Campos‐Soto, S., Benito, M.I., Mountney, N.P. orcid.org/0000-0002-8356-9889 et al. (4 more authors) (Cover date: April 2022) Where humid and arid meet: Sedimentology of coastal siliciclastic successions deposited in apparently contrasting climates. Sedimentology, 69 (3). pp. 975-1027. ISSN 0037-0746
Abstract
Deciphering the palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic setting of ancient successions that include deposits typical of different climates can be challenging. This is the case in the Late Jurassic succession cropping out in eastern Spain (South-Iberian and western Maestrazgo basins), where deposits characteristic of both arid to semiarid and humid to subhumid settings have been identified through a detailed analysis of eight stratigraphic sections. These sections comprise shallow marine carbonates changing upward and laterally to a predominantly siliciclastic coastal and alluvial succession, including abundant dinosaur remains. Deposition of coastal and alluvial sediments occurred in flood plains, ephemeral and perennial fluvial channels, aeolian dunes, deltas, distributary mouth-bars and associated distributary channels, and shallow water bodies influenced by both fresh and marine waters. Some of these deposits, notably those of aeolian and ephemeral fluvial origin, are characteristic of arid to semiarid climates. However, there are also abundant deposits that can be demonstrably shown to have a coeval origin, which are indicative of permanent water courses: (i) sediments of seasonal discharge fluvial channels with perennial to semi-perennial flow, displaying subcritical and supercritical flow sedimentary structures; (ii) deltaic sediments deposited in permanent freshwater bodies; and (iii) abundant plant and dinosaur remains, especially of herbivorous dinosaurs, which required the presence of permanent water sources and abundant vegetation. These apparently contrasting sedimentary features indicate that deposition occurred under a seasonal climate controlled by monsoonal-type precipitation. These deposits are analogous to those observed nowadays in the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park (north-east Brazil), where a subhumid tropical climate with a seasonal precipitation pattern prevails. Thus, this study shows that only through careful facies analysis and interpretation of depositional processes that can be shown to be occurring concurrently in neighbouring and related depositional systems can the detailed palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic setting of complex coastal sedimentary successions be confidently reconstructed in detail.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 International Association of Sedimentologists. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Campos-Soto, S., Benito, M.I., Mountney, N.P., Plink-Björklund, P., Quijada, I.E., Suarez-Gonzalez, P. and Cobos, A. (2022), Where humid and arid meet: Sedimentology of coastal siliciclastic successions deposited in apparently contrasting climates. Sedimentology, 69: 975-1027, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/sed.12958. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited. |
Keywords: | Aeolian dunes; deltaic deposits; eastern Iberia; fluvial channels; Kimmeridgian-Tithonian; supercritical flow bedforms |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Institute for Applied Geosciences (IAG) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 25 Jul 2023 14:44 |
Last Modified: | 26 Jul 2023 05:41 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/sed.12958 |
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Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:201863 |