Structural inversion and origin of a Late Ordovician (Trenton) carbonate buildup: Evidence from the Tanglewood and Devils Hollow members, Lexington Limestone, central Kentucky (USA)

Throughout east-central United States, Lexington/Trenton limestones are largely Late Ordovician (Chatfieldian; mid-Caradoc), argillaceous, skeletal calcarenites, which are transgressive upward into Late Ordovician (late Chatfieldian-Edenian; mid-late Caradoc) shales and interbedded micrograined limestones. In central Kentucky, however, the same sequence is partially truncated by an unconformity and passes upward into a thicker, younger (Edenian; late Caradoc), regressive shoal complex of coarse calcarenites and calcirudites that is not generally typical of the Lexington/Trenton sequence elsewhere. The shoal complex is interpreted to have been a carbonate buildup and is partially bound by extant faults with basement precursors. Comparison of isopachous maps for pre- and postunconformity buildup units with basement structural lineaments suggests that the buildup is related to reactivation - and in one prominent case, inversion - of the basement structures. The coincidence of structural reactivation, inversion, and buildup development with other major regional, cratonic changes may reflect a reorganization of cratonic, far-field forces accompanying a nearly coeval reversal in the polarity of Taconic subduction.