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The bioeroded megasurface of Oura (Algarve, south Portugal): implications for the Neogene stratigraphy and tectonic evolution of southwest Iberia

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Abstract

The use of rocky palaeoshore bioerosion analysis as a tool to solve stratigraphic and tectonic issues is beginning to bear fruits. The occurrence of an extensive intra-Miocene marine abrasion platform in southern Portugal at Oura (Albufeira) has been identified on the basis of bioerosion trace fossils analysis. The observed ichnodiversity is rather low, with bivalve boring Gastrochaenolites being dominant. Nevertheless, the ichnoassemblage may be assigned to the Entobia ichnofacies. The palaeoichnological study of the Oura hardground confirmed the existence of an important intra-Miocene stratigraphic gap (ca. 3 Ma hiatus), represented by a razor-sharp erosional contact that separates the two main Neogene units in the Algarvian region: the lower carbonate sequence of Lagos–Portimão Formation (Langhian/Serravallian) and the upper siliciclastic sequence of the Cacela Formation (Upper Tortonian).

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Acknowledgments

We thank the contribution of the Portuguese FCT Project POCTI 32724/99 - Comparative (palaeo)environmental analysis of oceanic and coastal domains, over the last 20 Ma, based on calcareous nannoplankton (CANAL), co-financed by FEDER. Financial support was also provided by the Spanish DGI Project CGL2007-60507/BTE and Junta de Andalucía (Spanish government) to the Research Group RNM316 (Tectonics and Palaeontology). Ana Santos was granted a Post-Doctoral fellowship (SFRH/BPD/20562/2004) financed by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese government) and co-financed by UE founds (POCI 2010). The authors are grateful to the referees Leif Tapanila (Idaho State University, Idaho) and an anonymous reviewer for their extremely helpful comments and suggestions, and also André Freiwald (Facies Editor) who made valuable additions to the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Geologia e Dept. de Geologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, C6, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal

    Mário Cachão, Carlos Marques da Silva & Ana Santos

  2. Dept. d’Estratigrafia, Paleontologia i Geociències Marines, Facultat de Geologia, Universitat de Barcelona, C/Martí i Franques, s/n, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

    Rosa Domènech & Jordi Martinell

  3. Dept. de Geodinâmica y Paleontologia, Facultad de Ciencias Experimentales, Universidad de Huelva, Campus de El Carmen, Avda. 3 de Marzo, s/n, 21071, Huelva, Spain

    Eduardo Mayoral

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  1. Mário Cachão
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Correspondence to Ana Santos.

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Cachão, M., da Silva, C.M., Santos, A. et al. The bioeroded megasurface of Oura (Algarve, south Portugal): implications for the Neogene stratigraphy and tectonic evolution of southwest Iberia. Facies 55, 213–225 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10347-008-0172-2

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