Depositional and post-depositional history of the Guri Member in the south-east of Zagros sedimentary basin

Abstract

In the Zagros sedimentary basin, the maximum thickness of the Guri Member carbonates is belonging to the eastern parts of the Bandar-Abbas region. In this research, the Guri Member in five outcrops at the Bandar-Abbas region has been sedimentological and stratigraphic studied. The Guri Member mainly consists of limestone with interbedded marl with a variable thickness from 540 m at the Handun outcrop to 52 m at the Nakh outcrop. According to facies study and using the 87Sr/86 Sr isotopic ratio (amounts 0.708522 and 0.708790 values) of the basal carbonate layers of this member, the beginning sedimentation of these deposits occur during the Burdigalian and Langian times within the five carbonate facies. Fieldwork observations and facies distribution suggested a shelf carbonate platform for deposition of the Guri Member at the Bandar-Abbas region. Petrographic investigation in addition to trace elements (Sr, Mn and Fe) and isotopic (oxygen and carbon) geochemical analyses, also indicate the main influence of the marine to shallow-burial diagenetic process with the marine fluids after primary deposition of the Guri Member. The comparison of the oxygen and carbon isotope values of the Guri samples with the least-altered oxygen and carbon range for the early to middle Miocene marine calcite and also the more variations of the oxygen isotope values (between -1.19‰ to -5.39‰ PDB), and lees variations of carbon isotope values (between -1.05‰ to 2.2‰ PDB), indicate the effects of shallow-burial fluids (marine-phreatic) on the carbonate of the Guri Member.