Archer, Allen W., 1991. Modeling of tidal rhythmites using modern tidal periodicities and implications for short-term sedimentation rates,E. K. Franseen, W. L. Watney, C. G. St. C. Kendall, and W. C. Ross, eds., Sedimentary Modeling: Computer Simulations for Improved Parameter Definition: Kansas Geological Survey, Bulletin 233:185-194.

Abstract:Within Carboniferous strata cyclical variations in lamina thickness have a modern counterpart in tidal systems. These lamina thickness cycles can be equated to several types of neap-spring periodicities and longer-term seasonal periods. The various hierarchies of cycles within the ancient tidal deposits can be modeled using modern tidal station data. This type of fine-scale modeling indicates how the various tide-producing parameters of the earth-moon-sun system can be encoded in ancient tidal deposits. Based on relationships of lamina cycles to know tidal periods, inferred cycle periods indicate that such sections underwent rapid, localized, vertical accretion. Large discrepancies are evident when such short-term rates are compared to long-term rates of formation-level accumulation. Such comparisons indicate that long-term accumulation rates are many orders of magnitude slower than actual rates of deposition produced by tidal sedimentation.

Archer, Allen W., Erik P. Kvale, and Hollis R. Johnson, 1991. Analysis of modern equatorial tidal periodicities as a test of information encoded in tidal rhythmites, in D. G. Smith, G. E. Reinson, B. A. Zaitlain, and R. A. Rahmani, eds., Clastic Tidal Sedimentology: Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists, Memoir 16:189- 196.

Abstract: Modelling of tidal rhythmites based on modern tidal data, including a spectrum of diurnal to semidiurnal settings, allows a greater understanding of the information that can be encoded in ancient tidal rhythmites-bearing sequences. Based upon such modelling, neap-spring patterns observed within ancient rhythmites can be directly compared to the complex and hierarchically order periods that exist in modern tides. Harmonic analysis of modern data indicate that neap-spring cycles can be related not only to the synodic month (related to lunar phase) but also to the tropical month (related to lunar orbital declination). In addition, close approach of the moon to the earth (lunar perigee during the anomalistic month) results in a slight but significant change in tidal height variability that is superimposed on the aforementioned cycles.

Although neap-spring cycles are too minor to be recorded in log-based analyses, the larger scale seasonal and yearly cycles can potentially be observed in subsurface logs. A simulation of gamma-log response to these larger scale cycles is discussed, based upon assumptions involving tidal sedimentation.

Kvale, Erik P., and Allen W. Archer, 1991. Characteristics of two Pennsylvanian- age semidiurnal tidal deposits in the Illinois Basin, U.S.A, in D. G. Smith, G. E. Reinson, B. A. Zaitlain, and R. A. Rahmani, eds., Clastic Tidal Sedimentology: Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists, Memoir 16:179-188.

Abstract:Pennsylvanian-age tidal bedforms have been generally undocumented in the Illinois Basin of the eastern U.S.A. It has been argued by some researchers that tidal currents were not strong enough to transport and deposit sediments in such a cratonic basin. Two Pennsylvanian-age tidal deposits in the Illinois Basin are described herein, both formed in strongly asymmetrical tidal regimes. One is characterized by large-scale tidal bundles (1.5 m thick); the other is characterized by planar-laminated siltstones and small-scale ripple-sized tidal bundles. Bedforms associated with these deposits were little modified by subordinate tidal currents. Analysis of the tidal bundle sequences indicates that both units were deposited in semidiurnal tidal systems, one from ebb-dominant tides, the other from flood-dominant tides. There deposits are an indication of the size range of tidal bedforms in the Illinois Basin.