Paleoenvironmental Record and Applications of Calcretes and Palustrine Carbonates
Depositional conditions of carbonate-dominated palustrine sedimentation around the K-T boundary (Faciès Rognacien, northeastern Pyrenean foreland, southwestern France)
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Published:January 01, 2006
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CiteCitation
Daniel Marty, Christian A. Meyer, 2006. "Depositional conditions of carbonate-dominated palustrine sedimentation around the K-T boundary (Faciès Rognacien, northeastern Pyrenean foreland, southwestern France)", Paleoenvironmental Record and Applications of Calcretes and Palustrine Carbonates, Ana María Alonso-Zarza, Lawrence H. Tanner
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The Faciès Rognacien is a sequence of highly bioturbated and pedogenically modified palustrine carbonates that were deposited under oxic conditions around the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary in the northeastern Pyrenean foreland basin (SW France). The sedimentary structures and early diagenetic features identified (mottling, nodule formation, brecciation, pseudomicrokarst, cracking, charophytes, Microcodium) suggest deposition in a palustrine environment between the subarid and intermediate climate type. Sedimentological and paleoecological analysis enables us to distinguish two facies associations, the lacustrine pond facies and the freshwater marsh facies associations. The majority of the carbonates are attributed to the freshwater marsh facies. The lacustrine pond facies occurs only in isolated paleolows, and is identified on the basis of its paleobiological content (charophytes, ostracodes). This suggests that the palustrine carbonates of the Faciès Rognacien were deposited in a seasonal wetland (carbonate-producing freshwater marsh), rather than in the marginal zone of a large, shallow lake. In this wetland paleoenvironment, all carbonates underwent widespread pedogenesis, and small, ephemeral ponds are of limited distribution, most likely recording deposition in paleolows.
La Faciès Rognacien es una secuencia formada por carbonatos palustres muy bioturbados y modificados pedogénicamente, que se depositó bajo condiciones óxicas en la cuenca de antepaís Pirenaica (SW de Francia). Su edad está entorno al límite K-T. Las estructuras sedimentarias y los rasgos diagenéticos tempranos (caráceas, Microcodium, moteado, formación de nódulos, brechificación, pseudomicrokarst, fisuración) indican que esta secuencia se depositó en un ambiente palustre de clima subárido a intermedio. Los análisis sedimentológicos y paleontológicos permiten distinguir dos asociaciones de facies: charcas lacustres y zonas pantanosas de agua dulce. Las facies de charcas aparecen aisladas en paleodepresiones y tienen un contenido paleobiológico característico (caráceas, ostrácodos). Esto sugiere que los carbonatos palustres de esta secuencia se depositaron en humedales estacionales más que en las zonas marginales de grandes lagos someros. En estos humedales todos los carbonatos sufrieron modificaciones pedogénicas importantes.
- aerobic environment
- algae
- Arthropoda
- basins
- biogenic structures
- bioturbation
- brecciation
- carbonate rocks
- Cenozoic
- Charophyta
- Chlorophyta
- Cretaceous
- Crustacea
- deposition
- depositional environment
- diagenesis
- early diagenesis
- Europe
- foreland basins
- France
- French Pyrenees
- Invertebrata
- K-T boundary
- karst
- lacustrine environment
- lithofacies
- lower Paleocene
- Mandibulata
- Mesozoic
- Microcodium
- microfossils
- modern analogs
- Ostracoda
- outcrops
- Paleocene
- paleoclimatology
- paleoecology
- paleoenvironment
- Paleogene
- pedogenesis
- Plantae
- Pyrenees
- seasonal variations
- sedimentary rocks
- sedimentary structures
- sedimentation
- soils
- stratigraphic boundary
- Tertiary
- Upper Cretaceous
- Western Europe
- wetlands
- southwestern France
- Facies Rognacien