MICHIGAN HOCKEY, METEORIC PRECIPITATION, AND RHYTHMICITY OF ACCUMULATION ON PERITIDAL CARBONATE PLATFORMS

On Saturday afternoon March 30, 1996, the University of Michigan hocke y team won the 1996 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I national championship. Durations between Wolverine goals, between op ponent goals, and between all goals during the preceding 40-game regul ar season each describe an exponential distribution in which duration frequency depends only on number of shots on goal and probability of s uccess, Compared to opponent scores, University of Michigan between-go al duration frequencies describe a trend having a steeper slope (Unive rsity of Michigan shot better) and a higher intercept (University of M ichigan took more shots). Over much of the past 100 Sr, meteoric preci pitation on Ann Arbor occurred during 11 949 days. Time durations of t he 6401 precipitation episodes that occurred over this interval, as we ll as durations of contiguous days of precipitation and contiguous day s of drought, each define an exponential distribution in which duratio n frequency is largely defined by total interval length (35 101 days) and probability of precipitation (34%). Roadcuts near Wytheville, Virg inia, provide spectacular exposures of a 303.7-m-thick section of peri tidal carbonate in the Middle to Upper Cambrian Elbrook and Conocochea gue Formations. Stratigraphic durations (thicknesses) of the 527 litho logic units within this sequence, of the 265 ''cyclic'' upward-shallow ing lithofacies associations that can be designated over this interval , and of stratigraphic intervals between recurrences of like lithofaci es, also define exponential distributions wherein frequency of stratig raphic recurrence is only dependent on the total thickness and net abu ndance of designated stratal elements. Frequency of goal scoring, and frequency and/or magnitude of meteoric precipitation can be described in terms of random, independent processes at short time scales. Simila rly, exponential distributions of Lithologic and ''cyclic'' thickness frequencies at Wytheville, Virginia (as well as in most other epicrato nic peritidal sequences), indicate that meter-scale variation in carbo nate deposition was predominantly controlled by stochastic (Poisson) p rocesses that were largely unrelated to recurrent intrabasinal or extr abasinal forcing and/or to periodic (rhythmic) sediment accumulation.