Open AccessContribution to the sedimentology of the Messinian carbonates of the Chelif Basin (Boukadir, Algeria)
Author(s) -
Meriem Lina Moulana,
Aurélia HubertFerrari,
Mostefa Guendouz,
Meriam El Ouahabi,
Abdelhak Boutaleb,
Frédéric Boulvain
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
geologica belgica (printed)/geologica belgica (online)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.227
H-Index - 21
eISSN - 2034-1954
pISSN - 1374-8505
DOI - 10.20341/gb.2021.002
Subject(s) - geology , sedimentology , marl , aggradation , reef , paleontology , carbonate , petrography , carbonate platform , geochemistry , structural basin , facies , fluvial , oceanography , materials science , metallurgy
The Messinian (Upper Miocene) is characterized at the level of its marginal basins by the development of numerous carbonate platforms. This study concerns the Messinian platform of the Boukadir region in the south of the Chelif Basin in Algeria. It is composed of a lower prograding rimmed platform and an upper aggradational homoclinal ramp resting upon the Tortonian–Lower Messinian Blue Marl Formation, and its thickness reaches ~280 m in the Chelif Basin. The upper red-algae unit is uniform and subhorizontal with a minimum thickness of 90 m. Petrographic analysis of the upper ramp reveals three different microfacies, characterized by Lithothamnium, foraminifera, high porosity, and a microsparitic matrix. MF1 is a packstone, MF2 a packstone/bindstone deposited above the fair-weather wave base and MF3 is a wackestone to packstone deposited below this level. The upper unit is made up entirely of autochthonous biogenic elements without significant external fluvial contribution. It was formed in a shallow marine environment, with very high productivity and a significant export of the sediments produced. This aggradation was followed by a rapid exhumation (regression) transforming all the aragonite into calcite. The platforms correspond to the T2 complex reef formation (6.7–5.95 Ma) documented on the other Messinian carbonate platforms in the South of the Alboran Sea that formed just before the Messinian Salinity Crisis.