Revisiting the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous of the NW South Iberian Basin: new ages and sedimentary environments

Abstract

The study of the Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous deposits (Higueruelas, Villar del Arzobispo and Aldea de Cortés Formations) of the South Iberian Basin (NW Valencia, Spain) reveals new stratigraphic and sedimentological data, which have significant implications on the stratigraphic framework, depositional environments and age of these units. Moreover, these new data encourage revising the previously proposed stratigraphic correlations between the studied units and those deposited in adjacent areas of the Iberian Basin.The Higueruelas Fm was deposited in a mid-inner carbonate platform where oncolitic bars migrated by the action of storms and where oncoid production progressively decreased towards the uppermost part of the unit. The overlying Villar del Arzobispo Fm has been traditionally interpreted as an inner platform-lagoon evolving into a tidal-flat. Here it is interpreted as an inner-carbonate platform affected by storms, where oolitic shoals protected a lagoon, which had siliciclastic inputs from the continent. The Aldea de Cortés Fm has been previously interpreted as a lagoon surrounded by tidal-flats and fluvial-deltaic plains. Here it is reinterpreted as a coastal wetland where siliciclastic muddy deposits interacted with shallow fresh to marine water bodies, aeolian dunes and continental siliciclastic inputs.The contact between the Higueruelas and Villar del Arzobispo Fms, classically defined as gradual, is interpreted here as gradual and rapid, because the transition between both units comprises few meters. More importantly, the contact between the Villar del Arzobispo and Aldea de Cortés Fms, previously considered as unconformable, is here interpreted as gradual.The presence of Alveosepta in the Villar del Arzobispo Fm suggests that at least part of this unit is Kimmeridgian, unlike the previously assigned Late Tithonian-Middle Berriasian age. Consequently, the underlying Higueruelas Fm, previously considered Tithonian, should not be younger than Kimmeridgian. Accordingly, sedimentation of the Aldea de Cortés Fm, previously considered Valanginian-Hauterivian, probably started during the Tithonian and it may be considered part of the regressive trend of the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous cycle. This is consistent with the dinosaur faunas, typically Jurassic, described in the Villar del Arzobispo and Aldea de Cortés Fms Keywords: Mixed carbonate-siliciclastic platform, coastal wetland, Foraminifera, Spain, Kimmeridgian, Tithonian Resumen El estudio de los depósitos del Jurásico Superior-Cretácico Inferior (formaciones Higueruelas, Villar del Arzobispo y Aldea de Cortés) de la Cuenca Suribérica (NO provincia de Valencia, E España) ha revelado nuevos datos estratigráficos y sedimentológicos, que tienen implicaciones importantes sobre el marco estratigráfico, el ambiente sedimentario y la edad de estas unidades. Además, estos nuevos datos sugieren que se deberían revisar las correlaciones estratigráficas realizadas previamente entre las unidades estudiadas y aquéllas depositadas en otras áreas adya...

Extreme Mesozoic Crustal Thinning in the Eastern Iberia Margin: The Example of the Columbrets Basin (Valencia Trough)

“…At a larger scale, the Columbrets Basin appears as a new “element” of the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous rift systems related to the northward propagation of the southern North Atlantic (e.g., Boillot & Malod, ; Olivet, ; Srivastava et al, ) and the formation of the Bay of Biscay rifted margins (Thinon et al, ; Tugend et al, ). Several rift basins of this age are also developed between the European and Iberian plates including the Basque‐Cantabrian (Pedreira et al, ; Rat, ), Pyrenean (Jammes et al, ; Lagabrielle & Bodinier, ; Lagabrielle et al, ) rift systems and even intra‐Iberia such as Prebetics (Castro et al, ; De Ruig, ; Granier & Perthuisot, ), Catalan Costal Ranges (Gaspar‐Escribano et al, ; Roca et al, ; Roca & Guimerà, ), Cameros (Casas et al, ; Omodeo Salé et al, ), and Mastreat basins (Campos‐Soto et al, ; Salas et al, ).…”

‘Trapping and binding’: A review of the factors controlling the development of fossil agglutinated microbialites and their distribution in space and time

“…The grainy facies where the oncoids often occur, together with the presence of continuous laminae and truncations in the oncoid cortices, suggest that they accreted in agitated environments, but the presence of discontinuous laminae and of stromatolitic overgrowths indicates that there were also periods when the hydrodynamic energy was not enough to continuously overturn the oncoids (cf. Dahanayake, 1977;Lanés and Palma, 1998;Campos-Soto et al, 2016). Despite the agitation of the environment and the abundance of particles, these were very rarely incorporated within the oncoid cortices, unlike in some modern (Ginsburg, 1960;Gebelein, 1976a;Jones and Goodbody, 1985) and fossil (Pederson et al, 2015) shallow-marine agglutinated oncoids.…”

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

“…The Villar del Arzobispo Fm is a mixed siliciclasticcarbonate unit, which crops out extensively across the study area, and has been interpreted as regressive and deposited in an inner carbonate platform-lagoon that evolved upwards into siliciclastic alluvial or mixed siliciclastic-carbonate coastal and alluvial systems (e.g. Mas et al 1984Mas et al , 2004Díaz-Molina and Yébenes 1987;Aurell et al 1994;Luque et al 2005;Santisteban and Esperante 2005;Santisteban and Santos-Cubedo 2010;Campos-Soto et al 2016a, although Campos-Soto et al (2016b have documented a transgressive episode towards the uppermost part of the unit in the western Peñagolosa sub-basin. Deposits of the Villar del Arzobispo Fm have been traditionally assigned to ages ranging from the Late Kimmeridgian to the Portlandian (in the sense of the Boreal realm Chronostratigraphy, BRC) by several authors, but since the 90s, the Kimmeridgian age was discarded and they were assigned to the Tithonian-Berriasian, in the sense of the Standard Chronostratigraphy (Fig.…”

“…For example: (i) there is not agreement about the age and stratigraphic correlations of the unit that contains most of the dinosaur remains, the Villar del Arzobispo Formation (Fm); since the 90s it has been considered as Tithonian-Berriasian (e.g. Aurell et al 1994;Mas et al 2004), although a Kimmeridgian age has been demonstrated recently at least locally (Campos-Soto et al 2016a; (ii) there is not agreement on the age or on the nomenclature of the unit with Aragosaurus ischiaticus, assigned to ages as different as Tithonian-Berriasian (e.g. Royo-Torres et al 2009, 2014 and Valanginian-Hauterivian (e.g.…”

“…Royo-Torres et al 2009, 2014 and Valanginian-Hauterivian (e.g. Canudo et al 2012); (iii) the lithostratigraphic unit where the first dinosaur bones were described in the Valencia province, the Aldea de Cortés Fm, has been traditionally assigned to the Valanginian-Hauterivian (Mas et al 2004 and references therein), whereas Campos-Soto et al (2016a) have attributed the beginning of its deposition to an age not younger than Tithonian; (iv) deposits containing dinosaur fossils with Jurassic affinities in the Valencia Province, were included initially in the El Collado Fm, traditionally considered as Barremian in age, although later they were placed in the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition (e.g. Casanovas- Cladellas et al 1999Cladellas et al , 2001Santisteban and Suñer 2002;Luque et al 2005).…”