Tracking a drowning unconformity up to the peritidal zone: Proximal expression of the early Bajocian carbonate crisis in Morocco

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Dokumenter

  • Jan Danisch
  • Francois Nicolas Krencker
  • Malte Mau
  • Emanuela Mattioli
  • Philippe Fauré
  • Yves Alméras
  • Alexis Nutz
  • Lahcen Kabiri
  • Mohamed El Ouali
  • Stéphane Bodin

The early Bajocian environmental crisis is marked by floral and faunal turnovers, and a positive carbon excursion recognized in both marine and continental archives. In the basinal setting of the Central High Atlas Basin, it is concomitant to a drastic drop of carbonate content, interpreted as a result of a severe carbonate demise event in neritic settings. In order to provide a carbonate platform perspective of this demise event, we have investigated a proximal–distal transect consisting of five sections of the Errachidia Platform, which represents upper neritic settings on the southern margin of the basin. New nannofossils and brachiopod findings, supported by organic matter carbon isotope chemostratigraphy, allow for the establishment of a high-resolution chronostratigraphic framework of the Errachidia Platform and a detailed reconstruction of carbonate factory evolution during the late Aalenian to middle Bajocian interval. The early Bajocian (Propinquans Zone) environmental crisis triggered a severe demise event which restricted carbonate production to supra-to intertidal settings, where microbial and peloidal limestones are the only trace of carbonate production. As a consequence, most of the platform is dominated by extended marl deposits that are usually interpreted as hemipelagic deposits. This observation demonstrates that caution must be exerted when interpreting the depositional environments of marl-dominated successions during time of neritic carbonate factory demise.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
Artikelnummer104300
TidsskriftJournal of African Earth Sciences
Vol/bind182
Antal sider15
ISSN1464-343X
DOI
StatusUdgivet - okt. 2021

Bibliografisk note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s)

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