Architecture of a Bench-Type Carbonate Lake Margin and Its Relation to Fluvially Dominated Deltas, Las Minas Basin, Upper Miocene, Spain

Abstract

The Upper Miocene stratigraphic succession of the Las Minas Basin, located at the external zone of the Betic Chain in SE Spain, preserves several examples of lake carbonate bench deposits. Excellent exposures of the carbonate benches allow detailed observation of the architecture of these sediments and provide new insights for the ''steep-gradient bench margin-low energy'' model proposed by Platt and Wright (1991). The lake carbonate benches developed in close association with fluvially dominated shallow deltas that exhibit typical Gilbert-type profiles. The delta sequences comprise bottomset prodelta marl facies, distal to proximal foreset facies, deposited mainly in a delta-front environment, and topset facies, the latter reflecting both subaqueous delta-front and subaerial delta-plain environments. The development of the carbonate benches was constrained by the convexupward morphology of the deltaic deposits, which led to the available accommodation space for the growth of the steep-gradient platforms. The benches display a progradational pattern characterized by sigmoid-oblique internal geometries and offlap upper boundary relationships, which suggests that the carbonate benches developed under slow though continuous lake-level rise. Both the dimensions of the benches and the dominant carbonate components (i.e., encrusted charophyte stems and calcified cyanobaterial remains), allow comparisons with the progradational marl benches recognized in modern temperate hardwater lakes. Accordingly, the case study presented here provides a good ancient sedimentary analog for low-energy lake carbonate benches. Moreover, the evolutionary trend inferred from the fossil example offers new insights into the depositional conditions of this type of sediment and allows recognition of the transitional pattern from bench to ramp carbonate lake margins.

Palaeoproterozoic, rift-related, 13C-rich, lacustrine carbonates, NW Russia. Part I: Sedimentology and major element geochemistry

“…The lake margins must have had a low relief gradient, resulting in the extensive development of exposed areas during low-water periods. This has been reported from the Green River Formation, Utah, USA (Picard & High 1981), the Las Minas Basin, Spain (Calvo et al 2000), Lake Constance, Germany (Schottle & Mü ller 1968), and the Caspian Sea, Russia (Klenova 1968). Core photographs denoted as drill hole X (DHX) with depth-in-core given in metres.…”

Soft-sediment deformation structures interpreted as seismites in lacustrine sediments of the Prebetic Zone, SE Spain, and their potential use as indicators of earthquake magnitudes during the Late Miocene

“…2). This pattern is somewhat different in the northern part of the Las Minas Basin, where the Miocene section is capped by a mixed clastic-carbonate unit along the footwall of a major fault that limits the basin margin (Calvo et al, 2000).…”

Seepage carbonate mounds in Cenozoic sedimentary sequences from the Las Minas Basin, SE Spain

“…The Las Minas Basin was filled by an up to 500 m thick sedimentary succession of lacustrine deposits that unconformably overlie Mesozoic terrigenous, evaporite and carbonate formations, as well as middle Miocene marine carbonate strata. The lowermost deposits cropping out in the Las Minas Basin are composed of resedimented beds from shallow lake carbonate platforms (Elízaga, 1994) and marlstone -limestone cycles representative of shoreface -foreshore subenvironments in the lake basin (Calvo et al, 2000) ( Fig. 2).…”

“…Composite lithostratigraphic log for the sedimentary infill of the Las Minas Basin (modified fromCalvo et al, 2000); arrow indicates location of carbonate mounds.…”