Palustrine sediments between two isolated shallow carbonate platforms (Aptian-Albian transition, Prebetic of Jaén, South Spain)

Abstract

During the Aptian-Albian transition, an extensional phase of the Central Atlantic which affected the Prebetic carbonate platform (South Iberian Continental Margin, northwestern margin of the Tethys) occurred. A graben morphology was developed in the platform coeval to a relative sea level fall. As a consequence, palustrine facies characterized by rhizoliths and some pond deposits of black lutites were established. Over these palustrine sediments, a second shallow carbonate platform was built during the early Albian. However, this process was not abrupt, as several levels with orbitolines and rudists were deposited intercalated between the continental facies, recording the transition to a new shallow marine carbonate platform developped during the Early Albian. The presence of these continental palustrine sediments between two episodes of shallow carbonate platform is described for the first time in the Prebetic. The demise of an upper Aptian isolated shallow carbonate platform drove to the deposition of these palustrine sediments in an extensional tectonic regime.