The Tethyan plume: geochemical diversity of Middle Permian basalts from the Oman rifted margin.

International audienceAccording to palinspastic reconstructions, the Neo-Tethys opening took place during the Permian between the Cimmerian fragments in the north and the Indo-Arabian margin in the south. Igneous remnants of this opening are exposed in Oman within either the Hawasina nappes or the para-autochtonous Arabian platform exposed in the Saih Hatat tectonic window. They consist predominantly of pillowed basaltic flows among which three groups have been distinguished. Group 1 is tholeiitic and characterized by low TiO2 and incompatible trace element contents, and a large range of εNdi values. Group 1 basalts are associated with distal sediments and plot near the boundary of or within the MORB field in the Pb–Pb correlation diagrams and between the MORB and Bulk Silica Earth (BSE) fields in εNdi–(206Pb/204Pb)i diagram. Group 2 basalts are alkaline and differ from Group 1 ones by their higher TiO2, La and Nb contents, and lower and more homogeneous εNdi values (+3 to +5). Group 2 volcanics are similar to alkali basalts from oceanic islands and share with Group 1 similar initial Pb ratios. Group 3 consists of tholeiitic and alkali basalts which are interbedded either with carbonate-platform sediments from the Saih Hatat window or with distal sediments from the Hawasina Nappes. This group differs from Groups 1 and 2 by its low to negative εNdi (+1.6 to −2). Group 1 likely derived from the mixing of depleted and enriched sources while Group 2 derived exclusively from an enriched source. There is no indication that continental crust was involved in the genesis of both Groups 1 and 2. In contrast, the low to negative εNdi values of Group 3 suggest that the magmas of this group were contaminated by the Arabian continental crust during their ascent. The geochemical features of the Middle Permian plume-related basalts suggest thus that the basement of the Hawasina basin was not genuine oceanic crust but either the thinned Arabian rifted continental margin or the continent–ocean transition zone of the Neo-Tethys

Recognition of massive Upper Cretaceous carbonate bodies as olistoliths using rudist bivalves as internal bedding indicators (Campanian Merfeg Formation, Central Tunisia)

The Merfeg Formation (upper Campanian) of Central Tunisia crops out around the southwestern periclinal termination of Jebel el Kébar, near Sidi Bouzid. At its base is a massively bedded unit of locally dolomitized, sparsely fossiliferous micritic to microbioclastic limestone that contains several discrete, plurimetric mound-like bodies (lithosomes) of micritic limestone containing locally abundant rudists and corals. The lithosomes are separated laterally from one another by megabreccias and conglomerates containing clasts of similar lithology and are overlain, with sharp contact, by onlapping argillaceous pelagic limestones, within which are intercalated at least two more, somewhat thinner rudist/coral limestone units. This complex of facies is laterally equivalent to thicker, deep platform limestones of the Abiod Formation to the north and east, and to restricted carbonate platform facies of the Berda Formation to the south and west. The lithosomes have previously been interpreted as in situ downslope mudmounds that became capped by rudist and coral formations, cemented, and then surrounded by erosively emplaced debris flows. However, our detailed studies of rudist orientations imply variable and in some cases relatively high angles of bedding within the lithosomes with respect to the regional dip of the host strata. Such steep inclinations of internal bedding are unlikely to have been primary. Accordingly, we propose an alternative interpretation that the lithosomes were platform-derived olistoliths, emplaced along with the associated debris flow deposits. Micritic beds, neighbouring the olistoliths are of variable thickness and contain rare large inoceramids and randomly oriented rudists, as well as locally developed microbioclastic beds with planar and small-scale swaley cross stratification. These micritic and microbioclastic beds are, by contrast, interpreted as primary (i.e., non-olistostromal) slope deposits. Whether the proposed catastrophic collapses of the original platform margin were induced by sea-level fall or seismically triggered (or a combination of the two) remains uncertain