Organización estratigráfica y bioestratigrafía del plioceno en el borde sur de la Cuenca del Bajo Segura (sector de Rojales, Alicante), cordillera Bética Oriental

Abstract

In the Rojales area, at the southem border of the Low Segura Basin (province of Alicante), we have studied four formations already defined by Montenat (1973, 1977). All of them constitute a continue stratigraphic succession and represent a general regressive sequence, where open basin facies (Hurchillo Marls Fm.), shelf and coastal facies (Rojales Sandstone Fm.) and continental facies (Variegated Sandstones and Marls Fm. and Segura Conglomerates Fm.) gradually evolve from the bottom to the topo The biostratigraphic data of planktonic foraminifera allows the date the top of the Hurchillo Marls Fm. as the upper part of the lower Pliocene (NI9-N2ü of the Blow zonation). The study of a new site of microvertebrates, named as Rojales, allows the dating the top of the Variegated Sandstones and Marls Fm. (in the transition with the Segura Conglomerates Fm.) as upper Ruscinian (start of MN15 of the Mein biozonation). These chronological data show that the whole stratigraphic succession of the Rojales area has a age corresponding to the final part of the lower Pliocene.