Controls and predictability of carbonate facies architecture in a Lower Jurassic three‐dimensional barrier‐shoal complex (Djebel Bou Dahar, High Atlas, Morocco)

Abstract

Spatial information on lithofacies from outcrops is paramount for understanding the internal dynamics, external controls and degree of predictability of the facies architecture of shallow-water carbonate-platform tops. To quantify the spatial distribution and vertical stacking of lithofacies within an outer-platform shoal-barrier complex, integrated facies analysis and digital field technologies have been applied to a high-relief carbonate platform exposed in the Djebel Bou Dahar (Lower Jurassic, High Atlas, Morocco). The outer platform is characterized by subtidal, cross-bedded, coarse grainstone to rudstone grading into supratidal, pisoidal packstone-rudstone with tepees that together formed a 350 to 420 m wide shoal-barrier belt parallel to the margin. This belt acted as a topographic high separating a restricted lagoon from the subtidal, open marine region. Low-energy tidal flats developed on the protected flank of the barrier facing the lagoon. Lithofacies patterns were captured quantitatively from outcrop and integrated into a digital outcrop model. The outcrop model enabled rapid visualization of field data and efficient extraction of quantitative data such as widths of facies belts. In addition, the spatial heterogeneity was captured in multiple time slices, i.e. during different phases of cyclic base-level fluctuations. In general, the lateral continuity of lithofacies is highest when relative water depth increased during flooding of the platform top, establishing low-energy subtidal conditions across the whole platform, and when the accommodation space was filled with tidal flat facies. Heterogeneity increased during deposition of the reliefbuilding bar facies that promoted spatial diversification of depositional environments during the initial phases of accommodation space creation. Cycles commonly are composed of a thin transgressive tidal flat unit, followed by coated-grain rudstone bar facies. Lateral to the bar facies, pisoidalgrainstone beach deposits accumulated. These bar and beach deposits were overlain by subtidal lagoonal facies or would grow through the maximum flooding and highstand. There the bars either graded into supratidal pisoidal facies with tepees (when accommodation space was filled) or were capped by subaerial exposure (due to a sea-level fall). Modified embedded Markov stacking in a stationary interval (constant depositional mode). Analysis of individual sections did not reveal any ordering, which may be related to the limited thickness of these sections. Composite sections, however, rejected the null hypothesis of randomness. The addition of stratigraphically significant information to the Markov analysis, such as exposure surfaces and lateral dimensions of facies bodies, strengthens the verdict of unambiguous preferential ordering. Through careful quantitative reconstruction of stratal geometry and facies relationships in fully integrated digital outcrop models, accurate depositional models could be established that enhanced the predictability of carbonate sediment accumulation.

Facies, geometry and growth phases of the Valdorria carbonate platform (Pennsylvanian, northern Spain)

“…The absence of coated grains and reworked bioclasts point to low‐energy conditions, likely to be a setting below the effective wave base. The zones consisting of red‐matrix could be related to reworking and carbonate dissolution due to subaerial exposure, considering the proximity of the overlying reddish calcrete surface (Assereto & Folk, ; Verwer et al ., ). Other algal and coral boundstones (Bd3 and Bd4) occur sparsely on the platform; their shape and biogenic contents differ widely, and thus are indicative of diverse depositional subsettings.…”

REE patterns of microbial carbonate and cements from Sinemurian (Lower Jurassic) siliceous sponge mounds (Djebel Bou Dahar, High Atlas, Morocco)

“…to a high-relief isolated platform with slopes dipping 19°-32°and 450-600 m in relief (latest SinemurianPliensbachian; Verwer et al, 2009aVerwer et al, , 2009bMerino-Tomé et al, 2012). During the late Sinemurian (Sequence III; Fig.…”

Vertical-To-Lateral Transitions Among Cretaceous Carbonate Facies--A Means To 3-D Framework Construction Via Markov Analysis

“…To raise the statistical power of the treatment of the vertical audits of the outcrop, we follow Verwer et al (2009) and create a ''global'' tally of juxtaposition occurrences. This was accomplished for each of the four facies successions by summing over the vertical TFMs of the ten sections; essentially treating the ten as a single, more extensive, section with which to characterize the succession (the number of observations therefore increased ten-fold from 60 to 600).…”