Tippecanoe sequence
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The Tippecanoe sequence was the cratonic sequence--that is, the marine transgression--that followed the Sauk sequence; it extended from roughly the middle Ordovician to the early Devonian.
[edit] Sedimentary characteristics
After the regression of the Sauk Sea early in the Ordovician, the exposed craton for a time underwent vigorous erosion, due to being located in a tropical climate; indeed, at this point in the Phanerozoic the North American continent roughly straddled the equator.[1]
The Tippecanoe transgression ended this period of erosion, beginning with the deposition of clean sandstones across the craton, followed by abundant carbonate deposition.[2] In the east these carbonates gradually become shales, representing sediments eroded from highlands created in the Taconic orogeny.[3]
The Tippecanoe sequence may have been the deepest of the Phanerozoic. At one point during the Silurian period, the Taconic highlands--which later became the Appalachian Mountains--were the only part of North America that was not submerged.[4] The massive evaporite deposits of the Michigan Basin were created during this period.[5]
The Tippecanoe sequence ended with a regression in the early Devonian, to be followed later by the Kaskaskia sequence.
