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Carbonate concretions in Miocene mudrocks in NW Algeria: types, geochemistry, and origins

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Abstract

Carbonate concretions have been recorded in many recent and ancient marine sediments around the world. The Middle Miocene marl of the Tenes area, situated in the northeast of the Lower Chelif Basin in NW-Algeria, contains such carbonate concretions but with a variety of different structures and morphologies. Three different basic types are distinguished: nodular (spheroidal, ellipsoidal, disc, and irregular), stratiform, and tubular concretions, the last locally have a central conduit. The close association between carbonate concretions and synsedimentary deformation structures (synsedimentary faults, slumps) and normal faults, pronounced in the Ounsour Anhas outcrop, indicates synsedimentary instability related to upward fluid movement. The concretions were formed by precipitation of micritic carbonate within the host marl at shallow burial depth, probably in the active microbial methanogenesis zone. Strongly varying δ13C values (− 9.82 to + 5.85‰ PDB) are interpreted as the result of the balance between 13C-enriched (residual CO2 from methanogenesis) and 13C-depleted (microbial organic matter decomposition) CO2 added to the pore solutions. δ18O values (− 2.39 to + 1.71‰ PDB) indicate that carbonate concretion growth occurred during early diagenesis conditions, from marine-derived pore-water.

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Modified from Brives (1913)

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Acknowledgements

This study is a part of the PhD thesis of A. Nemra, funded by the Algerian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. The authors wish to thank Radouane Sadji (Oran, Algeria) for his help during the field work, John Noel Hooker (Penn State University, United States) for helpful discussions, and Birgit Leipner-Mata for preparation of thin-sections. We are also grateful to Mattia Pizzati (Parma, Italy) and an anonymous reviewer for their very constructive comments that helped us to improve the manuscript. A special thank goes to the editor-in-Chief Maurice Tucker (Bristol) for his great help.

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  1. Laboratoire de Paléontologie Stratigraphique et Paléoenvironnements, Université Mohamed Ben Ahmed Oran 2, El-M’naouer, BP 1524, 31000, Oran, Algeria

    Abdelkrim Nemra, Abdelkader Ouali Mehadji & Lahcen Belkebir

  2. GeoZentrum Nordbayern, FG Paläoumwelt, Loewenichstr. 28, 91054, Erlangen, Germany

    Axel Munnecke

  3. Laboratoire de Géodynamique des Bassins et Bilan Sédimentaire, Université Mohamed Ben Ahmed Oran 2, Bir El Djir, BP 1524, 31000, Oran, Algeria

    Salim Belkhedim

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  1. Abdelkrim Nemra
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Nemra, A., Ouali Mehadji, A., Munnecke, A. et al. Carbonate concretions in Miocene mudrocks in NW Algeria: types, geochemistry, and origins. Facies 65, 17 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10347-019-0559-2

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