Some steps toward a new story for the Jurassic - Cretaceous transition in Mount Lebanon

Abstract

The stratigraphic framework of the Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous strata of Lebanon that dates back to DUBERTRET's publications required either consolidation or full revision. The preliminary results of our investigations in the Mount Lebanon region are presented here. We provide new micropaleontological and sedimentological information on the Salima Oolitic Limestones, which is probably an unconformity-bounded unit (possibly Early Valanginian in age), and the "Grès du Liban" (Barremian in age). Our revised bio-and holostratigraphic interpretations and the new age assignations lead us to emphasize the importance of the two hiatuses in the sedimentary record below and above the Salima, i.e., at the transition from the Jurassic to the Cretaceous.

Tannoura: A new early Barremian fossiliferous amber outcrop from South Lebanon

“…Amber (centimetric in size, with variant transparency, with white, cream, yellow, dark yellow, orange and red colours) (Fig. 4A-D), lignite and This outcrop (Figs 2, 3A-D) is located in the early Barremian sandstone of the "Grès du Liban" [Sandstone of Lebanon (also known as Shouf Sandstones and "Grès de base")] (Granier et al, 2015(Granier et al, , 2016Maksoud et al, 2017) in the lower Barremian silicoclastic-dominated strata (Granier et al, 2016). It was deposited in a fluvial margino-littoral palaeoenvironment.…”

“…Lebanon has many Kimmeridgian (Azar et al, 2010b;Nohra et al, 2013; and several hundred lower Barremian amber outcrops (Granier et al, 2016;Maksoud et al, 2017). The latter count continues to increase steadily, with 29 outcrops to date (Fig.…”