New article in Ichnos - Dinovulsion!

[Christopher Taylor <gerarus@westnet.com.au>]

This just in today:

Jones, L. S., & E. R. Gustason. 2006. Dinosaurs as Possible Avulsion
Enablers in the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation, East-Central Utah.
Ichnos 13 (1): 31-41.

“The Upper Jurassic Salt Wash Member of the Morrison Formation in
east-central Utah contains low sinuosity, ribbon-shaped fluvial channel
sandstones enclosed by variegated mudstones. Channel sandstones formed
when avulsion (the relatively abrupt shift of a river to a new channel)
relocated a channel, after which extensive in-channel and minor
near-channel sand deposition occurred. Interpretation of
sedimentological, paleontological, and paleoclimatic data, and
comparison with a possible modern analog, suggest that some channel
avulsions and the subsequent deposition of ribbon sandstones may have
occurred when large Jurassic dinosaurs, such as sauropods, partially or
completely blocked active channels at death, thereby forcing discharge
out of channels and into overbank areas. This process is termed
“dinovulsion.”
Dinosaurs also may have trampled deep pathways into the damp, soft
floodplain substrate, creating channel-like conduits that focused
overbank flow during flooding. In places where overbank flow
concentrated in these deep, channel-shaped trails, a new channel course
was scoured, and an avulsion was completed. As time passed and the
system aggraded, these processes may have recurred and contributed to
the preserved architecture of isolated, low-sinuosity sandstone
ribbons.”

    ‘Dinovulsion’ definitely stands a high chance of being declared
‘Completely Unnecessary Neologism of the Day’...

        Cheers,

            Christopher Taylor

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