Controls and evolution of facies patterns in the Upper Barremian–Albian Levant Platform in North Sinai and North Israel

Abstract

The Upper Barremian-Albian Levant Platform was studied in North Sinai and Israel (Galilee and Golan Heights) by bio-and lithostratigraphy, facies analyses, and sequence stratigraphy. Integrating shallow-marine benthic foraminifera (mainly orbitolines), ammonite, and stable isotope data resulted in a detailed stratigraphic chart. Transects across the shallow shelf in both regions are based on facies analysis and form the basis for depositional models. In both transects five platform stages (PS I-V) were identified, which differ significantly in their stratigraphic architecture, mainly controlled by local tectonics, climate and second-order sea-level changes. In North Sinai, a transition from a shallow-shelf that is structured by sub-basins through a homoclinal ramp into a flat toped platform is recognized, while the sections in North Israel show a transition from a homoclinal ramp into a fringing platform. Local normal faults influenced the depositional architecture of the Upper Barremian-Lower Aptian strata in North Sinai and were attributed to syn-rift extensional tectonics. Four second-order sequence boundaries were identified, bounding Mid-Cretaceous Levant depositional sequences. These well-dated second-order sequence boundaries are MCL-1 (Late Barremian), MCL-2 (earliest Late Aptian), MCL-3 (Lower Albian), and MCL-4 (Late Albian). The sea-level history of the Levant Platform reflects the Late Aptian-Albian global long-term transgression, while the second-order sea-level changes show good correlation with those described from the Arabian plate.

The drowning of a siliciclastic shelf: insights into oceanographic reconstructions of the northern Arabian Platform during the Early Cretaceous

“…). The overarching trend across this sequence is the transition from a siliciclastic terrestrial influenced setting to a carbonate‐dominated regime beginning in the Late Barremian and continuing into the Albian (Bartov et al ., ; Bachmann et al ., ). This trend extends across the entirety of the Western and Northern Arabian margin, taking took place as a series of shifting facies (Ziegler, ).…”

“…This uplift followed by subsidence created accommodation leading to a thick siliciclastics that correlate northwards with a more carbonate‐dominated environment (Fig. ; Livnat et al ., ; Bachmann & Hirsch, ; Bachmann et al ., ).…”

Cretaceous (Hauterivian–Cenomanian) palaeoceanographic conditions in southeastern Tethys (Matruh Basin, Egypt): Implications for the Cretaceous climate of northeastern Gondwana

“…An analogous trend of an upward change in sedimentation from marginal clastic to shallow marine carbonate deposits was recorded in the north Eastern Desert of Egypt by Abd-Elshafy and Abd El-Azeam (2010). In North Sinai, a similar broadly deltaic system with high siliciclastic influx evolved northward into a relatively deeper marine carbonate-dominated ramp (Bachmann et al, 2010). These two sequences can thus also be shown to correspond to the late Aptian-middle Albian minor long-term and short-term Tethyan eustatic sea level rises.…”

“…13B). However, the uppermost lower Alamein Formation (uppermost lower Aptian) was deposited in a shallower marine deltaic setting that probably represents the effect of the order sequence in North Sinai (Bachmann et al, 2010) and Tunisia (Ghanem and Kuss, 2013;Hfaiedh et al, 2013).…”

Evolution of Cretaceous to Eocene alluvial and carbonate platform sequences in central and south Jordan

“…The presentday Mediterranean coastline corresponds approximately to the Cretaceous (Aptian to Late Turonian) palaeohingeline, which separated the deep-water Tethyan basin from the shallow carbonate shelf/ ramp; the ocean-spreading centre was located close to Cyprus (Flexer et al, 1986;Scotese, 1991;Sharland et al, 2001;Stampfli and Borel, 2002). Carbonate platform sequences (Albian to Eocene in age) can be traced southwestwards, approximately parallel to the palaeoslope, to the Sinai Peninsula and the Eastern Desert of Egypt (Lewy, 1975;Kuss, 1992;Kuss and Bachmann, 1996;Bachmann and Kuss, 1998;Buchbinder et al, 2000;Schulze et al, 2003Schulze et al, , 2005Bauer et al, 2001Bauer et al, , 2003Kuss et al, 2003;Bachmann et al, 2010).…”