Late Cretaceous and Early Paleocene Lacustrine Episodes in the Provence Basin, Southern France
- Autores: Isabelle Cojan
- Localización: Lake basins through space and time / coord. por Elizabeth H. Gierlowski-Kordesch, K. Kelts, 2000, ISBN 0891810528, págs. 317-322
- Idioma: inglés
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Resumen
During Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary times, southern France was characterized by continental sedimentation. In Provence, the continental episode extended from the end of the Santonian to the Lutetian. The formations now crop out in east-west orientedsynclines such as the Aix-en-Provence, Rians, and Salernes synclines (Figure 1).
The depositional environment is interpreted as floodplain sediments that pass into lacustrine carbonatesor interfinger with proximal alluvial fan deposits.This pattern is repeated several times through the continentalsedimentation period (Durand, 1980; Lapparent,1938; Collot, 1890). The two lacustrine episodesconsidered here are the Calcaire de Rognac Formationand the Calcaire de Vitrolles Formation, which wererespectively deposited during the middle Maastrichtianand early Paleocene (Figure 2).
Regional paleogeography corresponded to adrainage network of parallel valleys, flowing into amajor valley (Aix-en-Provence), Fluvial deposits arecharacteristic of a distal braided system in a low floodplain,and the lacustrine formations testify to relativelyshallow lakes or palustrine environments (Cojan,1993).
