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Deciphering the facies and architecture of alluvial successions provides invaluable insights into the interplay of tectonics, climate, eustasy, and autogenic processes affecting terrestrial sedimentary systems. The stratigraphic response of fluvial systems to variations in discharge and sediment-supply regimes is now well-understood and is tied to changes in climate, precipitation patterns, or sediment sources. The uraniferous Chu-Sarysu Basin in south Kazakhstan occupies the tectonically stable Turan Platform on the eastern margin of the Peri-Tethys, and the study of its Palaeocene–Eocene sedimentary fill offers an opportunity to unravel eustatic and climatic controls that drove the architecture of reservoirs hosting economically important deposits. The stratigraphic succession comprises two multistorey, laterally extensive, sheet-like sandstone bodies floored by prominent erosion surfaces and interpreted as the deposits of channel belts. These packages are interstratified with floodplain, coastal-wetland, and marine-embayment complexes reflecting major extra-channel belt avulsions and marginal-marine incursions on the low-gradient alluvial plain. The stratal architecture was controlled by changes in accommodation likely induced by well-documented sea-level changes in the Peri-Tethys during the Palaeogene, which permitted the development of a chronostratigraphic framework. Eustatic variations culminated in the widespread flooding of the Turan Platform in the middle Eocene, reflected by transgressive lags above a wave ravinement surface capping terrestrial and marginal-marine deposits. Marked changes in fluvial facies, floodplain styles, and inferred channel planforms between Palaeocene and Eocene strata suggest a climatic overprint on river discharge and sedimentation. Upper Palaeocene meandering channel deposits encased in well-drained floodplain strata are indicative of perennial discharge under a semi-arid climate, whereas lower Eocene low-sinuosity channel fills, displaying evidence for transcritical flows and abundant in-situ vegetation, point to intermittent runoff patterns consistent with a humid and seasonal climate. An evolution in atmospheric moisture at the Palaeocene–Eocene boundary from arid to humid conditions has been reported across the Tethys region, and linked to global climatic perturbations of the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract High-frequency depositional cycles are often used for long-distance correlations within sedimentary basins and constructing high-resolution chronostratigraphic scales calibrated to the orbital clock. Such an approach has been used for the tropical, epicontinental Muschelkalk Sea covering most of Europe in the Middle Triassic. This paper aims at establishing the spatial extent and internal architecture of shallow-marine Muschelkalk cycles within a small (120 by 50 km) area of the Germanic Basin, to identify their local vs. regional distribution and cycle-forming mechanisms. Three groups of cycles are distinguished: 1) peritidal cycles representing a tidal flat-lagoon system which experienced longer periods of emersion; 2) shallow subtidal cycles formed around the fair-weather wave base; and 3) deep subtidal cycles developed around the storm wave base. The three cycle types differ markedly in the composition, facies homogeneity, sedimentary trends, hierarchical organization, continuity, and degree of lateral changeability and complexity, which collectively translates into the ease of cycle recognition. Despite the differences, the defined cycles do not extend laterally beyond the studied area and have laterally variable facies heterogeneities, sedimentary trends, and thicknesses. This variability resulted from more or less mosaic infilling of accommodation space, reflecting local bathymetry, physicochemical conditions, and carbonate production and accumulation rates on the platform. Accommodation space evolved by the interplay of eustatic sea-level fluctuations regional subsidence, and synsedimentary tectonic-block movements, but the contribution of these factors changed over time and was to varying degrees masked for each of the three cycle types by intrinsic sedimentary processes. The study shows that Middle Triassic cycles of the Germanic Basin have a local to sub-regional distribution and thereby are inappropriate for basin-wide correlations and chronostratigraphic inferences. It also strengthens the opinion of several workers that correlation of idealized cycles is unrealistic without checking the horizontal continuity of facies and key surfaces directly in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Lexington or Trenton Limestone is an Upper Ordovician (Chatfieldian–Edenian; upper Sandbian–lower Katian), temperate-water unit, averaging about 60-m thick, that was deposited in relatively shallow waters across the Lexington Platform in east-central United States during the Taconian Orogeny. Lexington/Trenton shallow-water deposition ended across most of the platform in late Chatfieldian time and from that point deepened upward into the more shale-rich Clays Ferry, Point Pleasant and Kope formations due to apparent sea-level rise. In central Kentucky, however, deposition of the Lexington Limestone continued into early Edenian time and includes up to 50 m of additional coarse calcarenites and calcirudites at the top, which form the Tanglewood buildup and reflect locally regressive conditions, apparently related to local structural uplift. Consequently, in central Kentucky, the Lexington is more than 100-m thick, and Lexington deposition on the buildup continued into early Edenian time as an intra-platform shoal complex that tongues out into deeper-water units in all directions. In an attempt to understand how this shoal complex developed, we examined the last major body of coarse skeletal sands in the central Kentucky Lexington Limestone, the upper tongue of the Tanglewood Member, a 12-m-thick succession of fossiliferous calcarenite and calcirudite that occurs across an area of 5200 km 2 near the center of the Lexington Platform. Although relatively homogeneous, the upper Tanglewood is divisible into five, small-scale, fining-upward, sequence-like cycles, which contain prominent, widespread deformed horizons. Facies analysis indicates that four lithofacies, which reflect distinct depositional environments, comprise the sequences across the shoal complex. Lithofacies were correlated across the shoal complex by integrating cyclicity and widespread deformed horizons in order to delineate the locations of major depositional environments. Facies analysis shows that the thickest and coarsest parts of each sequence, and the shallowest depositional environments, coincide with basement fault blocks, which are known to have experienced uplift during earlier Lexington Limestone deposition. The occurrence of thick, coarse facies on the same blocks suggests that the blocks continued to experience uplift into shallow water, where tides and waves redistributed sediments during upper Tanglewood deposition. Although eustasy apparently controlled cyclicity, Taconian far-field forces generated by orogeny in the east seem to have influenced facies distribution in each cycle through reactivation of basement fault zones as synsedimentary growth faults. The example of the upper Tanglewood Member shows that tectonic far-field forces can exert important influences on the development of carbonate depositional environments, even in distal intracratonic settings like the Lexington Platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The history of Middle Devonian sea level changes are recorded in the Chinchaga Formation, Lonely Bay Formation, Horn Plateau Formation, and the Horn River Formations that originated in the MacKenzie Basin, which is located in the southern Northwest Territories, Canada. These strata record an almost consistent sea-level rise throughout the Middle Devonian with punctuated deepenings. Deposition began in the MacKenzie Basin in the Eifelian with restricted shallow water evaporites and dolomites of the Chinchaga Formation. Overlying the Chinchaga Formation are the open-marine carbonates belonging to the Lonely Bay Formation, which were overlain by the Horn Plateau Formation buildups. Pelagic shales of the Horn River Formation in the Late Givetian/Early Frasnian later covered these buildups. During the Early and Middle Devonian many continental basins in North America had limited interactions with open ocean waters. These restricted shallow-water basins were vulnerable to the effects of clastic shedding and evaporitic drawdown that commonly caused local lowstands. Several of these shallow basins, including the MacKenzie Basin, have been used to construct Devonian sea-level curves. Comparison of the Middle Devonian strata that formed in the MacKenzie Basin with well-established sea level curves shows that the Late-Givetian regression interpreted from some of those successions is not evident in the succession found in the MacKenzie Basin. This probably reflects the fact that the Mackenzie Basin was directly linked to the open ocean and was not influenced by the changes in sea level that affected many of the enclosed basins. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: How the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) ended is still a matter of intense debate. The Terminal Carbonate Complex (TCC) is a late Messinian carbonate platform system that recorded western Mediterranean hydrological changes from the final stages of evaporite deposition till the advent of Lago-Mare fresh- to brackish water conditions at the very end of Messinian times. A multidisciplinary study has been carried out in three localities in south-eastern Spain to reconstruct the history of TCC platforms and elucidate their significance in the MSC. Overall, this study provides evidence that the TCC formed following a regional 4th order water level rise and fall concomitant with an opening-restriction trend. It can be subdivided into four 5th order depositional sequences (DS1 to DS4) recording two phases: (1) from DS1 to DS3, a tide-dominated ooidic to oobioclastic system with stenohaline faunas developed as a result of a 70m water level rise. During this period, the TCC developed in a shallow sea with close to normal marine salinity; (2) in depositional sequence 4, a microbialite-dominated platform system developed. This is indicative of a significant environmental change and is attributed to a 30 to 40m water level fall in the basins under study. These restricted conditions were coeval with intense evaporite deformation and brine recycling. The syn-sedimentary deformation of evaporites had a major impact on platform architecture and carbonate production, affecting the Messinian series throughout south-eastern Spain at the end of the TCC history. At that time, the TCC developed in a lake with fluctuating, brackish- to hypersaline water. These findings suggest a temporary restoration of marine conditions in the western Mediterranean marginal basins due to Atlantic water influxes prompted by a global sea level rise around 5.6Ma. Whether marine conditions extended to the entire western Mediterranean still needs to be investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Lower Mississippian strata of east-central Ohio are predominantly fine-grained marine deposits of the Cuyahoga and Logan formations. Within these sediments is the Black Hand Sandstone of the Cuyahoga Formation. The Black Hand Sandstone is a multistory, crossbedded, coarse-grained conglomeratic sandstone. The contact between the Black Hand Sandstone and the subjacent Cuyahoga Formation is sharp and scoured, with intraclasts of the Cuyahoga Formation incorporated into the basal Black Hand Sandstone. The Black Hand Sandstone was previously thought to represent a distributary channel deposit; however, the combination of lithofacies and architectural elements indicates deposition in a braided stream setting. The Cuyahoga Formation was deposited in a shallow marine setting. The erosional basal contact of the Black Hand Sandstone and the juxtaposition of fluvial and marine sediments suggests a sequence boundary. The geographic distribution of the Black Hand Sandstone combined with the evidence for a sequence boundary suggests deposition in an incised valley. The age of the Black Hand Sandstone is key to inferring the causes of valley incision. The Black Hand Sandstone is nearly devoid of body fossils, necessitating a biostratigraphic analysis of the surrounding Cuyahoga and Logan formations. Analysis indicates the Logan Formation is early Osagean age. Data from the Cuyahoga Formation suggest a Kinderhookian age with a possible transition to the Osagean in the uppermost Cuyahoga Formation. This constrains the age of the Black Hand Sandstone to the transition at the Kinderhookian–Osagean boundary. Recent reports indicate late Kinderhookian (Tournaisian, Tn2) Gondwanan glaciation based upon tillites and sharp excursions in stable-isotope curves. A glacio-eustatic fall in sea level is inferred to have caused incision of the Cuyahoga Formation, followed by deposition of the Black Hand Sandstone and Logan Formation during the subsequent sea level rise. The associated unconformity correlates to the sequence boundary at the Kinderhookian–Osagean boundary in the stratotype area of North America, and the correlative Tn2–Tn3 boundary worldwide, supporting the hypothesis of a global eustatic event at this time. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Although uniformitarianism applies in a general sense to the controls on relative and global sea level change, some influences thereon were more prominent in the Precambrian. Short-term base level change due to waves and tides may have been enhanced due to possibly more uniform circulation systems on wide, low gradient Precambrian shelves. The lack of evidence for global glacial events in the Precambrian record implies that intraplate stresses and cyclic changes to Earth''s geoid were more likely explanations for third-order sea level change than glacio-eustasy. Higher heat flow in the earlier Precambrian may have led to more rapid tectonic plate formation, transport and destruction, along with an increased role for hot spots, aseismic ridges and mantle plumes (superplumes), all of which may have influenced cyclic sedimentation within the ocean basins. A weak cyclicity in the occurrence of plume events has an approximate duration comparable to that of first-order (supercontinental cycle) sea level change. Second-order cyclicity in the Precambrian largely reflects the influences of thermal epeirogeny, changes to mid-ocean ridge volume as well as to ridge growth and decay rates, and cratonic marginal downwarping concomitant with either sediment loading or extensional tectonism. Third-order cycles of sea level change in the Precambrian also reflected cyclic loading/unloading within flexural foreland basin settings, and filling/deflation of magma chambers associated with island arc evolution. The relatively limited number of studies of Precambrian sequence stratigraphy allows some preliminary conclusions to be drawn on duration of the first three orders of cyclicity. Archaean greenstone basins appear to have had first- and second-order cycle durations analogous to Phanerozoic equivalents, supporting steady state tectonics throughout Earth history. In direct contrast, however, preserved basin-fills from Neoarchaean–Palaeoproterozoic cratonic terranes have first- and second-order cycles of considerably longer duration than Phanerozoic examples, supporting less evolved tectonism affecting cratonic plates. It is possible that oceanic tectonic realms underwent more rapid and dynamic plate movements and arc generation, whereas early continental cratonic plates offered more stable platforms and may have been subject to slower migration rates. The wide range of controls on Precambrian sea level change, allied to their apparent variability (in rates and periodicity) through Precambrian time supports the conclusion that each order of cyclicity is relative and must be defined within the stratigraphic context of each individual case study. This underlines the importance of establishing a hierarchical order of cyclicity in sequence stratigraphic interpretations of Precambrian basins based on the relative importance of sequences rather than their temporal duration. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The principle of uniformitarianism may be applied to Precambrian basin evolution and to the sedimentary record as a whole. The major difference in the Precambrian Eon lay in variability of rates and intensities of processes controlling weathering, erosion, transport, deposition, lithification, and diagenesis. This paper examines Precambrian sedimentation patterns within the larger framework of Earth evolution. Pre-rock record sedimentation probably comprised deep water oceanic realms within which meteoritic and cometary impact events generated very large tsunamis, resulting in very coarse volcaniclastic detritus combined with fine dust settling out of suspension, all reworked by marine current systems and localised turbidites. From c. 4 to 3.2 Ga, greenstone belts provided the predominant settings for the thin passive margin carbonates, BIF, stromatolitic evaporites, pelites and quartzites, and lesser synorogenic turbidites, conglomerates, and sandstones that accompanied the volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks typical of these settings. Common palaeoenvironments were high gradient alluvial fans, low sinuosity braided rivers, and relatively shallow marine settings, subject to wave and tidal action, and turbidity currents. Although continental crustal growth continued largely through greenstone belts until c. 2.7 Ga, the Witwatersrand basin (c. 3.0–2.7 Ga; Kaapvaal craton, South Africa) reflects initial stabilisation of the oldest craton, with an epeiric sea accumulating largely fluvial detritus subject to tidal (inland) and storm-wave (craton-marginal) reworking within a retroarc foreland basin setting. Neoarchaean–Palaeoproterozoic sedimentation is discussed within a framework of two global “superevents”, at c. 2.7 Ga and 2.2–1.8 Ga, each encompassing major changes in Earth''s evolution related to the supercontinent cycle, mantle superplumes, peaks in crustal growth rates, and significant biochemical changes within the atmosphere–hydrosphere system. Concomitant globally raised sea levels led to chemical and clastic epeiric seas within which the first giant carbonate platforms developed, and deposition of iron-formation peaked globally at c. 2.5 Ga. The first global glaciation at c. 2.4–2.2 Ga provides little support for the “Snowball Earth” theory, but does suggest a negative feedback loop model whereby intraglacial CO2-related warming and synglacial decreases in weathering alternated up to three times. Models for palaeo-atmospheric and -oceanic evolution are mutually exclusive, but by c.1.8 Ga, the existence of large landmasses and free oxygen in Earth''s atmosphere enabled erg development and red bed sedimentation globally; the full spectrum of Phanerozoic–Modern sedimentary environments was thus present on Earth. A third postulated “superevent” at c. 0.8–0.6 Ga essentially recreated conditions experienced at c. 2.2–1.8 Ga, with, additionally, at least three global refrigeration events. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Stratigraphic successions are deposited under the influence of three primary controls, which tend to vary systematically through time. These controls are tectonism (basin subsidence and uplift), sea-level change, and sediment supply. The development of sequence stratigraphy has enabled the introduction of systematic, quantitative methods for the analysis of these controls. The use of the sequence approach requires the establishment of a regional sequence framework and detailed chronostratigraphic control. Working with the Phanerozoic record this approach has revealed a variety of sequence types reflecting long-term tectonostratigraphic processes caused by continental rifting, continental collisions and cratonic dynamic topography, high-frequency thrust-loading cycles in foreland basins, and high-frequency cycles caused by orbital forcing. Glacioeustasy (104–5-year periodicity) and eustasy driven by changing rates of sea-floor spreading (107–8-year periodicity) have emerged as two significant global processes. Documenting the sequence record in the Precambrian has proved difficult owing to fragmentary preservation and structural deformation. Methods of dating are at present not precise enough to permit reliable regional correlation or testing of high-frequency sequence-generating mechanisms. Some studies of Precambrian sequence architecture have been achieved, but these indicate tectonic processes acting at a much slower rate than during the Phanerozoic. Further analysis of this problem is required. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The southern Australian shelf is the largest area of the globe composed of cool-water carbonates and provides the basis for the development of actualistic models of such sediments. Ocean Drilling Program Leg 182 drilling of the sedimentary succession provides essential information to also decipher the dynamics of this depositional system. Sediment samples and geophysical logs from a core drilled on the Eucla Plateau off the coast of southern Australia (Site 1127) have been used to study sedimentary cyclicity in an 800-m-thick cool-water carbonate Pleistocene wedge. This periplatform succession is dominated by bioclastic packstone and wackestone with minor intercalations of bioclastic grainstone. Fluctuations of stable oxygen-isotope values in bulk carbonate samples parallel global climatic and related sea-level fluctuations as predicted in the SPECMAP-curve. The sea-level-controlled sedimentary cycles of the slope succession are several tens of meters thick. Lowstand deposits are relatively fine grained and include abundant sponge spicules, whereas highstand deposits are coarser grained and contain abundant high-Mg calcite bioclasts. Aragonite content makes up to 36% of the cool-water carbonates. Aragonite originates from tunicate spicules. Primary, sea-level-controlled carbonate mineralogical and textural changes are likely to promote facies-dependent differential diagenesis during later burial stages of such successions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A correlation and sequence stratigraphy study of Jurassic successions has been carried out in the main sedimentary basins of northeast Iberia, i.e., Asturias, Basque-Cantabrian, and Iberian basins, based on the identification of transgressive–regressive cycles. The development and palaeogeographic evolution of the epicontinental carbonate platforms of northeast Iberia were largely controlled by major tectonic activity at three main intervals, at the beginning of the Jurassic, in the Lower–Middle Jurassic transition, and during the uppermost Jurassic, respectively. During Early Jurassic times, northeast Iberia was the site of a single and large carbonate ramp opened to the north. This carbonate ramp suffered a progressive drowning, evolving from an inner to hemipelagic ramp systems, with the local development of suboxic environments in the deepest areas located to the north. During the Middle Jurassic, different open carbonate platforms were formed including the development of swells in intermediate areas. During the Upper Jurassic, the outer ramp areas were progressively moving to the east Iberian Basin, and the ammonite faunas showing a markedly Tethyan affinity thereafter.Three first order T–R cycles bounded by major discontinuities associated with significant time gaps are identified. They extend respectively from the latest Rhaetian to the Early Aalenian, from the Middle Aalenian to the Early Oxfordian and from the Early Oxfordian to the Late Berriasian. Major transgressive peaks occurred at the Middle Toarcian (Bifrons Zone), at the Late Bajocian (upper Niortense and Garantiana zones) and at the mid-Kimmeridgian (Divisum Zone). Each of the first order cycles includes four second-order T–R cycles. Cycles 1.1–1.4 are identified in the northern basins. Cycles 2.1–2.4 display some differences in age of transgressive peaks from one basin to another. Cycles 3.1–3.4 are mainly identified in the Iberian Basin. The correlation with other separated Boreal and Thethysian basins demonstrates that the number and age of T–R cycles varies from one basin to another and are mainly controlled by the local or regional tectonic development. The transgressive peaks may reflect episodes of eustatic rise during the Jurassic. However, their different age from one basin to another is explained by different subsidence evolution. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

During the late Frasnian, 11 fourth-order progradational/retrogradational marine sedimentation cycles were deposited in the Appalachian foreland basin. Mapping based primarily on subsurface data demonstrates the continuity of these cycles over a distance of 700 km. Cyclicity in distal facies occurs as alternations of organic-rich and organic-poor shales, two of the organic shales can be correlated with the transgressive “Kellwasser Beds” of Europe. In more proximal facies, recurring lobes of siltstone and sandstone were deposited. Based on lithologic indices, the temporal pattern shows significant variation in the strength of relative facies change during deposition. In particular, two times of particularly pronounced progradation correspond to previously recognized eustatic sea-level falls. The correlation of portions of Appalachian basin depositional cyclicity with global sea-level events suggests that the entire sequence of 11 cycles, with estimated average duration of around 100–150 ka, were the result of high-frequency eustatic sea-level changes. This in turn would be consistent with a brief period of late Frasnian glaciation, as others have previously suggested. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Niigata-Shin''etsu basin, which occurs along the eastern margin of the Sea of Japan, was generated in Middle Miocene time as a failed rift basin in relation to the backarc opening of the Japan arc, and was converted to a compressional basin in Late Miocene time. The basin-filling succession can be divided into four tectonostratigraphic units (stages), based on characteristics of depositional systems, depositional sequences, tectonic-subsidence rate, and sediment supply. These units coincide in time with major tectonic events during backarc rifting and subsequent basin inversion. Unit I (16–13.5 Ma) represents a syn-rift stage, characterized by rapid basin subsidence. The rate of accommodation exceeded the rate of accumulation, resulting in a retrogradational stacking pattern of muddy slope to basin floor systems. Unit II (13.5–6.5 Ma) represents a post-rift thermal-subsidence stage. The rate of accommodation nearly equaled the rate of accumulation, resulting in an aggradational stacking pattern of five third-order depositional sequences, mainly comprising submarine-fan turbidite systems affected by supply of coarse clastics. Unit III (6.5–1 Ma) represents the basin-inversion stage, showing no subsidence or uplift. The accumulation rate exceeded the rate of accommodation, resulting in rapid progradation of depositional sequences composed of slope, shelf, shallow-marine, delta, and fluvial systems. Unit IV (1 Ma–present) represents an intense compressional stress field; sedimentation has been restricted to a synclinal area due to syndepositional folding and uplift.Changes in basin subsidence rate and sediment supply, resulting from tectonics and climate change in the basin and the provenance, strongly affected characteristics of the depositional systems and sequences. The change in basin subsidence also created a basinwide depositional cycle, whereas eustasy-affected relative sea-level changes created higher-order depositional sequences during relatively stable phases of tectonics. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A poorly understood Mississippian to basal Pennsylvanian succession is preserved in parts of northern Utah, western USA. The mudrock- and carbonate-dominated Manning Canyon Formation and lateral equivalents have been referred to as "cyclothems" and might therefore be expected to preserve a record of repeated, late Paleozoic sea-level excursions similar to cyclothemic successions elsewhere in the paleotropics. In this paper, we document the sedimentology and stratigraphy of the Serpukhovian to earliest Bashkirian Manning Canyon Formation, focusing on surface exposures in the Oquirrh and Uinta Mountains and a cored subsurface intersection from central Utah. Four facies associations were identified in the Manning Canyon Formation: Mid-Shelf, Muddy Inner Shelf, Deltaic, and Coastal Plain, which are herein interpreted in the context of a muddy, semi-enclosed, epicontinental carbonate shelf fringed by a low-relief coastal plain. These facies associations are broadly comparable to recent and extant environments from a range of equatorial, clay-rich, deltaic, coastal plain, and offshore carbonate-producing environments in the Caribbean Sea, northern Australia, and SE Asia, which can be used as first-order analogues for the Manning Canyon Formation. These modern analogues suggest that several relative sea-level excursions of <40 m are recorded in the unit. The stratigraphically oldest records of substantial relative sea-level oscillations are in the lowermost Manning Canyon Formation. These preceded a more sustained pattern recorded by at least nine 4th-order, high-frequency and high-magnitude (≥40 m) sea-level cycles that characterize the upper two-thirds of the formation. Sea-level highstands are recorded by open marine shelf facies, whereas lowstands are recorded by incised channel and valley fills, and (presumed) laterally equivalent paleosols and thin coals. No record of high frequency/high magnitude relative sea-level oscillations comparable in character to those preserved in the Manning Canyon Formation was documented in the underlying stratigraphy. It is concluded that the Manning Canyon Formation may record the main onset of the eustatic signal associated with the main phase of the late Paleozoic Ice Age at ~330 Ma. • Late Paleozoic cyclothems are well-preserved in the late Mississippian record of Utah. • Cyclothems are dominated by mudrocks and carbonate lithologies. • Four facies associations record an embayed shallow marine to coastal plain setting. • Repeated sea-level excursions of at least 22–40 m are recorded in the formation. • The onset of cyclothemic stratigraphy occurred at about 330 Ma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]