Facies model of a mixed clastic–carbonate, wave‐dominated open‐coast tidal flat (Tithonian–Berriasian, north‐east Spain)

Abstract

Detailed logging and analysis of the facies architecture of the upper Tithonian to middle Berriasian Aguilar del Alfambra Formation (Galve sub-basin, north-east Spain) have made it possible to characterize a wide variety of clastic, mixed clastic-carbonate and carbonate facies, which were deposited in coastal mudflats to shallow subtidal areas of an open-coast tidal flat. The sedimentary model proposed improves what is known about mixed coastal systems, both concerning facies and sedimentary processes. This sedimentary system was located in an embayed, non-protected area of a wide C-shaped coast that was seasonally dominated by wave storms. Clastic and mixed clastic-carbonate muds accumulated in poorly drained to well-drained, marine-influenced coastal mudflat areas, with local fluvial sandstones (tide-influenced fluvial channels and sheet-flood deposits) and conglomerate tsunami deposits. Carbonate-dominated tidal flat areas were the loci of deposition of fenestral-laminated carbonate muds and grainy (peloidal) sediments with hummocky cross-stratification. Laterally, the tidal flat was clastic-dominated and characterized by heterolithic sediments with hummocky cross-stratification and local tidal sandy bars. Peloidal and heterolithic sediments with hummocky cross-stratification are the key facies for interpreting the wave (storm) dominance in the tidal flat. Subsidence and high rates of sedimentation controlled the rapid burial of the storm features and thus preserved them from reworking by fair-weather waves and tides.

Mixed carbonate-siliciclastic tidal sedimentation in the Miocene to Pliocene Bouse Formation, palaeo-Gulf of California

“…18). Spatial patterns summarized here are similar to carbonate-rich tidal flats adjacent to siliciclastic-rich tidal flats documented in Spain by Bádenas et al (2018). Schwartz et al (2018) also found a wide array of contemporaneous mixed carbonate-siliciclastic environments in the Neuquén Basin of Argentina, and postulated that the variety and complexity of mixed carbonatesiliciclastic settings are related to both the proportion of carbonate and siliciclastic production, and such dominant marine transport processes as storm, shelf, and tidal currents.…”

“…The model of tidal mixing--along the margins of a geographically restricted tidal strait (Fig. 18) --is similar to the tidal mixing model of Bádenas et al (2018) in the Mesozoic Galve Sub-basin, Spain, though the sediments deposited in the open coast tidal setting of that study were more influenced by storms and waves than the sediments of the Bouse Formation.…”

Facies patterns and depositional processes in two Frasnian mixed siliciclastic-carbonate systems in the Cantabrian Mountains, northwest Spain

“…The tempestite succession is overlain by bioturbated quartz arenites of the shoreface, and topped by the bar-trough systems of the cross-bedded quartz arenites of the upper shoreface zone. Fairly thick storm bed successions require subsidence of the basin and high rates of sedimentation that preserved the tempestites from reworking by fair-weather waves, tides and subsequent storm erosion (Einsele, 2000, Bádenas et al, 2018. The required subsidence developed during the Frasnian, when a bulge area evolved north of the study area on the inner part of the Cantabrian Zone and downwarping of the surrounding shelf area occurred in the External Zone.…”

Revisiting the age and palaeoenvironments of the Upper Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous? dinosaur-bearing sedimentary record of eastern Spain: implications for Iberian palaeogeography

“…2, 3a) by Mas et al (2004). However, recently, Aurell et al (2016), Bádenas et al (2018) and Val et al (2019) have subdivided the deposits traditionally considered as belonging to the Villar del Arzobispo Fm in the Galve sub-basin (see references cited in the previous paragraph), in three formal units, which Aurell et al (2016) extend to the western Peñagolosa sub-basin. These units are ( Fig.…”