONNELL, C.S., Castañeda, O.S., Hartwell, R.J., Lezzar, K.E. and Nkotagu, H.H., 2010. Environmental controls on shell-rich facies in tropical lacustrine rifts: A view from Lake Tanganyika's littoral. Palaios, 25(7), pp.426-438.
dc.identifier http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11810/4073
dc.identifier 10.2110/palo.2009.p09-160r
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11810/4073
dc.description Full text can be accessed at http://palaios.sepmonline.org/content/25/7/426.full.pdf+html
dc.description Lake Tanganyika, the world's largest tropical rift lake, is unique among its counterparts in East Africa for the remarkable diversity of mollusk-rich sediments in its littoral zone. Molluscan shell beds are, however, a common feature of ancient lacustrine rift deposits and thus a better understanding of their spatial and temporal development is important. Targeted surveys across the littoral region of the Kigoma Basin reveal three surficial shell-rich facies that differ widely in depositional style and geometry. A unifying characteristic of these deposits is the volume of shells of Neothauma tanganyicense, a large, viviparous gastropod endemic to the lake. Reservoir-corrected radiocarbon dating indicates that Neothauma deposits in these surficial sediments are time averaged over at least the last ∼1600 calendar years BP. Preservation of fossil Neothauma shells in the littoral zone depends on both environmental conditions and on post-mortem shell modifications. Interaction between shells and mobile siliciclastic grains, facilitated by wave action and storms, represents a particularly destructive taphonomic process in the study area. Rank scoring of damage to Neothauma suggests that stromatolitic encrustations or early calcite coatings may help mitigate shell destruction caused by hydraulic fragmentation and abrasion. Persistence of Neothauma in littoral beds has important implications for the structuring of specialized communities of shallow-water benthos, as well as for improving analog models for hydrocarbon reservoirs in lacustrine carbonates.
dc.language en
dc.title Environmental Controls on Shell-Rich Facies in Tropical Lacustrine Rifts: A View From Lake Tanganyika's Littoral
dc.type Journal Article


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