Late Cretaceous sea level rise and inversion: their influence on the depositional environment between Aachen and Antwerp

Pluridisciplinary investigations on Upper Cretaceous (Santonian to Maastrichtian) in the Aachen-Antwerp area (NE Belgium, SE Netherlands and Aachen area of Federal Republic of Germany) have revealed the rather complex sedimentary history of the same. Correlations between different lithologies are based on bioclasts, foraminifera, ostracodes, belemnites and petrophysical borehole logs. Deposition was controlled by continuous sea level rise during the Santonian to late Upper Maastrichtian and by tectonic movements (inversion of subsidence since the Lower Campanian, relaxation of the inversion since the middle Upper Maastrichtian, differential warping of blocks to the south of the Rur Valley area notaby during the Upper Campanian to early Upper Maastrichtian).A major change in the fossil assemblages at the onset of the middle Upper Maastrichtian is noticed in the appearance of mediterranean elements, in a dramatic change in the quantitative composition of bioclast assemblages, and in a rather abrupt and pronounced diversification of most fossil groups. This change matches the beginning relaxation of the inversion in the Rur Valley area and it is interpreted as one of several regional, tectonically induced ecostratigraphical events