Sedimentology and depositional environments of the Ordovician Umm Sahm Sandstone Formation in southern Jordan

Abstract

The Ordovician Umm Sahm Sandstone Formation of Jordan comprises approximately 200-m-thick succession of fluvial quartzarenites with subordinate claystone and siltstone lithologies of shallow marine conditions. The Umm Sahm Formation is characterized by its dark brown color, frequent jointing, and steep scarps. The Umm Sahm Formation is bounded by the marine claystones of Hiswah Formation at the top and the fluvial sandstones of the Disi Formation at the bottom. The Umm Sahm Formation is composed of two main facies: fluvial facies and tidal facies. The fluvial facies constitutes about 93% of the total thickness. The lower few meters of the succession passes upward from the Disi Sandstone Formation into similar massive white sandstone facies exhibiting similar white color, fine- to coarse-grained sandstone, with round-shaped pebbles. Trough and planar cross-bedding show a northwest unidirectional palaeocurrent trend. Light brown colored quartzarenites similar to those of the Cambrian Umm Ishrin Sandstone Formation are most common in the upper part of the succession. The tidal facies occupies three intervals in the middle part of the succession. It is composed of laminated and thin-bedded sandstones, siltstones, and claystones. They are rippled and varicolored with abundant trace fossils (Cruziana, Harlania, ruzophycus). The presence of hummocky cross stratification indicates the earliest short-lived tempestite conditions during the Paleozoic erathem of Jordan. The first appearance of Graptolites in the Ordovician rocks of Jordan was recorded during this study in the tidal facies of the Umm Sahm Formation. The vertical arrangement of both fluvial and tidal facies indicates three successive short-lived transgressions and regressions. These marine incursions indicate the successive shoreline advances of the Tethys Ocean, which was located northward, and inundated the southern braid plain. The three short-lived transgressive events took place, and the Tethys marine margin was displaced southward, giving rise to deposition of tidal facies in an open coast tidal flat. Following the transgressive events, renewed progradation and strandline retreat took place, fed by large amounts of siliciclastics derived from the continent and transported by braided streams across the intertidal zone.