Late Pleistocene and Holocene cool‐water carbonates of the Western Mediterranean Sea

Abstract

Post-glacial, neritic cool-water carbonates of the Western Mediterranean Sea were examined by means of hydroacoustic data, sediment surface sampling and vibrocoring to unravel geometries and to reconstruct sedimentary evolution in response to the last sea-level rise. The analysed areas, located on the Alboran Ridge, in the Bay of Oran, and at the southern shelf of the island of Mallorca, are microtidal and bathed by oligotrophic to weakly mesotrophic waters. Seasonal water temperature varies between 13°C and 27°C. Echosounder profiles show that the Bay of Oran and the southern shelf of Mallorca are distally steepened ramps, while the Alboran Ridge forms a steep-flanked rugged plateau around the Alboran Island. In the three areas, an up to 10 m thick post-glacial sediment cover overlies an unconformity. In Oran and Mallorca, stacked lowstand wedges occur in water depths of 120 to 130 m. On the Alboran Ridge and in the Bay of Oran, highstand wedges occur at 35 to 40 m. Up to 5 m long cores of upper Pleistocene to Holocene successions were recovered in water depths between 40 and 81 m. Deposits contain more than 80% carbonate, with mixed carbonate-volcaniclastics in the lower part of some cores in Alboran. The carbonates consist of up to 53% of aragonite and up to 83% of high magnesium calcite. Radiocarbon dating of bivalve shells, coralline algae and serpulid tubes indicates that deposits are as old as 12 400 cal yr bp. The carbonate factories in the three areas are dominated mostly by red algae, but some intervals in the cores are richer in bivalves. A facies rich in the gastropod Turritella, reflecting elevated surface productivity, is restricted to the Mallorca Shelf. Rhodoliths occur at the sediment surface in most areas at water depths shallower than 70 m; they form a 10 to 20 cm thick veneer overlying rhodolith-poor bioclastic sediments which, nonetheless, contain abundant red algal debris. This rhodolith layer has been developing for the past 800 to 1000 years. Similar layers at different positions in the cores are interpreted as reflecting in situ growth of rhodoliths at times of reduced net sedimentation. Sedimentary successions in the cores record the post-glacial sea-level rise and the degree of sediment exposure to bottom currents. Deepening-upward trends in the successions are either reflected by shallow to deep facies transitions or by a corresponding change of depth-indicative red Sedimentology (2011) 58, 643-669 643 algae. There are only weak downcore variations of carbonate mineralogy, which indicate that no dissolution or high magnesium to low magnesium calcite neomorphism occurs in the shallow subsurface. These new data support the approach of using the Recent facies distribution for interpretation of past cool-water, low-energy, microtidal carbonate depositional systems. Hydroacoustic data show that previous Pleistocene transgressive and highstand inner ramp deposits and wedges were removed during sea-level lowstands and accumulated downslope as stacked lowstand wedges; this suggests that, under...

Relationship between Late Pleistocene sea‐level variations, carbonate platform morphology and aragonite production (Maldives, Indian Ocean)

“…Similar slope erosion and sedimentation processes were described for platforms on the Marion Plateau (Eberli et al. , 2010), for neritic cool‐water carbonates of the Western Mediterranean Sea (Betzler et al. , 2010) and for the western leeward margin of Great Bahama Bank (Rendle & Reijmer, 2002).…”

Australia's temperate carbonate coast: sources, depositional environments and implications

“…The most extensive occur in the Mediterranean where, because of the low wave energy, they most resemble the South Australian gulfs, with extensive warm-temperate seagrass banks. Betzler et al (2011) found in a recent study in the western Mediterranean that the shelf carbonate facies were dominated by red algae and, to lesser extent, bivalves. Brooke (2001) also mapped in detail the global occurrence of aeolianite, an indicator of shelf carbonate supply.…”

Heterozoan carbonate deposition on a steep basement escarpment (Late Miocene, Almería, south‐east Spain)

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