Sedimentology and palaeogeography of the regressive-transgressive Kurnub Group (Early Cretaceous) of Jordan

Fire in a Weichselia-dominated coastal ecosystem from the Lower Cretaceous (Barremian) of the Kurnub Group in NW Jordan

“…Amireh (1997) as well as Amireh and Abed (1999) recorded the presence of marine to marginal marine carbonate and siliciclastic strata within the continental clastic sequence in northern Jordan. Amireh (1997) split the KG in this region into three formations (in an ascending stratigraphic order): Ramel, Jarash and Bir Fa'as formations.…”

“…The Kurnub Group (KG) includes the clastics and carbonates of Early Cretaceous age cropping out in northern, central and southern Jordan (Amireh, 1997(Amireh, , 2000. Amireh (1997) as well as Amireh and Abed (1999) recorded the presence of marine to marginal marine carbonate and siliciclastic strata within the continental clastic sequence in northern Jordan.…”

“…Wetzel and Morton (1959) described a section of the KG in the A'arda area of northern Jordan and gave an Albian age for the central part based on the presence of the ammonite Knemiceras sp. The age of the KG has been constrained by Amireh (1997) to be ranging from the late Neocomian, particularly the Barremian, up to the Albian. The latter age has been also confirmed by KeAr isotopic dating of glaucony occurring at the upper part of the KG (Amireh et al, 1998).…”

“…Additionally a number of studies on amber mentioned the occurrence of plant remains (e.g. Bandel & Haddadin, 1979;Amireh, 1997Amireh, , 2000Amireh & Abed, 1999). Poinar and Milki (2001) even described a new species of the araucariacean conifer Agathis from the Lower Cretaceous Jarash Formation of Wadi Zarqa in Jordan in a work focusing on Lebanese amber.…”

The major, trace and rare earth element geochemistry of glauconites from the early Cretaceous Kurnub Group of Jordan.

“…An inner to middle shelf marine environment was concluded for the GMU (Amireh, 1997) on the basis of lithology (e.g., yellow coloured, fine crystalline dolomite-argillaceous dolomicrite, with green mudstone interbeds); sedimentary structures (e.g., extensive horizontal bedding and bioturbation); and fossil content including both body (e.g., gastropods, echinoids, and pelecypods), and trace fossils (e.g., various types of burrows). On the other hand, Amireh (1997) suggested an intertidal depositional environment for the glauconite-rich beds in lowermost parts of the A'arda and Jarash localities (Fig. 2) depending on lithology (e.g., carbonate-siliciclastic facies), and sedimentary structures (e.g., herringbone cross-bedding, flaser-wavy-lenticular stratification and oscillation ripples and bioturbation).…”