Giant desiccation fissures filled with calcareous eolian sand, Hermosa Formation (Pennsylvanian), southeastern Utah

At two stratigraphic intervals within the upper member of the Upper Pennsylvanian Hermosa Formation, calcareous eolian sand fills downward-tapering fissures that are as much as 18 cm wide and 5.7 m deep. Fissure fillings define orthogonal polygons 10 m or more in diameter. One of the host beds is primarily composed of subtidally deposited limestone, the other is a thinly laminated, nonmarine red siltstone. Both systems of fissure fillings are directly overlain and underlain by large-scale cross-stratified, calcareous eolianites. The limestone host bed contains chert pseudomorphs after gypsum. Compaction of host rocks contorted fissure fillings and caused doming of eolian strata over each fissure. Platy mineral grains in fissure fillings are aligned subparallel to bedding in the host rocks, supporting the view that the fissures were passively filled rather than forcefully injected. These ancient fissure systems are similar in scale and pattern to those that define giant desiccation polygons in numerous Great Basin playas. The Pennsylvanian fissures, like their Holocene counterparts, probably formed when groundwater tables dropped from shallow levels within fine-grained, impermeable deposits into underlying aquifers, greatly decreasing the extent of the capillary fringe. Our study of the fissures and host rocks supports the hypothesis that carbonate grains within the eolianites were deflated from uncemented marine sediments that were broadly exposed during regressive intervals.