Premium
Lithofacies relations and palaeoecology of a Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous fan delta to shelf depositional system in the Sierra Madre Oriental of north‐east Mexico
Author(s) -
MICHALZIK D.,
SCHUMANN D.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
sedimentology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.494
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1365-3091
pISSN - 0037-0746
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3091.1994.tb02006.x
Subject(s) - geology , cretaceous , paleontology , delta , terrigenous sediment , sedimentary depositional environment , peninsula , clastic rock , sedimentary rock , facies , carbonate platform , structural basin , geomorphology , archaeology , aerospace engineering , engineering , history
The La Casita Formation in north‐eastern Mexico represents a period of increased terrigenous clastic supply that is characteristic for the entire northern and western margins of the Gulf of Mexico Basin during latest Jurassic and earliest Cretaceous time. A prograding delta complex developed at the south‐eastern margin of the Coahuila Peninsula. Delta plain, delta front, prodelta and shelf areas show distinct lithofacies associations. Some of the most characteristic elements are fining upward and coarsening upward grain size trends, syndepositional deformational features, storm layers, phosphorites, fossiliferous carbonate concretions and an anaerobic biofacies. A possible break in sedimentation is inferred for parts of the Valanginian. This may be interpreted as a sequence boundary between second order cycles. The Kimmeridgian ‐ Berriasian cycle appears to correlate with the Cotton Valley cycle of the Texas Gulf Coast.