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Facies, depositional environments and drowning of Tethyan isolated carbonate platforms: the Paleogene carbonates of Malta

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Abstract

The < 900-m-thick Paleogene carbonates of the Maltese Islands and offshore wells comprise 16 facies grouped into 7 carbonate facies associations (TA, TB, TC, TD1, TD2, TE1 and TE2). Previous works misclassified facies as belonging to a carbonate ramp, which derailed hydrocarbon exploration. This study confirms that the 200-km-wide, flat-topped, Malta isolated carbonate platform consists of coarse-grained, platform margin sediments surrounding the muddy, shallow marine interior that was tectonically segmented by half graben during foreland extension. Dating by correlation to benthic foraminiferal zones reveals two > 15 Ma-long depositional hiatuses that bound the Eocene carbonates. Cyclic sediments are capped by Eocene gypsum beds and Oligocene palaeosols and were controlled by third-order sea level cycles. About 700 m of inner platform sediments accumulated from the Eocene (TA and TB) to the early Chattian (TC) until an abrupt and ubiquitous change to platform margin facies dominated by coralline red algae and subordinate corals (TD1). The succeeding transgressive rhodalgal biostrome (TD2) aggraded > 40 m and prograded into underfilled half graben, later capped by mobile dunes of large benthic foraminifera (TE1). Deeper water oligophotic to aphotic biota (TE2) draped over the platform by the late Chattian. Increased foreland subsidence and the spread of coarse-grained platform margin sediments signals the beginning of the drowning succession reflecting environmental stress, the decline of coral reef builders, reduced sedimentation rate and increased dispersal rates, culminating in hardgrounds along the drowning surface that terminated carbonate platform sedimentation by the end of the Chattian.

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Acknowledgements

BP and Total are thanked for providing well data. Thin sections were made at Durham University and analysed at Geoscience Malta Consulting. This study is partly based on the author’s PhD thesis. The Editor, Prof Maurice Tucker (Bristol) and reviewers are thanked for their support and suggestions.

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    Peter Gatt

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Gatt, P. Facies, depositional environments and drowning of Tethyan isolated carbonate platforms: the Paleogene carbonates of Malta. Facies 68, 9 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10347-022-00648-1

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