Clastic sediments associated with radiolarites (Tauglboden—Schichten, Upper Jurassic, Eastern Alps)

Abstract

ABSTRACTDuring the early Upper Jurassic, widespread deep‐sea radiolarites were deposited in most parts of the Northern Limestone Alps. In the formation described (Tauglboden‐Schichten), these pelagic sediments interfinger with local‐source clastic material. Depending on the topography and the kind of material, either slides and slumps, mudflows, grain flows or turbidity currents operated and formed slump‐folded beds, mud‐flow breccias, fluxoturbidites or turbidites.A breccia had been traced over an area of 20 km2. Its variation is described in terms of lithological columns, bed thicknesses, maximum grain sizes and grain orientations. It forms a tongue‐shaped body, which was probably a part of a submarine fan. The fluxoturbidites of the proximal area grade distally on three sides into turbidites within 3–5 km.The clastic material consists of marls and limestones of Rhaetian and Jurassic age. It was probably derived from a tectonically uplifted palaeo‐high by an interplay of tectonics and gravity. The clastics were deposited on submarine fans bordering this high.In its lithology the formation closely resembles certain marginal facies of flysch troughs.