Late Ordovician Trace Fossils from Offshore to Shallow Water Mixed Siliciclastic and Carbonate Facies in the Ringerike Area, Oslo Region, Norway

ABSTRACT

Upper Ordovician (Rawtheyan–Hirnantian) deposits in the Ringerike area contain 21 ichnogenera of burrows and two ichnogenera of borings. These deposits consist of a lower siliciclastic part and an upper part dominated by carbonates and mixed clastic-carbonate deposits. Sedimentological and geochemical investigations combined with an ichnological analysis in the lower siliciclastic part point to a shallowing from a transitional–offshore partly dysoxic zone to an oxic delta front/upper shoreface facies. The trace fossils belong to the proximal, archetypal, and distal Cruziana ichnofacies. The upper part of the sequence comprises a complex pattern involving patch reefs interfingering with shallow marine deposits of sandstones and crinoidal limestones in the southern area and carbonate mud banks to the north. The carbonate mud banks were subaerially exposed with the development of local coastlines. The overlying transgressive sediments, consisting of sandstones and carbonates, contain an offshore to transitional trace fossil assemblage.

KEYWORDS:

• Facies
• Geochemistry
• Ichnology
• Norway
• Ordovician

Acknowledgments

We thank Sören Jensen and Luis Buatois for comments that improved the manuscript. Thanks to Gunnar Rosseland for providing housing and a boat for our disposal during the fieldwork.

Funding

The fieldwork was funded by Eni Norge AS. AU received additional support from the Jagiellonian University (DS funds). JKN was supported by Statoil ASA and the Department of Geology, University of Tromsø.