Microfacies, biostratigraphy, and geochemistry of the hemipelagic Barremian–Aptian in north-central Tunisia: Influence of the OAE 1a on the southern Tethys margin

Upper Barremian–lower Upper Aptian hemipelagic deposits of the Hamada Formation in the Djebel Serdj area, north-central Tunisia were studied in detail with regard to microfacies, biostratigraphy, δ¹³C stratigraphy, and geochemistry. Our data provide insights into the palaeoenvironmental evolution and sea-level fluctuations of the Tunisian shelf. The unusually expanded deposits consist of mud-, wacke-, and packstones which reflect mid- and outer-ramp depositional environments. Planktonic foraminifer and δ¹³C stratigraphy allowed us to establish a detailed time-frame and the recognition of the Lower Aptian Oceanic Anoxic Event 1a (OAE 1a) as well as time-equivalent deposits of shallow-marine carbonate-platform drowning. Based on our microfacies studies, we subdivide the studied sections into four genetic intervals: a pre-OAE 1a interval, an OAE 1a and platform-drowning-equivalent interval, and a post-platform-drowning interval. We present a 3rd-order sea-level curve for the Tunisian shelf, deriving from the results of our microfacies studies.

Deposits of the OAE 1a in the sections investigated are characterised by bioclastic wacke- and packstones with high abundances of poorly preserved radiolarians and moderately to well preserved planktonic foraminifers, suggesting a transgression and an eutrophication of the upper water column. Scarceness of benthic macrofossils, low abundances of small benthic foraminifers and ostracods possibly suggest dysoxic conditions at the seafloor. Mudstones of the platform-drowning time-equivalent deposits, directly overlying the OAE 1a, are partly showing a pronounced drop in carbonate content and are scarce of macrofossils.