Architectural evolution of a mixed-influenced deltaic succession: Lower-to-Middle Ordovician Armorican Quartzite in the southwest Central Iberian Zone, Penha Garcia Formation (Portugal)

Abstract

Facies stacking patterns and stratigraphic relationships resulting from the interaction of fluvial and wave processes, along with the paleoshoreline orientation and key surfaces, are essential to understand the temporal changes in the rate of change of accommodation space (A) versus sediment supply rate (S). High-frequency sea-level fluctuations in deltaic systems are controlled by changing accommodation and accumulation, which are explained mainly by autocyclic or allocyclic mechanisms. In deltaic systems, changes in the A/S ratio can be showed by significant variations of the internal facies architecture and the external morphology of the delta complex. These criteria have been used to investigate the relationship between autocyclic and allocyclic processes on the architectural evolution of a mixed river- and wave-influenced asymmetrical delta during the Lower-to-Middle Ordovician in the southwest Central Iberian Zone, in Portugal. Relying on the sedimentary and ichnological characteristics, the herein defined Penha Garcia Formation is classified into two main groups of facies associations, which are interpreted as deposited in a mixed asymmetrical delta with a trend of along-strike variations between wave-dominated strandplain (updrift) and river-dominated deltaic settings (downdrift). The vertical stacking arrangements of parasequences led to the identification of five depositional phases (I to V). Detailed analysis of geometry and internal architecture of the depositional phases along depositional strike shows a highly variable number of shallowing-upward cycles and facies thicknesses/heterogeneity on the updrift and downdrift side due to changes in rates of accumulation and hydrodynamic processes. The stratigraphic architectural style of the depositional phases I to V, and the trend of the total regressive ascending shoreline trajectory, are evidences that the deposition of the Penha Garcia Formation likely took place under an increasing rate of accommodation due to long-term relative sea-level rise (allocyclic), and high subsidence rates coupled with an increase in sediment supply, which could have been locally amplified by compaction of the prodelta-related muddy beds (autocyclic). This study suggests that in evaluating the autocyclic mechanisms on deltaic processes in short-time scales, there is a remarkable difference in terms of its impact on the internal variability of the depositional phases, both in the updrift and downdrift regions of mixed-influenced asymmetrical deltas. The most important reasons for the different effects of autocyclic mechanisms can be related to facies-dependent differential compaction or local changes in subsidence pattern, differences in the proximity to the distributary channel system, and differences in the influence of intrinsic processes of storm and wave reworking (wave-sweeping mechanisms).