Sedimentological and stratigraphic evolution of northern Lebanon since the Late Cretaceous: implications for the Levant margin and basin

Abstract

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Depositional Environment and Source‐rock Characterisation of Organic‐matter Rich Upper Santonian – Upper Campanian Carbonates, Northern Lebanon

“…20 m on the eastern flank of the Tyr-Nabatiye plateau (Renouard, 1955); to ca. 300 m near Chekka in northern Lebanon (sampled for this study) (Hawie et al, 2013a); to ca. 580 m near Hasbayya in southern Bekaa (locations in Fig.1b) (Carla Müller, pers.…”

“…The sandstones pass upward into shallow-marine and reefal Aptian -Albian carbonates with a brief return to siliciclastic deposition during the Albian (Noujaim, 1977;Walley, 2001;Nader, 2011). The CenomanianTuronian is represented by up to 900 m of carbonate platform deposits (Nader, 2011) culminating in a regional unconformity spanning the upper Turonian to upper Santonian (Müller et al, 2010) due to regressional cycles and the early pulses of Syrian Arc deformation (Brew et al, 2001;Hawie et al, 2013a). Subsequently in the latest Cretaceous and continuing to the middle Eocene, northern Arabia underwent a renewed phase of subsidence (Nader, 2011), which together with a global sea-level highstand (Haq et al, 1988), led to drowning of the pre-existing Cenomanian -Turonian platform carbonates (Fig.…”

“…Subsequently in the latest Cretaceous and continuing to the middle Eocene, northern Arabia underwent a renewed phase of subsidence (Nader, 2011), which together with a global sea-level highstand (Haq et al, 1988), led to drowning of the pre-existing Cenomanian -Turonian platform carbonates (Fig. 1c) and the deposition of up to 900 m of outer-shelf mudsupported limestones (mainly mud-to wackestones) and marls (Walley, 1998;Hawie et al, 2013a).…”

“…commun.). A prominent middle Eocene to lower Miocene regional unconformity (Müller et al, 2010) is overlain in northern Lebanon by Miocene reefal, conglomeratic and lacustrine deposits (Dubertret, 1975;Hawie et al, 2013a).…”

“…The high flux of nutrients provided by upwelling currents led to the widespread deposition of OM-rich carbonates, cherts and phosphorites (Edelman-Furstenberg, 2008;Ashckenazi-Polivoda et al, 2010), which are interpreted to have been deposited over a folded topography resulting from the early pulses of the Afro-Arabia/Eurasia plate collision (Bein et al, 1990;Soudry, 2000;Abed et al, 2005;Almogi-Labin et al, 2012). The influence of palaeostructure and pre-existing basin architecture is expressed in lateral variations in thickness, lithofacies and OM content which are reported in Israel (Bein et al, 1990;Edelman-Furstenberg, 2009;Almogi-Labin et al, 2012) and Lebanon (Müller et al, 2010;Hawie et al, 2013a). Quantifying these variations and characterising the various organo-facies exposed onshore in the Levant margin will help to reconstruct the palaeogeographic setting, and to assess the extent of intervals with source rock potential in the offshore Levant Basin.…”