Upstream controls on incised-valley dimensions and fill: Examples from the Upper Mississippian Mauch Chunk Group, Central Appalachian Basin, USA

Subsurface mapping and facies and architectural element analysis on outcrop, combined with published detrital zircon geochronology and sandstone petrography, are used to reconstruct a source to sink system for two incised-valley fills in the Upper Mississippian Mauch Chunk Group. The lower Stony Gap incised valley is relatively broad and filled with quartzarenite fluvial facies consisting of downstream accreting elements with minimum thicknesses of 6m; cross-sets within elements average 62.5cm thick. The lower Princeton incised valley is relatively narrow and filled with sublitharenite fluvial facies consisting of channel elements that range in thickness from 0.25 to 3.6m; cross-sets within elements average 35cm thick.