Birth and demise of a Middle Jurassic isolated shallow-marine carbonate platform on a tilted fault block: Example from the Southern Iberian continental palaeomargin

Abstract

Subbetic Middle Jurassic oolitic limestones of the Jabalcuz Formation crop out in San Cristóbal hill, near Jaén city (Andalucía, Spain), between hemipelagic limestone and marl successions. The Jabalcuz limestones range in facies from calcareous breccias and micritic limestones to white cross-bedded oolitic limestones. Recent erosion has exhumed a Jurassic isolated shallow-water carbonate platform on the San Cristóbal hill. This shallow platform developed on a tilted fault block. An almost continuous, laterally extensive outcrop reveals tectono-sedimentary features distinctive of block-tilting in the different margins of the fault block. The studied sections represent various palaeogeographic positions in the ancient shallow-water carbonate platform and basin transition. This exceptional outcrop allows to decipher the triggering mechanisms of the birth, evolution, and drowning of this Jurassic isolated shallow-water carbonate platform. Two shallowing-upward depositional sequences separated by flooding surfaces can be distinguished on two different sides of the fault block. In the southeastern part of the outcrop, proximal sections grade vertically from distal talus fault breccias, with bivalve and serpulid buildup intercalations, to white cross-bedded oolitic limestones defining the lowermost depositional sequence. Upwards, overlying a flooding surface, the second sequence with oolitic limestones prograding over micritic deposits is recorded. In the southwest, oolitic, peloidal, and more distal micritic facies alternate, with notable southeastern progradation of oolitic facies in the upper part of the section, which represents the upper depositional sequence. The top of this second depositional sequence is another flooding surface recorded by the sedimentation of marls with radiolarians from the overlying formation.In the northwestern outcrops, the two depositional sequences are also almost completely preserved and can be differentiated. A 100m-thick succession composed of a basal slumped unit of micritic and peloidal limestones overlain by cross-bedded oolitic limestones represents the lowermost sequence. The superposition of a newer slumped unit of micritic and peloidal limestones on the cross-bedded oolitic limestones defines the lower part of the uppermost depositional sequence. Finally, the central sections are less thick and comprise a facies succession consisting almost entirely of oolitic limestones.Locally, oolitic limestones often show cross-bedding and prograding clinoforms. The cross-bedding has centrifugal directions around the perimeter outcrops of San Cristóbal hill, whereas in the centre palaeocurrents are highly variable. The sense of the palaeoslopes as deduced from slumps also fits with a centrifugal pattern. Finally, in the southwestern outcrops, the demise of the carbonate platform is marked by backstepping oolitic facies, the presence of lumachelle facies, and onlapping hemipelagic facies.All the data point to the birth, evolution, and drowning of an isolated shallow-water carbonate platform that developed on a tilted fault block. The fault-block tilting controlled the development of talus breccias in the southeastern part and of slumps in the northwest-dipping hangingwall ramp. In the shallowest environments produced by the tilting (uppermost part of the fault block), a shallow-marine carbonate platform developed. Carbonate production (mainly oolitic) kept up with relative sea-level fluctuations and extended the platform at least to the northwest, southeast, and southwest based on observable data. Finally, tectonics and sea-level fluctuations drowned this carbonate platform.