Variations in architecture and cyclicity in fault-bounded carbonate platforms: Early Miocene Red Sea Rift, NW Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The Early Miocene was a period of active rifting and carbonate platform development in the Midyan Peninsula, NW Saudi Arabia. However, there is no published literature available dealing with the detailed characterization of the different carbonate platforms in this study area. Therefore, this study aims to present new stratigraphic architectural models that illustrate the formation of different carbonate platforms in the region and the forcing mechanisms that likely drove their formation. This study identified the following features formed during active rifting: a) a Late Aquitanian (N4) fault-block hangingwall dipslope carbonate ramp, b) a Late Burdigalian (N7-N8) isolated normal fault-controlled carbonate platform with associated slope deposits, and c) a Late Burdigalian (N7-N8) attached fault-bounded platform with reef buildups, rimmed shelf developed on a footwall fault-tip within a basin margin structural relay zone that formed coinciding with the second stage of rifting. Variations in cyclicity have been observed within the internal stratigraphic architecture of each platform and also between platforms. High-resolution sequence stratigraphic analysis shows to be parasequences the smallest depositional packages (metre-scale cycles) within the platforms. The hangingwall dipslope carbonate ramp and the attached platform demonstrate aggradational-progradational parasequence stacking patterns. These locations appear to have been more sensitive to eustatic cyclicities, despite the active tectonic setting. The isolated, fault-controlled carbonate platform reveals disorganized stratal geometries in both platform-top and slope facies, suggesting a more complex interplay of rates of tectonic uplift and subsidence, variation in carbonate productivity, and resedimentation of carbonates, such that any sea-level cyclicity is obscure. This study explores the interplay between different forcing mechanisms in the evolution of carbonate platforms in active extensional tectonic regions. Characterization of detailed parasequence-scale internal architecture allows the spatial variation in syn-depositional relative base-level changes to be inferred and is critical for understanding the development of rift basin carbonate platforms. Such concepts may be useful for the prediction of subsurface facies relationships beyond interwell areas in hydrocarbon exploration and reservoir modeling activities.