Document Type

Video

Publication Date

Spring 2021

Abstract

Students and faculty at Morehead State University have been studying the poorly documented Hooper Formation in the lower-most Wilcox Group of central Texas since 2017. During a winter intersession trip in 2018 to the original study sites in McKinney Roughs Nature Park near Bastrop, TX, a new exposure of the coal in the upper Hooper Formation was located on a site dubbed ‘MoSU Ridge.’ This exposure permitted examination of mire-margin coal facies using palynology (this thesis) and organic petrography (Rogers, 2020) and more complete explanation of mire dynamics and ecosystem change during the Late Danian Event (LDE). An ash seam located 1/3 of the way through the Hooper coal has been dated to 62 MA, placing this at the onset of the LDE. Thus, the entire Hooper coal records the impacts of climate change before, during and after this hyperthermal event. Here we present the results of palynological study of this exposure. This project was completed for ESS 499C.

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