Coeval Carbonate Platforms Research Articles

Upper Cenomanian caprinulid-radiolitid rudists (Bivalvia) from the Gattar Member of Jebel el Kebar (central Tunisia): Stratigraphical implications and palaeobiogeographical relationships with coeval rudist-assemblages from carbonate platforms of the southern Tethyan margin

The Gattar Member (upper part of the Zebbag Formation) is a prominent dolomitic limestone unit in Tunisia, the age of which was ascribed either to the Turonian, the Cenomanian, or the Cenomanian−Turonian. Here, we present the discovery of a Caprinulidae-Radiolitidae rudist asssemblage in the Gattar Member of Jebel el Kebar (central Tunisia). This consists of Caprinula cf. boissyi, Sauvagesia cf. sharpei, Durania arnaudi, Neocaprina sp. and Eoradiolites sp. The detailed description of two sections of the Gattar Member in Jebel el Kebar allows us to define the sedimentological and palaeoecological attributes of the rudist-bearing carbonates and their sequential relationships with the Zebbag and Rouana stratigraphical units respectively. The caprinulid-radiolitid assemblage is age-calibrated, based on the ammonite standard zonation of the Cenomanian stage from Portugal, South-Eastern France, and Oman, where rudist, benthic foraminifera and ammonite Zones have been correlated. Its age is late Cenomanian. The correlations of the Gattar Member between central Tunisia and the Gafsa-Chotts area are established on the base of ammonite and rudist biostratigraphical markers. The age of the Gattar Member of southern Tunisia and of its stratigraphical counterpart in western Libya is discussed. At last, we analyze the palaeobiogeographical distribution of the upper Cenomanian caprinulid-radiolitid assemblages from coeval carbonate platforms of the North African margin (Algeria, Morocco) and of the North Arabian margin (Levant region: Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, North Sinai).

Birth and death of seamounts in the Panthalassa Ocean: Late Triassic to Early Jurassic sedimentary record at Mount Sambosan, Shikoku, Southwest Japan

Abstract Mid-oceanic shallow water carbonate platforms are usually characterized by long-term deposition due to the continuous subsidence of the underlying volcanic edifices and thus provide good records of biotic evolution and environmental changes. However, since most of the pre-Jurassic oceanic crust has been subducted, very few remains of Triassic atoll-like platforms are preserved in the Circum-Pacific region. Therefore, it is crucial to precisely document these Triassic carbonate occurrences to better understand the global evolution of climates and ecosystems during the Early Mesozoic in the huge Panthalassa Ocean. In the Sambosan Accretionary Complex (Southwest Japan), several Upper Triassic shallow water limestone blocks are especially well exposed at Mount Sambosan in Shikoku Island. Microfacies analyses associated with biostratigraphic data (reef assemblages, foraminifer associations and conodonts) allow us to reconstruct the geological history of these seamount fragments from the first settlement of reef biota in the Ladinian-Early Carnian to platform growth during the Late Carnian to Rhaetian. Finally, the demise of the carbonate platform occurred during the Latest Triassic to Early Jurassic, followed by platform collapse and accretion to the East Asia margin in the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous. Furthermore, cathodoluminescence microscopy reveals that the Sambosan limestone experienced several diagenetic episodes including early cementation, dissolution and dolomitization. At the global scale, the comprehensive sedimentary record at Mount Sambosan shows that evolution of shallow water ecosystems in the Panthalassa Ocean is consistent with biotic and environmental changes documented in coeval carbonate platforms from the Tethys Ocean.

The Apulia Carbonate Platform—Gargano Promontory, Italy (Upper Jurassic–Eocene)

The Upper Jurassic to Eocene carbonate rocks of the Gargano Promontory belong to the Apulia Carbonate Platform (ACP) and provide a spectacular and complete succession of slope and base-of-slope resedimented gravity flow carbonates with preserved reservoir properties and, with its coeval carbonate platform, displaying various tectonostratigraphic architectures. The ACP margin is characterized by an overall aggrading architecture, and different geometric and depositional features. Facies types and sedimentary dynamics of the carbonate slope and gravity deposits can be analyzed with respect to the stratigraphic architecture of the platform-to-basin transition. These outcrops are the only analogs of some important oil reservoirs and plays present in the equivalent slope to basin succession in the Adriatic offshore and elsewhere.

Similarities and differences in the dolomitization history of two coeval Middle Triassic carbonate platforms, Balaton Highland, Hungary

Dolomitization of platform carbonates is commonly the result of multiphase processes. Documentation of the complex dolomitization history is difficult if completely dolomitized sections are studied. Two Middle Anisian sections representing two coeval carbonate platforms were investigated and compared in the present study. Both sections are made up of meter-scale peritidal–lagoonal cycles with significant pedogenic overprint. One of the sections contains non-dolomitized, partially dolomitized, and completely dolomitized intervals, whereas the other is completely dolomitized. Based on investigations of the partially dolomitized section, penecontemporaneous dolomite formation and/or very early post-depositional dolomitization were identified in various lithofacies types. In shallow subtidal facies, porphyrotopic dolomite was found preferentially in microbial micritic fabrics. Microbially induced dolomite precipitation and/or progressive replacement of carbonate sediments could be interpreted for stromatolites. Cryptocrystalline to very finely crystalline dolomite, probably of pedogenic origin, was encountered in paleosoil horizons. Fabric-destructive dolomite commonly found below these horizons was likely formed via reflux of evaporated seawater. As a result of the different paleogeographic settings of the two platforms, their shallow-burial conditions were significantly different. One of the studied sections was located at the basinward platform margin where pervasive fabric-retentive dolomitization took place in a shallow-burial setting, probably via thermal convection. In contrast, in the area of the other, smaller platform shallow-water carbonates were covered by basinal deposits, preventing fluid circulation and accordingly pervasive shallow-burial dolomitization. In the intermediate to deep burial zone, recrystallization of partially dolomitized limestone and occlusion of newly opened fractures and pores by coarsely crystalline dolomite took place.

Upper Ordovician conodont biostratigraphy and the age of the Collingwood Member, southern Ontario, Canada1Earth Science Sector (ESS) Contribution 20100302.

The Upper Ordovician stratigraphy in southern Ontario represents the clastic foredeep associated with the Appalachian Taconic Orogeny transitioning northwest into coeval carbonate platform facies. Ten measured and sampled sections in both the Collingwood area and on Manitoulin Island, Lake Huron, provide two relatively complete composite sections (277 and 95 m, respectively) through the marine part of the sequence. A total of 100 2 kg samples collected for a conodont biostratigraphic study yielded 77 215 well-preserved specimens. Taxonomic study of the fauna, illustrated herein, identified 34 species representing 22 genera and three taxa in open nomenclature. Taxonomic revisions are made to five species of Pseudobelodina and one of Rhipidognathus ; a new species, Pseudobelodina microdentata , is established. The fauna primarily represents the Midcontinent Province with incursions from the North Atlantic Province primarily in the Collingwood area. Four conodont zones are recognized that help refine the ages for the Upper Ordovician upper Lindsay (Collingwood Member), Blue Mountain, Georgian Bay, and Queenston formations. In particular, the Collingwood Member of the Lindsay Formation, a regionally distributed organic-rich shale of hydrocarbon source rock potential, is demonstrated to lie within the Amorphognathus ordovicicus Zone of North Atlantic Province and the Oulodus robustus Zone of Midcontinent Province and to be early Richmondian age.

Triassic metasediments in the internal Dinarides (Kopaonik area, southern Serbia): stratigraphy, paleogeographic and tectonic significance

Triassic metasediments in the internal Dinarides (Kopaonik area, southern Serbia): stratigraphy, paleogeographic and tectonic significanceStrongly deformed and metamorphosed sediments in the Studenica Valley and Kopaonik area in southern Serbia expose the easternmost occurrences of Triassic sediments in the Dinarides. In these areas, Upper Paleozoic terrigenous sediments are overlain by Lower Triassic siliciclastics and limestones and by Anisian shallow-water carbonates. A pronounced facies change to hemipelagic and distal turbiditic, cherty metalimestones (Kopaonik Formation) testifies a Late Anisian drowning of the former shallow-water carbonate shelf. Sedimentation of the Kopaonik Formation was contemporaneous with shallow-water carbonate production on nearby carbonate platforms that were the source areas of diluted turbidity currents reaching the depositional area of this formation. The Kopaonik Formation was dated by conodont faunas as Late Anisian to Norian and possibly extends into the Early Jurassic. It is therefore considered an equivalent of the grey Hallstatt facies of the Eastern Alps, the Western Carpathians, and the Albanides-Hellenides. The coeval carbonate platforms were generally situated in more proximal areas of the Adriatic margin, whereas the distal margin was dominated by hemipelagic/pelagic and distal turbiditic sedimentation, facing the evolving Neotethys Ocean to the east. A similar arrangement of Triassic facies belts can be recognized all along the evolving Meliata-Maliac-Vardar branch of Neotethys, which is in line with a ‘one-ocean-hypothesis’ for the Dinarides: all the ophiolites presently located southwest of the Drina-Ivanjica and Kopaonik thrust sheets are derived from an area to the east, and the Drina-Ivanjica and Kopaonik units emerge in tectonic windows from below this ophiolite nappe. On the base of the Triassic facies distribution we see neither argument for an independent Dinaridic Ocean nor evidence for isolated terranes or blocks.

Provenance of siliciclastic and hybrid turbiditic arenites of the Eocene Hecho Group, Spanish Pyrenees: implications for the tectonic evolution of a foreland basin

ABSTRACTThe Eocene Hecho Group turbidite system of the Aínsa‐Jaca foreland Basin (southcentral Pyrenees) provides an excellent opportunity to constrain compositional variations within the context of spatial and temporal distribution of source rocks during tectonostratigraphic evolution of foreland basins. The complex tectonic setting necessitated the use of petrographic, geochemical and multivariate statistical techniques to achieve this goal. The turbidite deposits comprise four unconformity‐bounded tectonostratigraphic units (TSU), consisting of quartz‐rich and feldspar‐poor sandstones, calclithites rich in extrabasinal carbonates and hybrid arenites dominated by intrabasinal carbonates. The sandstones occur exclusively in TSU‐2, whereas calclithites and hybrid arenites occur in the overlying TSU‐3, TSU‐4 and TSU‐5. The calclithites were deposited at the base of each TSU and hybrid arenites in the uppermost parts. Extrabasinal carbonate sources were derived from the fold‐and‐thrust belt (mainly Cretaceous and Palaeocene limestones). Conversely, intrabasinal carbonate grains were sourced from foramol shelf carbonate factories. This compositional trend is attributed to alternating episodes of uplift and thrust propagation (siliciclastic and extrabasinal carbonates supplies) and subsequent episodes of development of carbonate platforms supplying intrabasinal detrital grains. The quartz‐rich and feldspar‐poor composition of the sandstones suggests derivation from intensely weathered cratonic basement rocks during the initial fill of the foreland basin. Successive sediments (calclithites and hybrid arenites) were derived from older uplifted basement rocks (feldspar‐rich and, to some extent, rock fragments‐rich sandstones), thrust‐and‐fold belt deposits and from coeval carbonate platforms developed at the basin margins. This study demonstrates that the integration of tectono‐stratigraphy, petrology and geochemistry of arenites provides a powerful tool to constrain the spatial and temporal variation in provenance during the tectonic evolution of foreland basins.

Aragonite dissolution, sedimentation rates and carbon isotopes in deep-water hemipelagites (Livinallongo Formation, Middle Triassic, northern Italy)

Hemipelagic nodular limestones are a widespread facies in the Triassic of the Tethys, often considered as being deposited at rather constant sedimentation rates. The aim of this paper is to investigate the sedimentation rate variability in a case-study from the Middle Triassic of the Dolomites, northern Italy, and to suggest possible causes. The nodular cherty limestones of the Livinallongo Fm. and correlated units were studied in four stratigraphic sections and compared to classical successions from the literature. Correlations between sections are based on ammonoid biostratigraphy and tephra stratigraphy. Correlation highlighted conspicuous changes in sedimentation rates through time and between sections, associated with sedimentological evidence of deep-water aragonite dissolution. Deep-water dissolution is believed to have resulted in small hiatuses and in a bias of ammonoid assemblages towards taxa with more resistant shells. Carbonate petrography and geochemistry provide evidence of differential diagenesis of the Livinallongo Fm. Carbonate nodules were lithified at the water–sediment interface, and their C isotope composition is regarded as a proxy of the δ 13C of Middle Triassic bottom seawater. The onset of nodular cherty limestones, occurring contemporaneously at the basin scale, and the coeval carbonate platform drowning events are tentatively explained by the inflow and local upwelling of cool deep water from Panthalassa into the western Tethys.

Ammonoid biostratigraphy of the Middle Triassic Latemar platform (Dolomites, Italy) and its correlation with Nevada and Canada

An extensive study of the ammonoid fauna occurring in the lagoonal facies of a Middle Triassic isolated carbonate platform (Latemar platform, Dolomites, Italy) has been undertaken, and ammonoids from selected coeval successions (Punta Zonia, Marmolada, Rio Sacuz) have been illustrated. Ammonoids from Latemar have been collected in 20 distinct horizons (storm deposits) within the ca. 500 m thick lagoonal succession of the platform, thus providing a biostratigraphy of a series which is unusually expanded for this time interval, close to the Anisian–Ladinian boundary. Contrary to general opinion, some ammonoids of the Latemar and other coeval carbonate platforms of the Dolomites (Marmolada, Cernera), in particular Aplococeras avisianum, Lecanites misanii, Celtites spp., and Paranevadites sp., are also present in nearby basinal series. The same taxa have been found in North American localities deposited at the opposite margin of Panthalassa. The homotaxis of these ammonoids in North America and Latemar allow to establish a global scale correlation between the Southern Alps and North America with the highest resolution to date possible. In the context of this study, Aplococeras transiens n. sp. and Esinoceras nerinae n. sp are established.

Lateral variations in sediment composition and bedding in Middle Triassic interplatform basins (Buchenstein Formation, southern Alps, Italy)

ABSTRACT Hemipelagic deposits are widespread in Triassic sequences of the Alpine belt and provide important data for stratigraphy and the study of bedding rhythms. The area of the western and central Dolomites of northern Italy escaped strong alpidic deformation and preserves such deposits in their original palaeogeographic setting. The Buchenstein Formation, the object of this study, was deposited in up to 1000 m deep, Middle Triassic interplatform basins, which extend over an area of 500 km2 within the Dolomites. Excellent outcrops and volcaniclastic markers allow a detailed correlation of the formation in both laminated (anoxic) and bioturbated facies down to a bed scale, and show its relationship to coeval carbonate platforms. Correlation of lithostratigraphically well‐constrained intervals in the bioturbated facies reveal that lateral thickening and thinning of the deposits depends on the amount of shallow‐water debris in the succession and is a function of the distance to coeval carbonate platform sources. In the laminated background deposit, thickness variations in limestones and marls parallel the thickness variations in ash layers, and were caused by local redeposition of sediment on the basin floor. Lateral persistence of laminae indicates that bottom currents were weak in the Buchenstein basin, but were able to redeposit mud in a significant way. In the area around Seceda and Geisler (western Dolomites), a lateral transition from dark‐grey laminated to grey bioturbated to red bioturbated facies is observed, which is probably linked to local relief with different oxygenation conditions on the sea floor. A comparison shows that decimetre‐scale bedding is preserved in all facies types and that the bedding rhythm is partly the result of different cementation of the sediment during early diagenesis. Correlation of individual layers in the bioturbated facies reveals that beds are thicker and enriched in lime mud in the western part of the basin, and decrease in thickness and contain less micrite towards the east, further away from the main shallow‐water areas. Nearslope calciturbidites change gradually from distinct layers into lateral arrays of micrite nodules and bands further out in the basin. These observations point to a platform source of lime mud in the Buchenstein basin.

The Early Cretaceous Arperos basin: an oceanic domain dividing the Guerrero arc from nuclear Mexico evidenced by the geochemistry of the lavas and sediments

During the Early Cretaceous, the Arperos basin was located between the Guerrero arc terrane and nuclear Mexico. Remnants of this basin now form an oceanic suture zone between the coeval carbonate platforms to the east and the accreted Guerrero terrane to the west. The geochemistry on the Arperos mafic hypabyssal and volcanic rocks, based on the incompatible and trace element distribution and the ϵ Nd (T=110 Ma) values, shows that this basin was floored by basalts that likely were generated by the mixing of OIB and N-MORB sources. The submarine lavas are overlain by and/or interbedded with siliceous sediments that have the highest ϵ Nd (T=110 Ma) and lowest Th levels. In contrast, the turbidites interlayered with the pelagic carbonates located at the top of the Arperos stratigraphic column show the lowest ϵ Nd (T=110 Ma) values and the highest Th contents. This evolution with time in the chemistry of the Arperos sediments is interpreted as marking the approach of the Guerrero juvenile arc to nuclear Mexico.

Stratigraphic and structural relationships between Meso-Cenozoic Lagonegro basin and coeval carbonate platforms in southern Apennines, Italy

Stratigraphic studies and facies analysis integrated with a new geological and structural survey of the Meso-Cenozoic units outcropping in the Campania–Lucania Apennines, southern Italy, allowed us to restore the palaeogeographic pattern and the tectonic evolution of the chain during Oligo-Miocene times. The southern Apennines are a N150°-striking and NE-verging fold-and-thrust belt mainly derived from the deformation of the African–Apulian passive margin. Four wide belts with different features have been recognized in the chain area. From east to west the following units outcrop: (a) successions characterized by basinal to marginal facies, ranging in age from Cretaceous to Miocene, tectonically lying on Plio-Pleistocene foredeep deposits; (b) successions characterized by shallow-water, basinal and shelf-margin facies, ranging in age from middle Triassic to Miocene (‘Lagonegro units’), overthrust on the previous ones; (c) Triassic to Miocene carbonate platform successions (‘Apenninic platform units’), overthrust on the Lagonegro units; (d) Jurassic–Cretaceous to Miocene deep-water successions (ophiolite-bearing or ‘internal’ units and associated siliciclastic wedges), outcropping along the Tyrrhenian belt and the Calabria–Lucania boundary, overthrust on the Apenninic platform units. All these units tectonically lie on the buried Apulian platform which is covered, at least in the eastern sector of the chain, by Pliocene to Pleistocene foredeep deposits. Stratigraphic patterns of the Cretaceous to lower Miocene Lagonegro successions are coherent with the platform margin ones. Calcareous clastics of the Lagonegro basin are in fact supplied by an adjacent western platform, as inferred by several sedimentological evidences (slump and palaeocurrent directions and decreasing grain size towards the depocentre of the basin). Tectonic relationships among the different units of the chain — with particular emphasis on the Lagonegro and Apenninic platform units of the Lucanian segment — are shown by means of both regional and detailed geological cross-sections. The Lagonegro units constantly underlie the carbonate units originating from detachment and thrusting of the western platform and overlie the eastern (i.e. Apulian) platform. The Lagonegro units show a strong lateral variability of map-scale structures. Dome-and-basin folds are in fact largely observable in the Lucanian Apennine. Further, the belt is widely affected by Plio-Quaternary strike–slip and extensional faults. Yet, excluding the brittle deformation due to Quaternary faulting, the complexity of structural styles seems to result from the Neogene refolding of more ancient structures produced by Oligo-Miocene intraplate deformation. This hypothesis is supported by two independent lines of evidence: the first is the recognition of unconformities between the lower Miocene Numidian sandstone and the underlying Lagonegro successions, at least in the southwestern sectors; the second is that the internal (i.e. western) platform remains undeformed until the early Miocene. Both stratigraphic and structural data suggest an external position of the Meso-Cenozoic Lagonegro basin with regard to the coeval Apenninic platform.

NEW BIOSTRATIGRAPHIC DATA ON THE TRIASSIC OF THE MARATHOVOUNO HILLOCK AREA (CHIOS ISLAND, GREECE)

The Island of Chios (northern Egean Sea, Greece) is known for a well-preserved Paleozoic to Mesozoic sedimentary sequence. This paper is focused on the micropaleontology and biostratigraphy of the Marmarotrapeza Formation (Lower/Middle Triassic) and of the overlying Bunte Serie Unit (Middle Triassic), outcropping near the Marathovouno Hillock section proposed by Assereto (1974) as type-section for the Aegean substage (Lower Anisian). The results obtained allow to better define the age of the Bunte Serie basin and of the coeval carbonate platform, which ranges from the Anisian (?Pelsonian) to the Norian-?Rhaetian.

Deep-water asymmetric cycles and progradation of carbonate platforms governed by high-frequency eustatic oscillations (Triassic of the Dolomites, Italy)

The basinal San Cassiano Formation (Triassic, Dolomites, Italy) is interfingered with clinostratified megabreccia slope deposits of coeval carbonate platforms, and to a large extent is composed of metre-scale thickening, coarsening-upward cycles. These asymmetrical cycles, often representing bundles of five coarsening-upward sequences, are interpreted as platformbasin interactions governed by fourth- and fifth-order eustatic oscillations. According to this model, progradation of Triassic platforms of the Dolomites occurred mainly during fourthorder sea-level lowstands.

Bilelyeri Group, Antalya Complex: deposition on a Mesozoic passive continental margin, south‐west Turkey

ABSTRACTThe Bilelyeri Group comprises complexly deformed Mesozoic sedimentary rocks of continental‐margin affinities (Kumluca Zone). These are structurally intercalated between a coeval carbonate platform to the west (Bey Daǧlari Zone) and late Triassic ophiolitic rocks and sediments, interpreted as emplaced marginal oceanic crust, to the east (Gödene Zone). Four formations erected in the Bilelyeri Group record the later stages of continental rifting and the progressive development of part of a Mesozoic passive continental margin.The two late Triassic formations, the Telektaş Tepe and the Hatipalani Formations, are dominated by terrigenous clastic and calcareous clastic sediments, including large detached blocks of reef limestone. These rocks were laid down by mostly mass‐flow and turbidity‐flow into steep‐sided rift depressions. Organic reefs were constructed in bordering shallow seas while terrigenous clastic sediment was shed from exposed basement horsts. Thick sequences of mafic lavas were extruded (Norian) in axial parts of the rift zones, followed by a regional change to deposition of pelagic Halobia‐bearing limestone. This culminated in a major hiatus involving large‐scale sliding of shallow‐water limestones into deeper water.The Jurassic to early Cretaceous Dereköy Formation mostly consists of siltstones, radiolarian cherts and mudstones, intercalated with redeposited limestones and black shales. During this time parts of the margin were bordered by major offshore carbonate complexes constructed partly on basement fragments previously rifted off the parent continental areas. Black shales and reduced hemipelagic sediments were deposited in an elongate trough between the main platform and an offshore complex to the east. Some degree of margin reactivation in the early Cretaceous is indicated by renewed deposition of turbiditic sandstone and chloritic clays in some distal sequences. Strong relative enrichment of manganese in some horizons is attributed to offshore volcanic exhalations. Subsequent regional subsidence in the mid‐to late Cretaceous is suggested by a switch to predominantly calcareous, pelagic sedimentation on the adjacent platform and the offshore massifs as well as on the Bilelyeri margin.Tectonic disruption of the platform edge during the late Cretaceous is implied by major redeposition of shallow‐water shelf limestones in proximal Bilelyeri sequences. The Bilelyeri margin and the adjacent Gödene Zone were tectonically deformed in latest Cretaceous to early Tertiary time and were thrust over the adjacent Bey Daǧlari platform in the early Miocene.Viewed in an East Mediterranean perspective, the Bilelyeri sequences were part of a locally north‐south trending segment of a regionally east‐west margin to a substantial oceanic area further south. This segment apparently suffered significant strike‐slip deformation both during its construction and its later emplacement. Instructive comparisons can be made with other areas of the East Mediterranean, especially south‐west Cyprus.