--> Cycle Stacking Pattern of a Barremian to Late Albian Open-Ocean Carbonate Platform (NW Greece): Is It useful for Correlation?, by J. Grotsch; #90986 (1994).

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Abstract: Cycle Stacking Pattern of a Barremian to Late Albian Open-Ocean Carbonate Platform (NW Greece): Is It useful for Correlation?

Jurgen Grotsch

A 585 m-thick succession of an open-ocean carbonate platform is exposed at Mt. Kanala in the Gavrovo-Tripolitza Zone (NW Greece). It is Barremian to late Abian age. 253 shallowing-upward cycles in a mud-dominated intraplatform facies show systematic changes in cycle stacking pattern, facies and diagenetic overprinting of cycle tops.

Thin cycles (0.8-1.5 m) are mostly composed of wackestone and mudstones which contain a restricted Foraminifera and alga association indicative of a predominantly intertidal environment. Thicker cycles (1.5-5 m) contain, in addition, at their base a subtidal facies which is characterized by a diverse fauna of rudist and gastropod-bearing floatstones. Cycle tops are characterized by diagenetic grainstones with gravitational cements, pisoids, teepee structures, calcrete formation, intraformational breccias and dolomite intercalations suggesting subaerial exposure. A distinct overall increase in the abundance of thicker cycles through time is obvious. Mean cycle thicknesses are: 1-2 m for the Barremian; 2-3 m for the Aptian; and 2.5-3.5 m for the Albian.

The sequence stratigraphic subdivision of the section is based on a cycle stacking pattern as well as the abundance of synsedimentary dolomite intercalations and/or breccia horizons. Cycle types, facies and cycle top overprinting are analogous to the time-equivalent El Abra Formation in Mexico. In addition, trends in the cycle stacking pattern at Mt. Kanala show striking similarities with a section in the Sierra Madre Oriental near Potrero Garcia, Mexico.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90986©1994 AAPG Annual Convention, Denver, Colorado, June 12-15, 1994