Tempestites recorded as variable Pentamerus layers in the Lower Silurian of southern Norway

The brachiopod Pentamerus oblongus is especially abundant in the Lower Silurian Rytteråker Formation, which occurs widely throughout the Oslo region in southern Norway. Alternating thin limestones and shales typically occur in a shallowing-upward sequence ending in a massive grainstone often rich in tabulate corals and stromatoporoids. In the lower beds, colonization by pentamerid populations was enhanched by prior emplacement of an orthotetacean shell pavement over the clastic sea bed. Individual Pentamerus size decreases with increasing disturbance of populations or their fragmentation as lag deposits nearer the stratigraphic level of the massive grainstone. The frequency of specific storm events and the changing depth to the sea bed may be indexed according to the average size of pentamerid shells in a given population and the degree to which the population is disturbed. Preservation of prominent growth lines (assumed to be annual) suggests storms stirred the sea bed in deeper waters on an 8–10 year cycle. In shallower waters, storms more regularly disturbed the sea bed every 2–3 years. These data corroborate the interpretation that the Pentamerus community inhabited marine waters below fair-weather wave base, but still within reach of storm wave base.