Sequence Stratigraphy of Lower Cretaceous (Barremian-Albian) Carbonate Platforms of Northeastern Mexico: Regional and Global Correlations

Abstract

The Lower Cretaceous Cupido and Coahuila platforms of northeastern Mexico form part of the extensive carbonate platform system that surrounded the ancestral Gulf of Mexico. A sequencestratigraphic model for these Barremian to Albian platforms was constructed from regional correlations of vertical cycle stacking patterns constrained by newly acquired biostratigraphic data and C and Sr isotope stratigraphy. The Cupido shelf lagoon (Barremian-Aptian) is composed of up to 150 peritidal cycles, which stack into high-frequency sequences that are correlated across the shelf. Cupido high-frequency sequences build into a lower partial composite sequence (Cu1), an overlying full composite sequence (Cu2), and the transgressive base of a third composite sequence (Cu-Co3) related to backstepping of the Cupido platform. The highstand part of Cu-Co3 is recorded in evaporite and carbonate facies of the Coahuila platform (Aptian-Albian). More than 80 meter-scale evaporite-to-carbonate cycles characterize the restricted interior of the Coahuila platform and stack into two full composite sequences (Co4, Co5). The Coahuila platform was drowned in the latest Albian or earliest Cenomanian, terminating shallow-water carbonate sedimentation in the region. Regional correlations of the depositional sequences in northeast Mexico with coeval platforms in Texas and the northern Gulf coast indicate that the lower two composite sequences of the Cupido shelf correlate with the lower part of the Sligo-Hosston platform in Texas. The transgressive systems tract of the third composite sequence of the Cupido-La Peña is recorded in Texas by the upper Sligo and Pearsall formations. The highstand systems tract and the disconformable top of the third composite sequence (Coahuila platform) is likely coeval with the upper Glen Rose platform in Texas. The fourth and fifth composite sequences are correlative with the Fredericksburg platform and the Washita-Devils River platforms of Texas, respectively. We conservatively correlated our sequence-stratigraphic framework with composite ''global'' sequences and ''eustatic'' curves derived from several other basins. Given the available time resolution, results are variable, but sequence boundaries at the top of Cu-Co3 and Co5 appear to have clear interbasinal equivalents.

Response and recovery of the Comanche carbonate platform surrounding multiple Cretaceous oceanic anoxic events, northern Gulf of Mexico

“…2, 15). Submarine volcanism in the Ontong-Java Plateau (Larson, 1991;Larson and Erba, 1999;Tejada et al, 2002) coincided with an early Aptian eustatic rise that is observed in global stratigraphic records (Haq et al, 1988;Roehl and Ogg, 1996;Sahagian et al, 1996;Lehmann et al, 2000;Van Buchem et al, 2010;Phelps et al, 2014). Prior to OAE 1a, increasing clay mineral content in transgressive Sligo shelf carbonates of segment C2 is indicative of greater terrestrial weathering and/or decreased carbonate sedimentation rates (Figs.…”

“…Following a Valanginian unconformity (Ewing, 2010), two mixed carbonate-siliciclastic rimmed-shelf systems, which are separated by Aptian ramp clinoforms, developed during the Hauterivian-Barremian and Albian stages (Rose, 1972;Loucks, 1976;Bebout, 1977;Scott, 1993;Phelps et al, 2014). Subtidal, mud-dominated carbonates and shales overlie the drowned Albian shelf and form the Cenomanian through lower Campanian interval (Scott et al, 1978;Dravis, 1980;Dawson, 1997;Lock and Peschier, 2006;Lock et al, 2007). Data shown here are from continuous whole cores acquired near the San Marcos Arch of the shelf interior and from the Lower Cretaceous shelf margins (Fig.…”

An Albian demise of the carbonate platform in the Manín Unit (Western Carpathians, Slovakia)

“…M256, M258. (Föllmi et al 1994;Rosales 1999;Lehmann et al 2000;Bièvre & Quesne 2004;Yilmaz 2006). Collapse of the platforms was accompanied by extensive submarine erosion and sliding of extensive blocks (Ferry & Flandrin 1979;Michalík & Vašíček 1984;Schöllhorn & Schlagintweit 1990, etc.).…”

Berriasian–early Valanginian calcareous shallow-water facies from the Arperos Basin: A proposal from the foraminiferal assemblage of the clasts of the Guanajuato Conglomerate, central Mexico

“…These deposits span from the early Aptian to the Cenomanian (Omaña et al, 2012 compilation). In northeastern Mexico, the Cupido Plarform developed in the Barremian-Aptian interval, while the Aurora Formation was deposited in the mid-late Albian (Wilson and Ward, 1993;Lehmann et al, 2000). During the Albian, the border around the deep central part of the Gulf of Mexico received widespread carbonate deposition.…”