Abstract
The study of two stratigraphic sections of the Tran Formation (upper Carnian–Norian) reveals the presence of a regressive carbonate beach succession. The interpretation of lower shoreface, upper shoreface, foreshore, and backshore deposits is based on field data, microfacies analysis and comparison with Holocene and ancient analogues. The various lower shoreface deposits include automicritic boundstones/cementstones which attest to a temporary establishment of the M factory most likely as an aftermath of the global Carnian Pluvial Episode. The upper shoreface grainstones show trough cross-bedding reflecting deposition by longshore currents. Grainstones/packstones of the foreshore subenvironment have several diagnostic features including low-angle plane lamination, keystone voids, eroded beachrock clasts, and well-sorted textures with marine phreatic and vadose cements. Their deposition was controlled by supply of granular material from the shoreface, incessant wave activity and daily tides, and early lithification protecting them from erosion and remobilization. The backshore strata comprise storm washover deposits (packstones, wackestones), mudstones deposited in marginal ponds, and agglutinated stromatolites (formed by trapping and binding in a tide-influenced setting). Some of the foreshore and backshore sediments were pedogenically modified, resulting in the formation of secondary matrix, root development, desiccation cracking, and grainification. Specific products of the early vadose alteration are laminoid fenestrae with crystal silt and diagenetic grainstones, packstones, and wackestones. The good preservation of the regressive beach succession was favored by late highstand progradation of the shoreline in a low accommodation setting.
Similar content being viewed by others
Availability of data and materials
Yes.
Code availability
Not applicable.
References
Ahr WM (2008) Geology of carbonate reservoirs. The identification, description, and characterization of hydrocarbon reservoirs in carbonate rocks. Wiley, Hoboken
Aissaoui DM, Purser BH (1983) Nature and origins of internal sediment in Jurassic limestones of Burgundy (France) and Fnoud (Algeria). Sedimentology 30:273–289
Alonso-Zarza AM (2003) Palaeoenvironmental significance of palustrine carbonates and calcretes in the geological record. Earth-Sci Rev 60:261–298
Alonso-Zarza MA, Calvo JP, García del Cura MA (1992) Palustrine sedimentation and associated features–grainification and pseudo-microkarst in the Middle Miocene (intermediate unit) of the Madrid Basin, Spain. Sediment Geol 76:43–61
Andrieu S, Brigaud B, Barbarand J, Lasseur E (2017) Linking early diagenesis and sedimentary facies to sequence stratigraphy on a prograding oolitic wedge: the Bathonian of western France (Aquitaine Basin). Mar Petrol Geol 81:169–195
Anthony EJ, Aagaard T (2020) The lower shoreface: morphodynamics and sediment connectivity with the upper shoreface and beach. Earth-Sci Rev. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2020.103334
Antonov M, Milovanov P, Popov A, Yordanov B, Gerdzhikov S et al (2011) Geological Map of the Republic of Bulgaria. Scale 1:50 000. Dren Map Sheet, Ministry of Environment and Water and Bulgarian National Geological Survey
Armenteros I, Daley B (1998) Pedogenic modification and structure evolution in palustrine facies as exemplified by the Bembridge Limestone (Late Eocene) of the Isle of Wight, southern England. Sediment Geol 119:275–295
Aurell M, McNeill DF, Guyomard T, Kindler P (1995) Pleistocene shallowing-upward sequences in New Providence, Bahamas: signature of high-frequency sea-level fluctuations in shallow carbonate platforms. J Sediment Res B65:170–182
Azerêdo AC (1998) Geometry and facies dynamics of Middle Jurassic carbonate ramp sandbodies, West-Central Portugal. Geol Soc (london) 149:281–314
Baceta JI, Wright PP, Beavington-Penney SJ, Pujalte V (2007) Palaeohydrogeological control of palaeokarst macro-porosity genesis during a major sea-level lowstand: Danian of the Urbasa-Andia plateau, Navarra, North Spain. Sediment Geol 199:141–169
Bashri M, Abdullatif O, Salih M (2017) Sedimentology and facies analysis of Miocene mixed siliciclastic–carbonate deposits of the Dam Formation in Al Lidam area, eastern Saudi Arabia. Arab J Geosci 10:472. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-017-3244-1
Beier JA (1985) Diagenesis of quaternary Bahamian beachrock: petrographic and isotopic evidence. J Sediment Petrol 55:755–761
Belivanova V (1996) Sedimentology of the Trun Formation north of the town of Trun. Rev Bulg Geol Soc 57:19–24 ((in Bulgarian with English abstract))
Belivanova V (2000) Triassic in the Golo Bardo Mountain: one example for the Balkanide facial type of Triassic in Bulgaria. In: Bachmann GH, Lerche I (eds) Epicontinental Triassic, Zentralbl Geol Paläont Teil I 9/10. Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, pp 1105–1121
Belivanova V, Chatalov A (2005) New data on the Middle Triassic complex of inner-ramp carbonate shoals in western Bulgaria. Compt Rend Acad Bulg Sci 58:281–288
Belkhedim S, Jarochowska E, Benhamou M, Nemra A, Sadji R, Munnecke A (2019) Interplay of autogenic and allogenic processes on the formation of shallow carbonate cycles in a synrift setting (lower Pliensbachian, Traras Mountains, NW Algeria). J Sediment Res 89:784–807
Bover-Arnal T, Strasser A (2013) Relative sea-level change, climate and sequence boundaries: insights from the Kimmeridgian to Berriasian platform carbonates of Mount Saleve (E France). Int J Earth Sci 102:493–515
Braithwaite CJR (2005) Carbonate sediments and rocks. A manual for earth scientists and engineers. Whittles Publishing, Dunbeath
Budurov K, Trifonova E, Zagorchev I (1995) The Triassic in Southwest Bulgaria: stratigraphic correlation of key sections in the iskar carbonate group. Geol Balc 25:27–59
Burchette TP, Wright VP, Faulkner TJ (1990) Oolitic sandbody depositional models and geometries, Mississippian of southwest Britain: implications for petroleum exploration in carbonate ramp settings. Sediment Geol 68:87–115
Caggiati M, Gianolla P, Breda A, Celarc B, Preto N (2018) The start-up of the Dolomia Principale/Hauptdolomit carbonate platform (Upper Triassic) in the eastern Southern Alps. Sedimentology 65:1097–1131
Cariou E, Olivier N, Pittet B, Mazin J-M, Hantzpergue P (2014) Dinosaur track record on a shallow carbonate-dominated ramp (Loulle section, Late Jurassic, French Jura). Facies 60:229–253
Carpentier C, Lathuilière B, Ferry S (2010) Sequential and climatic framework of the growth and demise of a carbonate platform: implications for the peritidal cycles (Late Jurassic, North-eastern France). Sedimentology 57:985–1020
Chatalov A (2013) A Triassic homoclinal ramp from the Western Tethyan realm, Western Balkanides, Bulgaria: integrated insight with special emphasis on the Anisian outer to inner ramp facies transition. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 386:34–58
Chatalov A (2017a) Anachronistic and unusual carbonate facies in uppermost Lower Triassic rocks of the western Balkanides. Bulgaria Facies 63:24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10347-017-0505-0
Chatalov A (2017b) Quartz arenites and laterites in the Moesian Group (Upper Triassic), northwestern Bulgaria: possible evidence for the effect of the Carnian Humid Episode. Geol Balc 46:3–25
Chatalov A (2020) First report of reef formation from the Balkanide type of Triassic: the Tran Formation (Upper Triassic) near the village of Gorna Sekirna, SW Bulgaria. Rev Bulg Geol Soc 81:124–126 ((in Bulgarian with English abstract))
Chatalov A (2021) Automicritic boundstones/cementstones in the Upper Triassic Tran Formation from the vicinity of Chukovets village, Southwestern Bulgaria. Compt Rend Acad Bulg Sci 74:95–101
Clark D, Heaviside J, Habib K (2004) Reservoir properties of Arab carbonates, Al Rayyan field, offshore Qatar. Geol Soc (london) 235:193–232
Demicco RV, Hardie LA (1994) Sedimentary structures and early diagenetic features of shallow marine carbonate deposits. SEPM, Tulsa
Donaldson JA, Ricketts BD (1979) Beachrock in proterozoic dolostone of the Belcher Islands, Northwest Territories, Canada. J Sediment Petrol 49:1287–1294
Dunagan SP, Turner CE (2004) Regional paleohydrologic and paleoclimatic settings of wetland/lacustrine depositional systems in the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic), Western Interior, USA. Sediment Geol 167:269–296
Dunham RJ (1962) Classification of carbonate rocks according to depositional texture. Amer Assoc Petrol Geol Memoir 1:108–121
Dunham RJ (1969) Early vadose silt in townsend mound (reef), New Mexico. Soc Econ Mineral Paleont 14:139–181
Dunham RJ (1970) Keystone vugs in carbonate beach deposites (Abstr.). Amer Assoc Petrol Geol Bull 54:845
Dupraz C, Reid RP, Braissant O, Decho AW, Norman RS, Visscher PT (2009) Processes of carbonate precipitation in modern microbial mats. Earth-Sci Rev 96:141–162
Embry A, Klovan JE (1971) A late Devonian reef tract on northeastern Banks Island, Northwest Territories. Bull Can Petrol Geol 19:730–781
Flügel E (2004) Microfacies of carbonate rocks. Analysis, interpretation, and application. Springer, Berlin
Frébourg G, Hasler C-A, Le Guern P, Davaud E (2008) Facies characteristics and diversity in carbonate eolianites. Facies 54:175–191
Freytet P, Plaziat J-C (1982) Continental carbonate sedimentation and pedogenesis: late cretaceous and early tertiary of southern France. Contr Sedim Geol 12:213
Ganev M (1974) Stand der Kenntnisse über die Stratigraphie der Trias Bulgariens. In: Die Stratigraphie der alpin-mediterranean Trias. Simposium, Schrif Erdwiss Komm Oster Akad Wiss Bd 2:93–96
Gischler E (2007) Beachrock and intertidal precipitates. In: Nash DJ, McLaren SJ (eds) Geochemical sediments and landscapes. Blackwell, Oxford, pp 365–390
Goldstein RH (1988) Paleosols of late Pennsylvanian cycle strata, New Mexico. Sedimentology 35:777–803
Goldstein RH, Franseen EK, Lipinski CJ (2013) Topographic and sea level controls on oolite-microbialite-coralgal reef sequences: the terminal carbonate complex of southeast Spain. Amer Assoc Petrol Geol Bull 97:1997–2034
Grădinaru M, Lazar I, Bucur II, Grădinaru E, Săsăran E et al (2016) The Valanginian history of the eastern part of the Getic Carbonate Platform (Southern Carpathians, Romania): evidence for emergence and drowning of the platform. Cret Res 66:11–42
Gray AF, Adams AE (1995) Sheet voids and radiaxial fibrous calcite cement fills from Upper Jurassic beachrock, Calcaires-Blancs-de-Provence, Southeast France. Carb Evap 10:252–260
Handford CR (1986) Facies and bedding sequences in shelf-storm-deposited carbonates—Ayetteville Shale and Pitkin Limestone (Mississippian), Arkansas. J Sediment Petrol 56:123–137
Inden RF, Moore CH (1983) Beach environment. Carbonate depositional environments. Amer Assoc Petrol Geol Memoir 33:211–265
Ivanov Z (2017) Tectonics of Bulgaria. Univ Publ House ‘St. Kliment Ohridski,’ Sofia
James NP, Choquette PW (1990) Limestones: the sea-floor diagenetic environment. Diagenesis. Geosci Can Reprint Ser 4:13–34
Jamison-Todd S, Stein N, Overeem I, Khalid A, Trower EJ (2020) Hurricane deposits on carbonate platforms: a case study of Hurricane Irma deposits on Little Ambergris Cay, Turks and Caicos Islands. J Geophys Res: Earth Surf. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JF005597
Jin X, Gianolla P, Shi Z, Franceschi M, Caggiati M et al (2020) Synchronized changes in shallow water carbonate production during the Carnian Pluvial episode (Late Triassic) throughout Tethys. Glob Planet Change. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2019.103035
Jones B, Pemberton SG (1987) The role of fungi in the diagenetic alteration of spar calcite. Can J Earth Sci 24:903–914
Kahle CF (1977) Origin of subaerial Holocene calcareous crusts: role of algae, fungi and sparmicritization. Sedimentology 24:413–435
Keim L, Schlager W (2001) Quantitative compositional analysis of a Triassic carbonate platform (Southern Alps, Italy). Sediment Geol 139:261–283
Kerans C, Loucks RG (2002) Stratigraphic setting and controls on occurrence of high-energy carbonate beach deposits: Lower Cretaceous of the Gulf of Mexico. Gulf Coast Assoc Geol Soc Trans 52:517–526
Kerans C, Zahm C, Bachtel SL, Hearty P, Cheng H (2019) Anatomy of a late Quaternary carbonate island: constraints on timing and magnitude of sea-level fluctuations, West Caicos, Turks and Caicos Islands, BWI. Quat Sci Rev 205:193–223
Klappa CF (1980) Rhizoliths in terrestrial carbonates: classification, recognition, genesis and significance. Sedimentology 27:613–629
Lasemi Y, Jahani D, Rassouli HA, Lasemi Z (2012) Ancient carbonate tidalites. In: Davies RA, Dalrymple RW (eds) Principles of tidal sedimentology. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 567–607
Leonide P, Borgomano J, Masse J-P, Doublet S (2012) Relation between stratigraphic architecture and multi-scale heterogeneities in carbonate platforms: the Barremian–lower Aptian of the Monts de Vaucluse, SE France. Sediment Geol 265:87–109
Lloyd RM, Perkins RD, Kerr SD (1987) Beach and shoreface ooid deposition on shallow interior banks, Turks and Caicos Islands, British West-Indies. J Sediment Petrol 57:976–982
Magoon OT, Robbins LL, Ewing L (eds) (2000) Carbonate beaches 2000: first international symposium on carbonate sand beaches: conference proceedings. American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston
Martindale RC, Zonneveld JP, Bottjer DJ (2010) Microbial framework in Upper Triassic (Carnian) patch reefs from Williston Lake, British Columbia, Canada. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 297:609–620
Mazzullo SJ, Birdwell BA (1989) Syngenetic formation of grainstones and pisolites from fenestral carbonates in peritidal settings. J Sediment Petrol 59:605–611
Méndez-Bedia I, Gallastegui G, Busquets P, Césari SN, Limarino CO et al (2020) Pedogenic and subaerial exposure microfabrics in a late Carboniferous–early Permian carbonate-volcanic lacustrine-palustrine system (San Ignacio Formation, Frontal Cordillera, Argentina). Andean Geol 47:275–294
Mercedes-Martín R, Arenas C, Salas R (2014) Diversity and factors controlling widespread occurrence of syn-rift Ladinian microbialites in the western Tethys (Triassic Catalan Basin, NE Spain). Sediment Geol 313:68–90
Michetiuc M, Catincut C, Bucur II (2012) An upper Jurassic-lower cretaceous carbonate platform from the Vâlcan Mountains (Southern Carpathians, Romania): paleoenvironmental interpretation. Geol Carp 63:33–48
Missimer TM, Maliva RG (2005) Diagenesis of the Anastasia Formation in eastern coastal Florida: beachrock or bed-scale cementation. Gulf Coast Assoc Geol Soc Trans 55:543–553
Moore CH, Wade WJ (2013) Carbonate reservoirs: porosity and diagenesis in a sequence stratigraphic framework. Elsevier, Amsterdam
Nolting A (2017) Syndepositional deformation in steep-walled carbonate margins: insights from outcrop and numerical modeling of carbonate platforms in the recent and ancient rock record. Dissertation, University of Texas at Austin
Olivier N, Colombié C, Pittet B, Lathuiliére B (2011) Microbial carbonates and corals on the marginal French Jura platform (Late Oxfordian, Molinges section). Facies 57:469–492
Payne JL, Lehrmann DJ, Christensen S, Wei J, Knoll AH (2006) Environmental and biological controls on the initiation and growth of a Middle Triassic (Anisian) reef complex on the Great Bank of Guizhou, Guizhou Province, China. Palaios 21:325–343
Peyravi M, Rahimpour-Bonab H, Nader FH, Kamali MR (2016) Chemo-stratigraphy as a tool for sequence stratigraphy of the early triassic kangan formation, North of the Persian Gulf. Carb Evap 31:163–178
Pomar L, Hallock P (2008) Carbonate factories: a conundrum in sedimentary geology. Earth-Sci Rev 87:134–169
Popa L, Panaiotu CE, Grădinaru E (2014) An early middle Anisian (middle Triassic) Tubiphytes and cement crusts-dominated reef from North Dobrogea (Romania): facies, depositional environment and diagenesis. Acta Geol Polon 64:189–206
Purser BH, Evans G (1973) Regional sedimentation along the Trucial Coast, S. E. Persian Gulf. In: Purser BH (ed) The Persian Gulf. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp 211–231
Quijada IE, Benito MI, Suarez-Gonzalez P, Rodríguez-Martínez M, Campos-Soto S (2020) Challenges to carbonate-evaporite peritidal facies models and cycles: insights from Lower Cretaceous stromatolite-bearing deposits (Oncala Group, N Spain). Sediment Geol. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sedgeo.2020.105752
Rankey EC (2014) Contrast between wave- and tide-dominated oolitic systems: holocene of crooked-acklins platform, southern Bahamas. Facies 60:405–428
Reijmer JJG (2021) Marine carbonate factories: review and update. Sedimentology 68:1729–1796
Reinhold C (1998) Ancient helictites and the formation of vadose crystal silt in upper Jurassic carbonates (Southern Germany). J Sediment Res 68:378–390
Reitner J, Neuweiler F, Dingle P, Flajs G, Gautret P et al (1995) Mud mounds: a polygenetic spectrum of fine-grained carbonate buildups. Facies 32:1–70
Riding R (1991) Classification of microbial carbonates. In: Riding R (ed) Calcareous algae and stromatolites. Springer, Berlin, pp 21–52
Riding R, Liang L (2005) Geobiology of microbial carbonates: metazoan and seawater saturation state influences on secular trends during the Phanerozoic. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 219:101–115
Riding R, Virgone A (2020) Hybrid carbonates: in situ abiotic, microbial and skeletal co-precipitates. Earth-Sci Rev. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2020.103300
Riding R, Wright VP (1981) Paleosols and tidal-flat/lagoon sequences on a Carboniferous carbonate shelf: sedimentary associations of triple disconformities. J Sediment Petrol 51:1323–1339
Riding R, Liang L, Lee J, Virgone A (2019) Influence of dissolved oxygen on secular patterns of marine microbial carbonate abundance during the past 490 Myr. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 514:135–143
Schlager W (2003) Benthic carbonate factories of the phanerozoic. Int J Earth Sci (geol Rundsch) 92:445–464
Schmid DU (1996) Marine mikrobolithe und mikroinkrustierer aus dem oberjura. Profil 9:101–251
Sevillano A, Rosales I, Bádenas B, Barnolas A, López-García JM (2019) Spatial and temporal facies evolution of a Lower Jurassic carbonate platform, NW Tethyan margin (Mallorca, Spain). Facies 65:3. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10347-018-0545-0
Shinn EA (1968) Practical significance of birdseye structures in carbonate rocks. J Sediment Petrol 38:215–223
Shinn EA (2009) The mystique of beachrock. Perspectives in carbonate geology. Inter Assoc Sediment 41:19–28
Steinen RP (1974) Phreatic and vadose diagenetic modification of Pleistocene limestone: petrographic observations from subsurface of Barbados, West Indies. Amer Assoc Petrol Geol Bull 58:1008–1024
Strasser A, Arnaud H, Baudin F, Röhl U (1995) Small-scale shallow-water carbonate sequences of Resolution Guyot (sites 866, 867, and 868). In: Winterer EL, Sager WW, Firth JV, Sinton JM (eds) Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results 143:119–131
Stricklin FL Jr, Smith CI (1973) Environmental reconstruction of a carbonate beach complex: Cow Creek (Lower Cretaceous) Formation of central Texas. Geol Soc Amer Bull 84:1349–1368
Suarez-Gonzalez P, Quijada E, Benito MI, Mas R, Merinero R, Riding R (2014) Origin and significance of lamination in Lower Cretaceous stromatolites and proposal for a quantitative approach. Sediment Geol 300:11–27
Suarez-Gonzalez P, Benito MI, Quijada IE, Mas R, Campos-Soto S (2019) ‘Trapping and binding’: a review of the factors controlling the development of fossil agglutinated microbialites and their distribution in space and time. Earth-Sci Rev 194:182–215
Trifonova E, Zagorchev I (1990) Late Triassic stratigraphy and paleogeography in Golo Bardo Unit. SW Bulgaria Geol Balc 20:40
Tronkov D (1983) Stratigraphic problems of Iskar Carbonate Group (Triassic) in South-west Bulgaria. Geol Balc 13:91–100 ((in Russian with English abstract))
Vaptsarova A (1986) Lithological and facies characteristics of the Triassic rocks in Vlahina Mountains (Southwest Bulgaria). Geol Balc 16:55–71 ((in Russian with English abstract))
Verwer K, Porta GD, Merino-Tomé O, Kenter JAM (2009) Controls and predictability of carbonate facies architecture in a Lower Jurassic three-dimensional barrier-shoal complex (Djebel Bou Dahar, High Atlas, Morocco). Sedimentology 56:1801–1831
Vieira MM, De Ros LF (2006) Cementation patterns and genetic implications of Holocene beachrocks from northeastern Brazil. Sediment Geol 192:207–230
Vollbrecht R, Meischner D (1993) Sea level and diagenesis: a case study on Pleistocene beaches, Whalebone Bay, Bermuda. Geol Rdsch 82:248–262
Vousdoukas MI, Velegrakis AF, Plomaritis TA (2007) Beachrock occurrence, characteristics, formation mechanisms and impacts. Earth-Sci Rev 85:23–46
Wallace MW, Hood AVS, Woon EMS, Giddings JA, Fromhold TA (2015) The Cryogenian Balcanoona reef complexes of the Northern Flinders Ranges: implications for Neoproterozoic ocean chemistry. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 417:320–336
Ward WC, Brady MJ (1979) Strandline sedimentation of carbonate grainstones, Upper Pleistocene, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Amer Assoc Petrol Geol Bull 63:362–369
Webb GE (1994) Paleokarst, paleosol, and rocky-shore deposits at the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian unconformity, northwestern Arkansas. Geol Soc Amer Bull 106:634–648
Wright PV (1986) The role of fungal biomineralization in the formation of early carboniferous soil fabrics. Sedimentology 33:831–838
Wright VP (1990) Syngenetic formation of grainstones and pisolites from fenestral carbonates in peritidal settings. Discussion J Sediment Petrol 60:309–310
Wright VP (1992) A revised classification of limestones. Sediment Geol 76:177–185
Wright VP (1994) Paleosols in shallow marine carbonate sequences. Earth-Sci Rev 35:367–395
Zagorchev I (2001) Introduction to the geology of Southwestern Bulgaria. Geol Balc 31:3–52
Acknowledgements
I thank K. Metodieva (Eurotest-Control, Sofia) for assisting during the field work. The detailed and constructive reviews by Eugene Rankey and Pascal Kindler are greatly acknowledged.
Funding
No.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
No.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chatalov, A. An ancient analogue of carbonate beach complex: the Upper Triassic limestones of Tran Formation, southwestern Bulgaria. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 111, 463–489 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-021-02124-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-021-02124-7