Relative sea level changes and carbonate factories of the Urgonian platform, Hauterivian-Aptian, Vercors, France

Conference · Wed Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1993 · AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States)

OSTI ID:6916014

Jacquin, T; Vail, P R ^[1]

---

1. Rice Univ., Houston, TX (United States)

Long term second-order and short term third-order relative sea level changes control the development of the Urgonian platform in the French western Alps. At a second-order scale the Urgonian platform develops over the drowned late Berriasian-middle Valanginian platform. During the regressive phase, the platform progrades tens of kilometers toward the southeast. During the transgressive phase, the platform aggrades, backsteps, and then drowns. Subsidence analysis indicates this second-order cycle is controlled by changes in rates of subsidence or possibly tectono-eustasy. At a third-order scale, two types of carbonate factories alternate within the Urgonian platform, highstand and lowstand. The Urgonian facies is a product of highstand factories which changes laterally into platform-rim buildups with corals and stromatoporids and rapidly thins basinward by sediment starvation. Both the bioclastic turbidites and the large seismic-scale clinoforms visible in the outcrops of the southern Vercors are the products of the lowstand factories. These lowstand turbidites and shoal-water prograding grainstones consist of three distinct units: a lower basinal sheet of platform-derived massive grainstones, a thick apron of fine-grained turbidites and mudstones with proximal channels, some of which are filled with coarse grainstones, and a prograding unit pinching out at the offlap break of the previous highstand in the area of the stromatoporids. The prograding grainstones are matrix-poor cross-stratified beds in the shallow water areas and facies change to mudstones in the basin. The lack of boundstones in the proximal parts of the lowstand prograding intervals, together with the lack of well-developed early cementation, ooids, and aggregates suggest that these lowstand factories were temperate-water systems. They contrast with the Urgonian highstand factories that were particularly well equipped to keep up with sea level rises such as modern tropical carbonates.

• OSTI ID: 6916014
• Report Number(s): CONF-9310237--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States) Journal Volume: 77:9
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020200* -- Petroleum-- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration
03 NATURAL GAS
030200 -- Natural Gas-- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration
ALPS
BUILDUP
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBONATE ROCKS
CARBONATES
CONTROL
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
EUROPE
FRANCE
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GROUND SUBSIDENCE
LEVELS
MOUNTAINS
ORIGIN
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
ROCKS
SEA LEVEL
SEDIMENTARY BASINS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
SEDIMENTS
TECTONICS
VARIATIONS
WESTERN EUROPE