Possible flexural controls on the origins of extensive, ooid-rich, carbonate environments in the Mississippian of the United States

Various active and relaxational phases of orogenies generated peripheral bulges that migrated within and beyond foreland basins to adjacent parts of the foreland, creating broad areas of uplift into shallow, agitated waters conducive to ooid production. During the Early Mississippian (Kinderhookian), bulge migration and uplift were incomplete, so ooid distribution was limited. By the middle Mississippian (Valmeyeran), episodes of flexure combined with relaxation created broad belts of uplift on the inner craton, where the most prolific ooid production occurred. In the Late Mississippian (Chesterian), largely filled foreland basins and rising tectonic highlands caused siliciclastic inundation of adjacent sites of ooid production. -from Author