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Eocene resedimented limestone deposits from the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica: slope-apron accumulation in a volcanic forearc environment

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Abstract

Eocene limestones from the Osa Peninsula of southern Costa Rica were deposited in a slope-apron environment in an active volcanic forearc setting. Larger foraminiferal assemblages from clasts and beds record two main resedimented carbonate microfacies: a dominant Eoconuloides–Helicostegina–Eulinderina facies from the middle Eocene (Lutetian) and a subordinate Lepidocyclina tobleri panamensis–Lepidocyclina (Nephrolepidina) chaperi facies from the upper Eocene (uppermost Bartonian–Priabonian). Both facies consist of abundant shallow-marine benthic carbonate, volcaniclastic, and planktic materials that were re-deposited by gravity flows into a deeper-marine forearc basin. The accessory volcaniclastic grain assemblages are bimodal in composition, comprising differentiated rock and ejecta fragments derived from explosive arc volcanism in addition to basaltic grain contributions from the volcanic forearc basement. The source of the carbonate materials was likely the Fila de Cal carbonate platform presently located in the adjoining arc-ward region of the Fila Costeña thrust belt. Strong biostratigraphic correlations with platform carbonate and other similar forearc successions bearing resedimented limestones reveal not only a provenance from carbonate environments within the arc but they also record coeval events of resedimentation along a continuous deep-marine forearc slope. The sedimentary sequence was deformed as result of coeval basaltic activity and fault tectonics. There is no evidence of accumulation by accretionary processes in the carbonate deposits studied. The findings indicate that the basement of the Osa Peninsula and its sedimentary cover probably formed part of the Costa Rican forearc that was uplifted and deformed in response to basaltic volcanic activity and subsequent Cocos Ridge subduction.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully thank Hanspeter Luterbacher for his helpful remarks on the planktic foraminifera found in thin-sections and Wolfgang Frisch and Martin Meschede for reviewing the earliest manuscript draft. We also express our gratitude to Maurice Tucker, Keith H. James, Valentin Chesnel, and Hans-Jürgen Gursky for the helpful manuscript reviews. Their suggestions certainly improved the final version.

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    Angela Bolz & Claudio Calvo

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Bolz, A., Calvo, C. Eocene resedimented limestone deposits from the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica: slope-apron accumulation in a volcanic forearc environment. Facies 65, 8 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10347-018-0549-9

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