SYNCHRONIZED STASIS AND ABRUPT CHANGE IN THE ACCUMULATION RATE HISTORY AND FACIES BETWEEN THE DAN RIVER-DANVILLE (NC & VA) AND OTHER EASTERN NORTH AMERICAN TRIASSIC-JURASSIC BASINS

Quantitative correlation of the Dan River-Danville basin with the Newark basin APTS 2010 and Deep River basin based on paleomagnetic polarity stratigraphy and pervasive orbitally-paced lake level cycles shows that the eastern North American and Moroccan basins evolved through time in a remarkably synchronized pattern during the Late Triassic. The accumulation rate histories of the basins are segmented into correlative intervals lasting millions of years with virtually no change in the long-term accumulation rate (at the 400-kyr-scale), with abrupt transitions between segments, despite having overall different accumulation rates. This is startling, given a simple model of basin growth, suggesting some kind of compensation in sediment input for the increasing surface of the area of the basin through time. Large-scale facies packaging also changes synchronously between basins. These correlated changes in the accumulation rate and facies in these basins suggests a very large-scale linkage, at the plate-tectonic scale, perhaps with some kind of balance between extension rates, basin accommodation space and regional drainage basin size.