Controls on Devonian hemi-pelagic limestone deposition analyzed on cephalopod ridge to slope sections, Eastern Anti-Atlas, Morocco

Abstract

The hemi-pelagic Tafilalt Ridge separating the Maider Basin from the Tafilalt Basin developed progressively from an Early Devonian homoclinal ramp, through a Middle Devonian ramp-slope stage of moderate topography, to a mature cephalopod ridge during the Late Devonian and formed a spur-like element extending from the southern shallow-water Maider Platform to the broader northern hemi-pelagic Tafilalt Platform. During the Middle Devonian, thick lowstand aprons were shed onto the ridge-slope from an active mid-ramp carbonate factory in the south (Maider Platform). The shallow-water derived sediments first by-passed the central paleohigh, but then onlapped the ridge during start of sea-level rise. The allodapic limestones (storm-induced turbidites, tempestites, and debrites) of the aprons consist of large parts or entirely of reworked lithic peloids. The lithic peloids are interpreted as the main foundation of all micritic lithofacies types in the distal ramp locations, including those on the hemi-pelagic cephalopod ridge. Lateral facies transition of allodapic limestones into nodular cephalopod limestones on the ridge suggests the latter originate from allodapic beds and were subsequently transformed into nodular limestones by bioturbation, early diagenesis, and the faunal input from a hemi-pelagic community. Iron-rich hardgrounds formed on the ridge during major regressive phases as a result of increased winnowing by the wave-base and correlate with siliciclastic turbidite deposition on the slope. The hardgrounds can be correlated with hiatuses on the Tafilalt Platform, which formed a broader hemi-pelagic swell to the north. During the Late Devonian, the southern Maider Basin carbonate factory became unproductive or disappeared, and a ridge facies of truly hemi-pelagic autochthonous limestones developed. Allodapic deposits on the slope were shed from the ridge itself at this time but did not form well-defined aprons.