Foramol Carbonate Shelves as Depositional Site and Source Area: Recent and Ancient Examples from the Mediterranean Region: ABSTRACT

Abstract

In recent environments, only limited carbonate depositional areas are dominated by coral reefs. Such platforms frequently develop rimmed margins and are characterized by chlorozoan facies with large contributions of nonskeletal grains. They are practically limited to warm tropical seas. In temperate seas as well as anomalous tropical zones, large areas of the middle-outer shelf are covered by skeletal debris with variable amounts of mollusks, foraminifers, coralline algae, bryozoans, etc (foramol facies). Apart from the skeletal fragments derived from the shallow inner shelf and the contribution from local endobiota and epibiota, the source of the bioclastic sediments may be found in limited and scattered areas supporting active carbonate-producing assemblages. Fossil counterparts of similar deposits are present in the Mediterranean region (e.g., Spain, Italy, Malta, Libya), locally showing good reservoir properties. Examples are described from the Miocene of the Southern Apennines (Italy) where a variety rich in encrusting coralline algae is present, as well as from the Upper Cretaceous of the Southern Apennines and northwest Sardinia (Italy) where scattered rudistid buildups are associated with bioclastic sediments rich in coralline algae and bryozoans.