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Transition from alluvial to coastal deposits (Permian–Triassic) on the Island of Mallorca, western Mediterranean

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

Amparo Ramos
Amparo Ramos
Affiliation:
Departamento de Estratigrafía, Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense, 28040 Madrid, Spain
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Abstract

Non-marine redbeds (Permian and Triassic) in the island of Mallorca consist of a 0.4 km-thick alluvial succession that passes upwards into siliciclastic–carbonate coastal deposits. Tectonics and sealevel changes have been the main influences in their evolution. Low in this succession (the ‘Areniscas y lutitas de Port des Canonge’ unit) sandstone sheets with lateral accretion surfaces (macroscale inclined strata) and mudstones with frequent exposure structures are interpreted as the products of a sinuous alluvial system and floodplain. Climatic fluctuations are considered to be responsible for some significant up-section changes in the evolution of the alluvial deposits. Low-angle or horizontally stratified sandy units, interpreted as the result of flash floods, alternate upwards with point-bar deposits in the ‘Areniscas de Asá’. The hydrological response to minor climatic changes was evidently nearly instantaneous due to the lack of significant vegetation cover.

During accumulation of mudstones and sandstones of the overlying ‘Lutitas y Areniscas de Son Serralta’ unit, the interpreted environment of deposition changed from a distal braidplain, mainly constructed by superposition of sandy bedforms with straight or linguoid crestlines in low sinuosity river channels, into a coastal plain with evidence of both continental and marine influences. The overlying carbonate platform (Muschelkalk) marks the development of a more homogeneous marine environment resulting from the Tethyan transgressive event that affected the whole peri-Mediterranean realm during the Anisian (middle Triassic).

Type
Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 132 , Issue 4 , July 1995 , pp. 435 - 447
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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