Sequence stratigraphy and tectonosedimentary history of the Upper Jurassic of the Eastern Paris Basin (Lower and Middle Oxfordian, Northeastern France)
Abstract
In the present study, the difficulty which lies in the identification of sea-level fall discontinuities in deep depositional environments led the authors to use the transgressive surfaces (i.e. the most noticeable surfaces in the present case) to determine depositional cycles. Four (3rd order?) Lower and Middle Oxfordian cycles were identified (S1, S2, S3, and S4) in the Eastern Paris Basin. These four cycles can be organised into two lower frequency cycles (So I and So II) which comprise the S1, S2 and the S3, S4 cycles respectively. During the time intervals of the S1, S2, and S3 cycles, sedimentation occurred along a southward dipping carbonate-siliciclastic ramp, prograding from the northern Ardennes area. The S4 cycle shows the development of a reefal distally steepened ramp which subsequently evolved into a flat-topped platform as a result of the compensation infill of the available accommodation space by the carbonate production during a climatic warming, in this case reef growth. Isopach and facies maps suggest synsedimentary activities of hercynian faults coevals with the floodings of the So I and So II cycles. One of these events generated a diachronism of the maximum flooding (Plicatilis Zone) during the So II cycle between the northwestern and southeastern parts of the studied area. The depositional patterns found in the Eastern Paris Basin and the Swiss Jura show great similarities for the Early–Middle Oxfordian. Both regions were probably connected and recorded the same tectonosedimentary evolution. In contrast a tectonic control certainly generated differences between the sequence-stratigraphic framework of the Eastern Paris Basin and the eustatic chart.