Sedimentación fluvial y lacustre sintectónica ligada a un sinclinal de “buttressing” paralelo a una falla en el sector de Nigüella (NW Cordillera Ibérica)

N. Santos Bueno; C. Arenas Abad; A. Gil Imaz

doi:10.3989/egeol.43377.507

Authors

N. Santos Bueno Stratigraphy division. Department of Earth Sciences. University of Zaragoza - Institute for Research on Environmental Sciences of Aragón (IUCA) and Geotransfer group, University of Zaragoza https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2876-9554
C. Arenas Abad Stratigraphy division. Department of Earth Sciences. University of Zaragoza - Institute for Research on Environmental Sciences of Aragón (IUCA) and Geotransfer group, University of Zaragoza https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4212-0524
A. Gil Imaz Geodynamics (Structural Geology) division. Department of Earth Sciences. University of Zaragoza - Institute for Research on Environmental Sciences of Aragón (IUCA) and Geotransfer group, University of Zaragoza https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6110-1081

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3989/egeol.43377.507

Keywords:

epósitos aluviales, Carbonatos lacustres, toba, sedimentación sintectónica, buttressing, Neógeno

Abstract

This paper discusses the sedimentary evolution of an area with Neogene fluvial and lacustrine deposits in the northwestern part of the Iberian Range, and its relation to the effects of Alpine compressional tectonics affecting a major, formerly extensional fault. Stratigraphic analyses allow characterizing three tectosedimentary units. Units 1 and 2 are dominated by clastics lithofacies, and are separated by an unconformity and the correlative conformity. Unit 3 is formed of tufa and micritic limestones and represents a sharp lithological change throughout the area. Total thickness is 120 m. These units are involved in two NNW-SSE Alpine trending, kilometric-scale structures: 1) the Nigüella fault, that put into contact Triassic rocks, in the footwall, with Cenozoic rocks, in the hanging-wall, and 2) the Nigüella syncline, subparallel to this fault, with strata dips between 19° up to 70°. In units 1 and 2, four facies associations represent deposition in proximal to middle alluvial fans, from local reliefs, and a braided fluvial system with limited floodplain, running southward; both environments record minor fluvial and lacustrine carbonate deposition. Three other facies associations represent dominant carbonate deposition, either palustrine-fluvial-lacustrine or lacustrine settings. In the three units, oncoid and phytoclast rudstones formed in shallow, low-sinuosity channels and pools with extensive tufaceous palustrine areas, where hydrophilous plants throve. In contrast, micritic limestones with ostracods and marls correspond to offshore dominant carbonate lacustrine deposition in still and permanent lakes. Thus the overall sedimentary system evolved from dominant alluvial-fluvial to dominant lacustrine carbonate environments through time. These facts, along with calcrete development in Units 1 and 2, indicate increasing precipitation and probably the passage to a hydrologically-closed lake basin through time. The Nigüella fault played as a normal fault at the early Jurassic and during the Cenozoic compression it promoted the formation of a hanging-wall syncline basin through buttressing of the NE block against the fault. This scenario conditioned the distribution and extent of the Miocene lithofacies through space and time, and the location of depocentres. Decreasing tectonic activity through the studied interval favoured fluvial incision, capture of the Mesozoic aquifer, and then outflow of ground water rich in Ca²⁺ and HCO^-₃, thus favouring widespread carbonate deposition, and finally the expansion of the lake area.

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