New lithofacies and stable isotope records from the Middle Jurassic succession of northwestern Jordan: stratigraphic implications

Abstract

The Hamam and Mughanniyya formations of northwestern Jordan form part of the major carbonate shelf that existed over Arabia and the associated southern Tethyan margin during the Jurassic, but their precise age context and depositional setting have not yet been firmly established. To address this issue, the Hamam and Mughanniyya formations are compared with better biostratigraphically constrained successions in adjacent countries using a sequence stratigraphic framework. Two stratigraphic sections of the Hamam and Mughanniyya formations are shown by analysis of vertical trends from new lithofacies descriptions to comprise two primary depositional sequences that equate to the Bathonian and Middle-Late Callovian J30 and J40 Arabian Plate sequences sensu Sharland et al. (2001). New carbon (δ13C) and oxygen (δ18O) isotope records (amongst the first published for the Jurassic of Arabia) are helpful in locating sequence boundaries by means of diagenetically induced abrupt shifts in values and provide general support to the age interpretations of the formations/sequences.