Stratigraphic Resolution and Perceptions of Cycle Architecture: Variations in Meter-Scale Cyclicity in the Type Cincinnatian Series1

Previous analyses of meter-scale cyclicity have de-emphasized thin beds within investigated stratigraphic intervals. Here, we analyze the effect of excluding relatively thin beds on cycle delineation and interpretation in the type Cincinnatian Series. Whereas inclusion of all strata suggests wide variation in cycle architecture, systematic culling of thin beds decreases this variability considerably, in part by removing much of the evidence for intervals of deepening that are important components in more than half the meter-scale cycles recognized here. Thus, cycles in the culled data conform more easily to a parasequence model, in that a greater plurality exhibit a simple shallowing-upward motif, raising the concern that the exclusion of thin beds in other analyses might similarly oversimplify the perceived signal