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The ‘black marble’ of Denée, a fossil conservation deposit from the Lower Carboniferous (Viséan) of southern Belgium
Author(s) -
Mottequin Bernard
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
geological journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.721
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1099-1034
pISSN - 0072-1050
DOI - 10.1002/gj.1102
Subject(s) - geology , carboniferous , facies , lagerstätte , paleontology , tournaisian , structural basin , bioturbation , turbidite , sedimentation , sediment , geochemistry
The palaeoenvironment of the ‘black marble’ of Denée [Dinant sedimentation area (DSA), southern Belgium], included in the Molignée Formation of Lower Carboniferous (Viséan) age, is discussed. This fossil conservation deposit (‘fossil Lagerstätte’) yielded a rare but remarkably preserved macrofauna (including fishes, echinoderms and brachiopods). It developed in a confined intra‐platform basin progressively filled by distal calcareous turbidites originating from the southward prograding shelf to the north. This basin was bordered to the south by a discontinuous barrier of Waulsortian mud mounds built against a major synsedimentary fault separating the DSA from the southern Avesnois sedimentation area (ASA). The alternations of laminated (‘black marble’ facies) and bioturbated (‘thick‐bedded’ facies) lithofacies occurring within the Molignée Formation imply that the palaeoenvironment recorded several anoxic to dysoxic periods alternating with more oxygenated ones due to sea‐level fluctuations of low magnitude and was strongly influenced by the basin architecture inherited from the late Tournaisian. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.