Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T10:01:04.124Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Steep-sided carbonate mud mounds in the Middle Devonian of the eastern Anti-Atlas, Morocco

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

J. Wendt
J. Wendt
Affiliation:
Institut und Museum für Geologie und Paläontologie der Universität, D-7400 Tübingen, Germany
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

During the Eifelian and early Givetian, isolated mud mounds were established in a shallow basin, predominantly characterized by calcareous mudstone deposition, in the eastern Anti-Atlas of Morocco. The shapes, lithologies and faunas of these mounds stand in marked contrast with those of nearby contemporaneous, more widespread stromatoporoid/coral biostromes and small carbonate platforms adjacent to shallow shelves. With one exception, the mounds are totally exhumed, perfectly exposing their original morphologies. The smaller mounds are asymmetrical, with steeper northeastern and eastern (35–75°) than southwestern and western flanks (30–50°). The largest mound is almost circular and symmetrical, with scattered stromatoporoids, tabulate and rugose corals that do not form a rigid framework. Frame-builders are much rarer or absent in the smaller mounds. The nature and geographical distribution of the mounds reflects a bathymetric gradient, indicating that they formed on low-angle ramps which sloped gently into a shallow basin. A large reef mound was constructed at moderate depth, while small mud mounds accumulated in deeper water. Decrease of frame-builders and increase in pelagic organisms in the latter document the transition to a pelagic platform with reduced sedimentation at a short distance from the deepest mound.

Type
Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 130 , Issue 1 , January 1993 , pp. 69 - 83
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bathurst, R. G. C. 1959. The cavernous structure of some Mississippian Stromatactis reefs in Lancashire, England. Journal of Geology 67, 506–521.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bertrand-Sarfati, J., Fabre, J. & Moussine-Pouchkine, A. 1977. Géodynamique des aires sédimentaires: quelques exemples sahariens. Bulletin des Centres de Recherche Exploration–Production Societé Nationale Elf–Aquitaine 1, 217–231.Google Scholar
Bolton, K., Lane, H. R. & Lemone, D. V. (eds) 1982. Symposium on the paleoenvironmental setting and distribution of the Waulsortian fades. El Paso, Texas: The El Paso Geological Society and the University of Texas at El Paso, 202 pp.Google Scholar
Brachert, T. C., Buggisch, W., Flügel, E., Hüssner, H., Joachimski, M. M., Tourneur, F. & Walliser, O. H. 1992. Controls of mud mound formation: the early Devonian Kess Kess carbonates of the Hamar Laghdad, Antiatlas, Morocco. Geologische Rundschau 81, 15–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, G. R. 1970. Carbonate bank sedimentation, eastern Shark Bay, Western Australia. In Carbonate sedimentation and environments, Shark Bay, Western Australia (ed. Logan, B. W., Davies, G. R., Read, J. F. & Cebulski, D. E.), American Association of Petroleum Geologists Memoir 13, 85–168.Google Scholar
Dreesen, R., Bless, M.J. M., Conil, R., Flajs, G. & Laschet, C. 1985. Depositional environment, paleoecology and diagenetic history of the ‘marbre rouge à crinoides de Baelen’ (late Upper Devonian, Verviers Synclinorium, eastern Belgium). Annales de la Societé Géologique de Belgique 108, 311–359.Google Scholar
Dumestre, A. & Illing, L. V. 1967. Middle Devonian reefs in Spanish Sahara. In International Symposium on the Devonian System, vol. 2 (ed. Oswald, D. H.), pp. 333–350, Calgary: Alberta Society of Petroleum Geologists.Google Scholar
Elloy, R. 1972. Réflexions sur quelques environnements récifaux du Paléozoique. Bulletin des Centres de Recherche de Pan, Societé Nationale des Pétroles d' Aquitaine 6, 1–105.Google Scholar
Enos, P. & Perkins, R. D. 1979. Evolution of Florida Bay from island topography. Geological Society of America Bulletin 90, 59–83.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fagerstrom, J. A. 1987. The evolution of reef communities. New York: J. Wiley & Sons, xV + 600 pp.Google Scholar
Gendrot, C. 1973. Environnements du Dévonien récifal au Maroc. Notes et Mémoires du Service Géologique du Maroc 254, 55–86.Google Scholar
Gnoli, M., Jaanusson, V., Leone, F. & Serpagli, E. 1981. A Lower Devonian stromatactis-bearing carbonate mound from southern Sardinia. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologic and Paläontologie Monatshefte 1981, 339–345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godefroid, J. & Racki, G. 1990. Frasnian gypidulid brachiopods from the Holy Cross Mountains (Poland). Comparative stratigraphic analysis with the Dinant Synclinorium (Belgium). Bulletin de l'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Sciences de la Terre 60, 43–74.Google Scholar
Heckel, P. H. 1974. Carbonate buildups in the geologic record: a review. In Reefs in Space and Time (ed. Laporte, L. F.), Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists Special Publication 18, 90–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hollard, H. 1962. Attribution au Givétien des calcaires coralligènes du Maider (Maroc présaharien). Compte Rendu Sommaire des Séances de la Societé Géologique de France 1962, 175–177.Google Scholar
Hollard, H. 1967. Le Dévonien du Maroc et du Sahara nord-occidental. In International Symposium on the Devonian System, vol. 1 (ed. Oswald, D. H.), pp. 203–244, Calgary: Alberta Society of Petroleum Geologists.Google Scholar
Hollard, H. 1974. Recherches sur la stratigraphie des formations du Dévonien moyen, de l'Emsien supérieur au Frasnien, dans le Sud du Tafilalt et dans le Ma'der (Anti-Atlas oriental). Notes et Mémoires du Service Géologique du Maroc 264, 7–68.Google Scholar
James, N. P. & MacIntyre, I. G. 1985. Reefs. Zonation, depositional facies, diagenesis. In Carbonate Depositional Environments. Modern and Ancient, Part I (eds Warme, J. E. & Shanley, K. W.), Colorado School of Mines Quarterly 80, pp. 1–70, Golden, Colorado: Colorado School of Mines Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, J. G. & Sandberg, C. A. 1988. Devonian eustatic events in the western United States and their biostratigraphic responses. In Devonian of the World, vol. 3 (eds McMillan, N. J., Embry, A. F. & Glass, D. J.), pp. 171–178, Calgary: Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists.Google Scholar
Krebs, W. 1974. Devonian carbonate complexes of central Europe. In Reefs in Space and Time (ed. Laporte, L. F.), Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists Special Publication 18, 155–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lecompte, M. 1936. Contribution à la connaissance des ‘récifs’ du Frasnien de l'Ardenne. Étude lithologique du ‘récif’ exploité à la nouvelle carrière du Château Gaillard à Trélon (France). Mémoires de l'Institut Géologique de l'Université de Louvain 10, 29–112.Google Scholar
Lecompte, M. 1970. Die Riffe im Devon der Ardennen und ihre Bildungsbedingungen. Geologica et Palaeontologica 4, 25–71.Google Scholar
Lees, A. 1988. Waulsortian ‘reefs’: the history of a concept. Mémoires de l'Institut Géologique de l'Université de Louvain 34, 43–55.Google Scholar
Massa, D. 1965. Observations sur les séries siluro-dévoniennes des confins algéro-marocains du Sud (1954–1955, avec la collaboration de A. Combaz et G. Manderscheid). Notes et Mémoires, Compagnie Française des Pétroles 8, 187 pp.Google Scholar
Moussine-Pouchkine, A. 1971. Les constructions récifales du Dévonien moyen du Pays Bas de l'Aahnet (Sahara Central, Algérie). Bulletin de la Societé d'Histoire Naturelle de l'Afrique du Nord 62, 79–88.Google Scholar
Mullins, H. T., Newton, C. R., Heath, K. & Vanburen, H. M. 1981. Modern deep-water coral mounds north of Little Bahama Bank: criteria for recognition of deep-water coral bioherms in the rock record. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 51, 999–1013.Google Scholar
Neumann, A. C., Kofoed, J. W. & Keller, G. H. 1977. Lithoherms in the Straits of Florida. Geology 5, 4–10.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Playford, P. E. 1980. Devonian ‘Great Barrier Reef’ of Canning Basin, western Australia. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 64, 814–840.Google Scholar
Pray, L. C. 1958. Fenestrate bryozoan core facies, Mississippian bioherms, southwestern United States. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 28, 261–273.Google Scholar
Ruhrmann, G. 1971. Riff-nahe Sedimentation paläozoischer Krinoiden-Fragmente. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen 138, 56–100.Google Scholar
Soja, C. M. 1988. Lower Devonian (Emsian) benthic communities from Kasaan Island, southeastern Alaska. In Devonian of the World, vol. 3 (eds McMillan, N. J., Embry, A. F. & Glass, D. J.), pp. 265–279, Calgary: Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists.Google Scholar
Talent, J. A. 1988. Dating diastrophism in the Devonian of eastern Australia: biostratigraphic and biogeographic constraints. In Devonian of the World, vol. 2 (eds Mcmillan, N. J., Embry, A. F. & Glass, D. J.), pp. 313–320, Calgary: Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists.Google Scholar
Tiddeman, R. H. 1889. On concurrent faulting and deposit in Carboniferous times in Craven, Yorkshire, with a note on Carboniferous reefs. Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science 59, 600–603.Google Scholar
Töneböhn, R. 1991. Bildungsbedingungen epikontinentaler Cephalopodenkalke (Devon, SE-Marokko). Göttinger Arbeiten zur Geologie und Paläontologie 47, 1–114.Google Scholar
Wanless, H. R. & Tagett, M. G. 1989. Origin, growth and evolution of carbonate mudbanks in Florida Bay. Bulletin of Marine Science 44, 454–488.Google Scholar
Weller, H. 1989. Das Rübeländer Mud Mound im Riffkomplex von Elbingerode (Harz) und seine sedimentologischen Eigenschaften. Hercynia 26, 321–337.Google Scholar
Wendt, J. 1985. Disintegration of the continental margin of northwestern Gondwana: Late Devonian of the eastern Anti-Atlas (Morocco). Geology 13, 815–818.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wendt, J. 1988. Facies pattern and paleogeography of the Middle and Late Devonian in the eastern Anti-Atlas (Morocco). In Devonian of the World, vol. 1 (eds McMillan, N. J., Embry, A. F. & Glass, D. J.), pp. 467–480, Calgary: Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists.Google Scholar
Wendt, J. & Belka, Z. 1991. Age and depositional environment of Upper Devonian (early Frasnian to early Famennian) black shales and limestones (Kellwasser facies) in the eastern Anti-Atlas, Morocco. Facies 25, 51–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
West, R. R. 1988. Temporal changes in Carboniferous reef mound communities. Palaios 3, 152–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, J. L. 1975. Carbonate Facies in Geologic History. New York: Springer, 471 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar