Facies architecture and across-shelf variability of an extensive Lower Triassic (Smithian) microbial carbonate mound complex in the western U.S.

Widespread Lower Triassic microbial carbonates occur after the end-Permian mass extinction (EPME) and are commonly attributed to reduced metazoan competition after the EPME, or to paleoceanographic conditions that suppressed metazoan abundance and increased ocean carbonate saturation. Testing these hypotheses requires direct spatial (versus temporal) linkages between Lower Triassic microbial deposits and lithologic or geochemical proxy evidence...