Upper Miocene reef complex of Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain
The late Tortonian-Messinian coral reef platform of south Mallorca onlaps a folded middle late Miocene carbonate platform on which progradation of up to 20 km occurs. Vertical sea cliffs (up to 100 m high) superbly show the last 5 km of this progradation and complement the numerous water-well cores from the island interior. The Mallorca reef presents the most complete facies zonation of the Miocene reefs of the western Mediterranean. The reef wall framework is up to 20 m thick and shows (1) erosional reef flat with reef breccia and small corals; (2) spur-and-grove zone with large, massive corals; (3) deep buttresses and pinnacles with terraces of branching corals; and (4) deep reef wall with flat, laminar coral colonies, branching red algae, and Halimeda sands.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Palma de Majorca (Spain)
- OSTI ID:
- 5797433
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-880301-
- Journal Information:
- AAPG Bull.; (United States), Vol. 72:2; Conference: Annual meeting of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Houston, TX, USA, 20-23 Mar 1988
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Similarities in the dolomitization of upper Miocene reef complexes in Mallorca and the Las Negras areas, Spain: Possible evidence for a Mediterranean dolomitizing event during the Messinian
Miocene reefs in western Mediterranean