DINOFLAGELLATE CYSTS, PALYNOFACIES AND OR GANIC GEO …asgp.pl/sites/default/files/volumes/84_3_235_247.pdf · 2017-05-30 · dinoflagellate cysts, palynofacies and or ganic geo chem

Annales Societatis Geologorum Poloniae (2014), vol. 84: 235–247.

DINOFLAGELLATE CYSTS, PALYNOFACIES AND OR GANICGEO CHEM IS TRY OF THE CRE TA CEOUS-PALAEOGENE (K–Pg)

BOUND ARY TRAN SI TION AT THE ELLêS SEC TION,NORTH EAST ERN TUNISIA

Amel M’HAMDI1, Hamid SLIMANI2, Kmar BEN ISMAIL-LATTRACHE1& Walid BEN ALI1

1 Uni ver sity Tunis El Manar, Fac ulty of Sci ences of Tu nis, De part ment of Ge ol ogy, UR 11 ES 15 Cam pus Universitaire,2092, El Manar II, Tu ni sia; e-mail: mhamdiamel25@ya hoo.fr

2 De part ment of Earth Sci ences, Lab o ra tory of Ge ol ogy and Re mote Sens ing, URAC 46, Sci en tific In sti tute,Uni ver sity Mo ham med V-Agdal, av e nue Ibn-Batouta, P.B. 703, 10106 Ra bat-Agdal, Mo rocco

M’Hamdi, A., Slimani, H., Ben Ismail-Lattrache, K. & Ben Ali, W. 2014. Dinoflagellate cysts, palynofacies andor ganic geo chem is try of the Cre ta ceous-Palaeogene (K–Pg) bound ary tran si tion at the EllÀs sec tion, north east ernTu ni sia. Annales Societatis Geologorum Poloniae, 84: 235–247.

Ab stract: A palynofacies study car ried out across the Cre ta ceous–Palaeogene (K–Pg) bound ary in the El HariaFor ma tion at EllÀs, north east ern Tu ni sia, re vealed the pres ence of or ganic mat ter dom i nated by ma rine palyno-morphs, mainly dinoflagellate cyst as sem blages. Con ti nen tal palynomorphs (sporomorphs) and amor phous or ga-nic mat ter (AOM) are also pres ent in all sam ples. The to tal or ganic car bon (TOC) con tent is gen er ally less than 0.7 wt.%. The Rock-Eval S1 pa ram e ters vary from 0.01 to 0.3 mgHC/g rock. The Rock-Eval S2 pa ram e ters vary from0.15 to 0.57 mgHC/g rock. The hy dro gen in dex (HI) and ox y gen in dex (OI) val ues range from 61 to 214 mgHC/gTOC and 149 to 638 mgHC/g TOC, re spec tively. The Tmax val ues range from 420 to 440°C. The TOC, Rock-Eval py rol y sis and palynofacies anal y ses in di cate that the El Haria For ma tion is char ac ter ized by im ma tureor ganic mat ter type II and III and a low ther mal al ter ation in dex (TAI). Also, the au thors pres ent in this pa per thebiostratigraphic, palaeoenvironmentl and palaeobiogeographic frame work for the dinoflagellate cyst as sem blagesbe low and above the Cre ta ceous–Palaeogene bound ary in the EllÀs sec tion.

Key words: Cre ta ceous–Palaeogene (K–Pg) bound ary, dinoflagellate cysts; palynofacies, or ganic mat ter, EllÀssec tion; Tu ni sia.

Manu script re ceived 16 April 2014, accepted 1 September 2014

IN TRO DUC TION

The EllÀs sec tion al ready has been the sub ject of sev eral stud ies, based on min er al ogy, geo chem is try (Adatte et al.,2002; Stüben et al., 2002), biostratigraphy of plank tonic andben thic foraminifera (Said-Benzarti, 1978; Karoui-Yaa-koub, 1999; Zaaghbib-Turki et al., 2000, 2001; Karoui-Yaakoub et al., 2002; Coccioni and Marsili, 2007) and cal -car e ous nannofossils (Gardin, 2002). This sec tion has beenpro posed as a parastratotype and even as a new stratotype of the K–Pg bound ary (Zaaghbib-Turki et al., 2000, 2001; Ka- roui-Yaakoub et al., 2002), since it con tains, ac cord ing tothe lat ter au thors, one of the most com plete Cre ta ceous–Palaeogene (K–Pg) bound ary tran si tion and is better expo-sed than the El Kef stratotype sec tion. Re cent palynologicalstud ies, based on dinoflagellate cyst (dinocyst) as sem blages from this sec tion, in di cated con tin u ous sed i men ta tion in theK–Pg tran si tion (M’Hamdi et al., 2013a) and per mit tedpalaeoenvironmental and palaeobiogeographical in ter pre ta -tions (M’Hamdi et al., 2013b, in press; M’Hamdi, 2014).

The aim of this pa per is to pres ent an anal y sis of the pa-lynofacies and geo chem is try, which com bines Rock-Evalpy rol y sis and TOC mea sure ments at the K–Pg bound arytran si tion in the EllÀs sec tion.

GEO LOG I CAL BACK GROUND

The EllÀs sec tion is lo cated near the small set tle ment ofEllÀs, be tween the cit ies of Siliana and Maktar, about 137 km from Tu nis, 43 km from El Kef and 65 km from Kalaat Senan (Fig. 1). This sec tion is well ex posed in the EllÀs Syncline (Per-vinquiÀre, 1903), with a com plete Cre ta ceous–Palaeogene tran -si tion. The sec tion sam pled is ori ented NW–SE, be tween Ar-goubet el AÎeicha and Jebel Madkour. It is sim i lar to the sec -tion, stud ied by Zaaghbib-Turki et al. (2000, 2001). Its Lam -bert co or di nates on the Maktar map (scale 1/50000) are: 426/295.7; 426.5/294.1. Spe cif i cally, it has the geo graphic co- or -di nates: N35°56'40.4", E009°04'49.9" (Carthage) and N3977974, E507310 (UTM co or di nates) at an al ti tude of 725 m.

The EllÀs sec tion is sit u ated in the Karma Val ley, Tu ni -sian Cen tral At las. Its palaeogeographic set ting is sim i lar tothat of the El Kef sec tion. Both lo cal i ties were sit u ated onthe south ern mar gin of the Tethys Ocean, on the Af ri cancontinental shelf. The sed i ments in this sec tion were de pos -ited at wa ter depths, cor re spond ing to the mid dle to outershelf, rel a tively close to the emerged zone of Kasserine Is -land (Burollet, 1956; Adatte et al., 2002; Galeotti and Co-ccioni, 2002; Gardin, 2002; Karoui-Yaakoub et al., 2002;Keller et al., 2002; Coccioni and Marsili, 2007). This sec -tion is lo cated in a slightly more prox i mal po si tion than theEl Kef sec tion, with a gen er ally higher terrigenous con tentand hence a sed i men ta tion rate ex ceed ing that of the El Kefsec tion (Adatte et al., 2002; Stüben et al., 2002). The EllÀssec tion con tains one of the most com plete K–Pg bound arytran si tions in Tu ni sia.

MA TE RIAL AND METH ODS

Sam ple prov e nance

This study fo cuses on only 2 m of marly and clay de -pos its around the Cre ta ceous–Palaeogene bound ary, expo-sed at the EllÀs sec tion. This in ter val ex tends from 92 cmbe low to 108 cm above the K–Pg bound ary and in cludes the Maastrichtian–Danian tran si tion. Among the twenty-fivesamples col lected, eleven are from the up per most Maastri-chtian marls and four teen from the Danian clays and marls,with tighter sam pling near the K–Pg bound ary (Fig. 2).

Palynological prep a ra tion

In to tal, 25 sam ples from the EllÀs sec tion were proce-ssed, fol low ing stan dard palynological pro cess ing tech -niques. Pro cess ing in volved an ini tial treat ment of 50 g of

236 A. M’HAMDI ET AL.

Fig. 1. Lo ca tion of study area. A, B. Geo graph ical lo ca tion of the EllÀs sec tion in north east ern Tu ni sia. C. Geo log i cal set ting of the sec -tion stud ied. D. De tail lo ca tion of the EllÀs area. Adapted from the geo log i cal map of Tu ni sia, 1:500,000 (Ben Haj Ali et al., 1985).

sed i ment per sam ple with cold HCl (20%), fol lowed by di -ges tion in HF (40% at 70°C), to dis solve the car bon ates andsil i cates, re spec tively. The sam ples were rinsed with dis til-led wa ter un til neu tral be tween the acid treat ments. Silico-flu o rides were re moved in warm HCl (20%). The res i dueswere sieved on a ny lon screen with a mesh of 15 µm andmounted in glyc er ine jelly on mi cro scope slides. Pho to mi -cro graphs of palynomorphs were taken with a dig i tal Olym -pus C-400 Zoom cam era, mounted on an Olym pus BX53mi cro scope. The tax on omy of the dinoflagellate cyst spe -cies is based on Dinoflaj 2 (Fensome et al., 2008) andSlimani et al. (2008, 2010, 2012). All sam ples were pre -pared at the De part ment of Ge ol ogy, Fac ulty of Sci ences, atthe Uni ver sity of Tu nis (Tu ni sia), with ad di tional prep a ra -tion (di ges tion of silicofluori- des, siev ing, slide prep a ra -tion) at the Lab o ra tory of Ge ol ogy and Re mote Sens ing,Sci en tific In sti tute of Ra bat (Mo rocco).

For the quan ti ta tive anal y sis, two ra tios that are of ten used as palaeoenvironmental prox ies were cal cu lated (Fig. 3). The

ra tio be tween num bers of autotrophic and heterotrophic dino-cycts or peridinioid/gonyaulacoid (P/G) dinocyst ra tio (P/G = nP/(nP+nG) sensu Versteegh (1994) pro vided in for ma tionabout the sea-sur face pro duc tiv ity. The sporomorph/dinocyst (S/D) ra tio (S/D = nS/(nD+nS) sensu Versteegh (1994), with S = num ber of spores and pol len and D = dinocysts and acritarchs, was used to es ti mate the con ti nen tal in flu ence.

The quan ti fi ca tion of the kerogen con tent and com po si -tion was car ried out in or der to ana lyse the palynofacies. Atleast 300 par ti cles were counted in each sam ple, fol low ingTyson (1995), to dif fer en ti ate three groups: amor phous or -ganic mat ter (AOM), phytoclasts (black and trans lu centmat ter) and palynomorphs (dinocysts, acritarchs, or ganic li- nings of foraminiferal tests and spores and pol len grains).

Geo chem i cal pro ce dures

The to tal or ganic car bon (TOC) con tent and Rock-Evalpa ram e ters were de ter mined at the Lab o ra tory of Or ganic

CRE TA CEOUS-PALAEOGENE (K–Pg) BOUND ARY TRAN SI TION 237

Fig. 2. Lith o logic de scrip tion, cal cium car bon ate con tent (CaCO3) and to tal or ganic car bon (TOC) of the Cre ta ceous–Palaeogenebound ary tran si tion at the EllÀs sec tion, north east ern Tu ni sia. TOC – to tal or ganic car bon.

Geo chem is try of the Tu ni sian Oil Com pany. The Rock-Evalanal y ses were per formed us ing the in stru ment Rock-Eval II,fol low ing the pro ce dures pro posed by Espitalie et al. (1977).

STRATI GRAPHIC FRAME WORK

The sub di vi sion, used here for the EllÀs sec tion, fol lows Zaaghbib-Turki et al. (2000, 2001) and Karoui-Yaakoub etal. (2002) on lithostratigraphy and plank tonic foraminifera,Gardin (2002) and Coccioni and Marsili (2007) on cal car e -ous nannofossils and M’Hamdi et al. (2013a) and M’Hamdi (2014) on dinoflagellate cysts.

Lithostratigraphy

The Cre ta ceous–Palaeogene bound ary sec tion of EllÀsbe gins, in the up per most me ters of the Maastrichtian de pos -its of the El Haria For ma tion (Burollet, 1956), with graymarls (CaCO3 con tent 30–60%) con tain ing gyp sum andFe-ox ides. These marls end up wards with an irid ium-richlayer, mark ing the fall out from the Chicxulub im pact eventand the K–Pg bound ary. This irid ium-rich layer con sists ofa rusty red layer, 2–3 mm thick and rich in Fe-ox ides(Adatte et al., 2002). Cos mic mark ers, such as an anom a -

lous con cen tra tion in Ir, Ni-rich spi nels and al tered mi cro-tek tites, are also pres ent in this thin layer (Gardin, 2002).Just above the layer, the Palaeo cene suc ces sion be gins witha bound ary clay layer, dark and 50 cm thick (CaCO3 con tent 10%). In its basal part it is rich in jarosite nod ules, Fe-ox -ides and gyp sum, but en riched to ward the top in beige nod u -lar car bon ate in ter ca la tions. This unit is over lain by 5.8 m of gray marls, rich in jarosite con cre tions. This study fo cuseson 2 m of de pos its around the K–Pg bound ary of the EllÀssec tion (Fig. 2).

Biostratigraphy

Most microfossil stud ies re al ized in the EllÀs sec tioncon cern foraminifera, nannofossils and dinoflagellate cysts. In the top metres of the up per most Maastrichtian marls,planktonic and ben thic foraminifera are abun dant, var iedand char ac ter ise the plank tonic foraminiferal Abathompha-lus mayaroensis (CF1) Zone. The foraminiferal group un -der goes pro gres sive dis ap pear ances, al ready from 4 m be -low the K–Pg bound ary and up wards, and then a mass ex -tinc tion at the K–Pg bound ary. About two-thirds of the spe -cies dis ap peared and a third sur vived above the bound ary.A gradual re newal led to the es tab lish ment of the typ i cal as -so ci a tions of the Palaeo cene. The basal Palaeo cene clays


Fig. 3. Rel a tive abun dances of se lected spe cies and groups of mor pho log i cally re lated spe cies, biozones, bioevents, di ver sity pat ternsand palaeoenvironmental changes of dinoflagellate cysts across the Cre ta ceous–Palaeogene bound ary at the EllÀs sec tion, north east ernTu ni sia. P/G – peridinioid/gonyaulacoid dinocyst ra tio sensu Versteegh (1994) (P/G = nP/(nP+nG), S/D – sporomorph/dinocyst ra tiosensu Versteegh (1994) (S/D = nS/(nD+nS), with S – num ber of spores and pol len and D – dinocysts and acritarchs.

contain a fauna, char ac ter is tic of the plank tonic foramini-feral Globoconusa conusa (P0) Zone. The Parvularugoglo-bigerina eugubina (P1a) Zone be gins at the end of the Pala-eocene marls, at about 67 cm above the irid ium-rich layer(Zaaghbib-Turki et al., 2000, 2001; Karoui-Yaakoub et al.,2002).

The K–Pg in ter val stud ied cor re sponds to the Up perMaastrichtian cal car e ous nannofossil Nephrolithus fre-quens Zone (Miculaprinsii Subzone [CC26b]) and the Lo-wer Danian NP1 Zone (Gardin, 2002).

The dinoflagellate cyst as sem blages in di cate con tin u -ous sed i men ta tion in the in ter val of the sec tion stud ied.They per mit the K–Pg bound ary to be placed just above theup per most Maastrichtian global marker acme of Manumie-lla seelandica and the high est oc cur rence of a few Cretace-ous taxa, such as Dinogymnium spp., Alisogymnium eucla-ense and Pterodinium cretaceum, and di rectly be low thelow est oc cur rence of the basal Danian mark ers

Damassadinium californicum, Membranilarnacia? te-nella, Senoniasphaera inornata and Carpatella cornuta.The quan ti ta tive anal y sis of the dinoflagellate cyst as so ci a -tions does not re flect a dis tinct ex tinc tion at the K–Pg boun-dary, but shows sig nif i cant changes in the rel a tive abun -dance of spe cies or groups of spe cies that are mor pho log i -cally re lated.

The lithostratigraphy and plank tonic foraminiferal(Zaaghbib-Turki et al., 2000, 2001; Karoui-Yaakoub et al.,2002), cal car e ous nannofossil (Gardin, 2002) and dinofla-gellate cyst (M’Hamdi et al., 2013a, b, in press; M’Hamdi,2014) biostratigraphy to gether con firm a com plete re cord of the K–Pg bound ary tran si tion at EllÀs.

PALAEOENVIRONMENTAL ANDPALAEOBIOGEOGRAPHIC FRAME -

WORK OF DINOFLAGELLATE CYSTS

The Maastrichtian–Danian tran si tion in the EllÀs sec tionshows im por tant changes in the rel a tive abun dances of mor -pho log i cally re lated dinoflagellate cysts, prob a bly reflec-ting changes in palaeoenvironmental con di tions (M’Hamdi et al., 2013b, in press; M’Hamdi, 2014). The Up per Maa-strichtian marls con tain dinoflagellate cyst as sem blages, cha-racterized by a great abun dance of the Cordosphaeridiumand Glaphyrocysta groups (Brinkhuis and Zachariasse, 1988; Eshet et al., 1992; Slimani et al., 2010). Both groups thrivedin a shal low ma rine en vi ron ment. The great est abun dance(50–65%) of Manumiella seelandica in the up per most part of the Up per Maatrichtian (Fig. 3) in di cates a deep ma rine en vi -ron ment un der a re gres sive re gime dur ing cool cli ma tic con -di tions Habib and Saeedi (2007), caused by the as tro nom i calevent, re corded at the K–Pg bound ary event. A sim i lar acmeof Manumiella seelandica was ob served by Strong et al.(1977), Wil son (1978), Firth (1987), Habib and Saeedi(2007), Slimani et al. (2010), Slimani and Toufiq (2013) andMohamed et al. (2013).

In the lower Danian sed i ments, the de crease in abun -dance of Manumiella seelandica and the Glaphyrocysta and Cordosphaeridium groups and the abrupt rel a tive in creasein Areoligera spp., es pe cially in the basal Danian, a great

rel a tive abun dance of Senegalinium spp. (Fig. 3) and Spini-ferites group sensu Slimani et al. (2010), and the greatabundance of dinoflagellate cyst spe cies in di cate more open ma rine con di tions un der a transgressive re gime (Brinkhuisand Zachariasse, 1988; Slimani et al., 2010).

The P/G ra tio (peridinoid/gonyaulcoid ra tio of dinofla-gellate cysts sensu Versteegh, 1994) var ies be tween 0.3 and0.55 in the Up per Maastrichtian, de creases sharply at theK–Pg bound ary and sub se quently in creases in the Danian to achieve val ues sim i lar to those of the Cre ta ceous (Fig. 3).The in crease of the P/G ra tio within the Danian in di cates anin crease in food and palaeoproductivity (Brinkhuis et al.,1998). The peridinoid group con sists of heterotrophic dino-flag el lates, such as Senegalinium spp., Palaeocystodiniumspp. and Andalusiella spp.

The dinoflagellate cyst as sem blages of the Maastrich-tian–Danian tran si tion in the EllÀs sec tion re flect pro nounced pro vin cial ism. The dom i nance of dinoflagellate cyst taxa ofthe Malloy suite (Lentin and Wil liams, 1980), such as spe cies of Lejeunecysta, Cerodinium, Andalusiella and Senegalinium (Figs 7, 8) in di cate de po si tion in a sub trop i cal to warm- tem -per ate prov ince (M’Hamdi et al., 2013b, in press; M’Hamdi,2014). Sim i lar as sem blages have been ob served in otherTethyan ar eas by Brinkhuis and Zachariasse (1988), DeConinck and Smit (1982), Rauscher and Doubinger (1982),Soncini and Rauscher (1988), Soncini (1990), Slimani et al.(2010) and Slimani and Toufiq (2013).

RE SULTS

Palynofacies anal y sis

The dis tri bu tion of palynofacies in the EllÀs sec tion was eval u ated on the ba sis of qual i ta tive and quan ti ta tive anal y -ses of dis persed or ganic con stit u ents. In the ma jor ity of thesam ples, palynomorphs (con ti nen tal and ma rine), amor -phous or ganic mat ter (AOM) and phytoclasts (P) are pres -ent. Dinoflagellate cysts dom i nate the to tal palynofacies.The chorate and prox i mate dinoflagellate groups are pres ent through out the en tire sec tion. The abun dances of bothgroups are rel a tively con stant through out the Maastrichtianand Danian stages.

Acritarchs are pres ent, but rarer than dinoflagellate cysts. The foraminiferal test lin ings group is pres ent through outmuch of the sec tion. Pol len and spores are rare in this sec tion. AOM was re corded con stantly through out the sec tion.

Ma rine palynomorphs ac count for more than 80% ofthe to tal or ganic mat ter. These palynomorphs are good in di -ca tors of ma rine con di tions (Tyson, 1995). The pres ence ofthe foraminiferal test lin ings and acritarchs con firm the ex -is tence of ma rine con di tions dur ing sed i men ta tion.

All of the or ganic com po nents counted were plot ted inthe AOM-Phytoclast-Palynomorph ter nary di a gram of Ty-son (1993) in Fig ure 4A. Dif fer ent pro por tions of the com -po nents of this or ganic mat ter in di cate that the palynofaciesis dom i nated by palynomorphs (65%).

The or ganic mat ter ob served is very abun dant and wellpre served. Pro jec tion of dif fer ent pro por tions of the or ganic mat ter com po nents in the palynofacies di a gram of Ronca-glia and Kuijpers (2006) shows that ma rine-de rived or ganic


mat ter is dom i nant (Fig. 4B). This is sup ported by the litho-log i cal char ac ter is tics and in ferred sed i men ta tion, namelyfor the most part marls and clay, rich in plank tonic foraminifera, re flect ing a deep ma rine en vi ron ment (Gallala, 2010).

The ma rine or ganic mat ter rep re sents 50% to 80% ofthe to tal or ganic mat ter in the palynofacies, and microplan-kton rep re sents 70% to 95% of the to tal palynomorphs. Thefre quency of spores and pol len grains does not ex ceed 12%.

The S/D ra tio, at the EllÀs sec tion is gen er ally low, notex ceed ing 12%. It reaches its max i mum at the K–Pg bound -ary, show ing a con ti nen tal in flu ence. The max i mum en rich -ment of ter res trial palynomorphs is re corded in sam pleEs11, just be low the K–Pg bound ary (Fig. 3). Ac cord ing toBrinkhuis and Zachariasse (1988), this in crease in abun -dance and at tain ment of peak pro por tions within the land-de rived or ganic mat ter is in ter preted as a re sult of a rap idlyre treat ing sea. This re gres sion, oc cur ring at the end of LateMaastrichtian, is also in di cated by the acme of Manumiellaseelandica just be low the K–Pg bound ary (Es 9–Es10)(M’Hamdi et al., 2013b, in press; M’Hamdi, 2014). Theacme of Manumiella seelandica re corded be low the K–Pgbound ary is re lated to a global cool ing (Habib and Saeedi,2007). In the lower Danian, there is a de crease in the abun -dance of ter res trial palynomorphs, whereas AOM is stillpres ent and the palynofacies is dom i nated by ma rine in di -ces. An abun dance of dinocysts and foraminiferal test lin -ings points to a rise in sea-level in the Danian. The palyno-morphs are dom i nated by peridinoid dinocyts, such as Sene- galinium spp., Lejeunecysta spp., Andalusiella spp., andCerodinium spp. The gonyaulacoid dinocysts are rep re -sented by Areoligera spp., Cordosphaeridium in spp. andSpiniferites spp. The pre dom i nance of peridinoid dinocystscited above re flects a pe riod of trans gres sion (Dam et al.,1998) and there fore an in crease in sea-sur face tem per a ture.This agrees with the re turn to rel a tively warm con di tions,

pre vi ously known to have oc curred dur ing the Danian(Brinkhuis et al., 1998; Slimani and Toufiq, 2013). Thesmall grain size of the Lower Danian clays re in forces the ar -gu ment for an in crease in sea level and de po si tion in an en -vi ron ment far ther off shore (Keller and Lindinger, 1989).

To tal or ganic car bon (TOC) and Rock-Eval py rol y sis

The geo chem i cal study in volved 12 sam ples from theK–Pg bound ary tran si tion in the EllÀs sec tion. The re sults of the TOC and Rock-Eval py rol y sis are given in Fig ure 5 andTa ble 1. The TOC con tent is gen er ally low and var ied be -tween 0.07 to 0.53 wt.%, in di cat ing a low or ganic car boncon tent (Pe ters and Cassa, 1994).

The Rock-Eval S1 and S2 pa ram e ters var ied from 0.02to 0.31 mgHC/g rock and 0.14 to 0.57 mgHC/g rock, re -spec tively (Fig. 5, Ta ble 1). The Tmax val ues ranged from420 to 440°C.The hy dro gen in dex (HI) and ox y gen in dex(OI) val ues ranged from 61 to 214 mgHC/g TOC and 149 to 638 mgHC/g TOC, re spec tively. They in di cate a ma rineplank tonic or ganic mat ter (Type II) al tered and/or mixedwith a con ti nen tal or ganic mat ter (type III). Ac cord ing toTissot et al. (1977), the low hy dro gen in dex val ues are pro-bably due to the con tri bu tion of or ganic mat ter type IIIand/or the poor pres er va tion of or ganic mat ter. The lowTmax val ues (420–440°C) in di cate an immature state of theorganic matter.

The pe tro leum po ten tial (PP) is also low, rang ing from0.14 to 0.57 kg HC/t rock with an av er age of 0.27 kg HC/trock. The PP/TOC di a gram shows that the El Haria For ma tiongen er ally has a low over all pe tro leum po ten tial (Ta ble 1).

The HI/Tmax and PI (pro duc tion in dex)/Tmax di a gramsin di cate that the or ganic mat ter is im ma ture. The PP/Tmax dia- gram shows that the sam ples are im ma ture in terms of ther malevo lu tion, which does not ex ceed the Tmax of 440° C (Ta ble 1).


Fig. 4. Palynofacies pro por tions in sam ples from the EllÀs sec tion as ex pressed by ter nary kerogen and palynomorph plots. A.AOM-Phytoclast-Palynomorph plot (Tyson, 1993), field I – kerogen type III, field II – kerogen type III, field III – kerogen type III or IV,field IV – kerogen type III or II, field V – kerogen type III IV, field VI – kerogen type II, field VII- kerogen type II, field VIII – kerogentype II I, field IX - kerogen type II I. B. AOM–PS–FDAO (Roncaglia and Kuijpers, 2006). AOM – amor phous or ganic mat ter, PS –phytoclasts + sporomorphs, FDAO – foraminifera lin ings + dinoflagellate cysts + acritarchs + other ma rine al gae.

Op ti cal meth ods: spore col or ation and ther malal ter ation in dex (TAI)

Mi cro scopic stud ies of or ganic mat ter are now widelyused for palaeoenvironmental re con struc tion, as well as forthe eval u a tion of source rocks and kerogen types (Staplin,1969; Fisher et al., 1980; Jones and Demaison, 1982; Bat -

ten, 1982, 1983; Van Bergen and Kerp, 1990; Bertrand etal., 1994; Tyson, 1995; Pavlus and Skupien, 2014). The re -sults of the study of or ganic mat ter ma tu rity and po ten tialhy dro car bons in the EllÀs sec tion are re ported in Ta ble 2.

The ob served sam ples show well-pre served or ganicmatter. It is gen er ally com posed of amor phous mat ter,palynomorphs in clud ing dinocysts, sea weed and al gae frag -


Ta ble 1

Rock-Eval anal y sis from sam ples at the EllÀs sec tion, north east ern Tu ni sia

Samples S1 (meg) S2 (meg) S3 (meg) PI Tmax (°C) IH IO TOC (%) PP

Es 19 0.03 0.22 0.96 0.11 432 61 267 0.36 0.22

Es 16 0.09 0.28 1.11 0.25 445 74 292 0.38 0.28

Es 15 0.02 0.25 0.52 0.09 431 71 149 0.35 0.27

Es 13 0.02 0.24 0.55 0.09 427 65 149 0.37 0.26

Es 12 0.06 0.39 0.95 0.13 436 74 179 0.53 0.39

Es 11 0.07 0.32 2.26 0.18 432 73 514 0.44 0.32

Es 9 0.05 0.21 0.67 0.18 435 131 419 0.16 0.21

Es 8 0.31 0.57 0.61 0.35 423 141 156 0.39 0.57

Es 7 0.1 0.23 0.68 0.3 439 70 206 0.33 0.23

Es 6 0.11 0.25 0.56 0.3 431 83 187 0.3 0.25

S1 – free oil, S2 – free oil by crack ing, S3 – CO2 pro duced dur ing crack ing, PI – pro duc tion in dex, Tmax – tem per a ture max i mum, IH – hydrogen in dex,IO – oxygen in dex, TOC – to tal or ganic car bon, PP – pe tro leum po ten tial.

Fig. 5. Quan ti ta tive and qual i ta tive char ac ter is tics of or ganic mat ter from the El Haria For ma tion at the EllÀs sec tion, north east ern Tu -ni sia. TOC – to tal or ganic car bon, Tmax – Py rol y sis max i mum tem per a ture, PP – pe tro leum po ten tial, HI – hy dro gen in dex.

ments, some spores and pol len and woody de bris with an gu -lar contours.

The rel a tive per cent age of or ganic frac tions is of tenvari able and some are rel a tively rich in woody de bris, re -flect ing a con ti nen tal in flu ence. The ma tu rity was as sessedon the ba sis of ob ser va tion in trans mit ted light. The sporecol or ation in dex (SCI) is in the or der of 1, the or ganic ma te -rial is con sid ered im ma ture and the spores have a yel low

color. The ap pear ance of palynomorphs is fresh and clearand the SCI is low vary ing be tween –1 and +1, and the ther -mal al ter ation in dex (TAI) is also low (Bat ten, 1996). Theor ganic mat ter (kerogen) is of type II and III. It is im ma tureand can gen er ate only gas. With re gard to the re sults of thesam ples stud ied from the EllÀs sec tion, the or ganic mat teras so ci ated with sed i ments of the El Haria For ma tion is wellpre served, but im ma ture.


Ta ble 2

Kerogen (trans mit ted light) in sam ples from the EllÀs sec tion, north east ern Tu ni sia

ELLêS SECTION

Substage Lthology Formation Samples Kerogen typeSpore colour

indexS.C.I.

Thermal alterationindex (TAI)

Preservation Maturity

Lower Danian

Marlylimestones

El Haria

Es 25

II-III yellow 1

1

good Immature

Es 22 1+

Clays

Es 20 1/1+

ES 18 1

ES 15 1–

Es 12 1–

UpperMaastrichtian

Marlylimestones

ES 6 1

Es 3 1

Es 1 1/1+

SCI – spore col or ation in dex.

Fig. 6. Geo chem i cal pa ram e ters from the K–Pg bound ary at EllÀs sec tion, north east ern Tu ni sia.


Fig. 7. Pho to mi cro graphs of dinoflagellate cysts from the Cre ta ceous–Palaeogene bound ary sec tion at EllÀs, north east ern Tu ni sia.Scale bar rep re sents 40 µm for all spec i mens. A. Riculacysta amplexa Kirsch, 1991, sam ple Es 1, slide 1, EF D44/1. B. Pterodiniumcretaceum Slimani et al., 2008, sam ple Es 7, slide 3, EF N65/4. C. Andalusiella mauthei subsp. punctata (Jain and Millepied, 1973)Masure et al., 1996, sam ple Es 7, slide 3, EF G49/3. D. Cribroperidinium septatum Hultberg, 1985, - sam ple Es 7, slide 3, EF R34/3. E.Trithyrodinium evittii Drugg, 1967, sam ple Es14, slide 2, EF Q29. F. Manumiella seelandica (Lange, 1969) Bujak and Davies, 1983, sam -ple Es 10, slide 2, EF W36. G. Cordosphaeridium fibrospinosum (Hultberg, 1985) Fensome et al., 1993, sam ple Es 1, slide 6, EF C36/4.H. Phelodinium pentagonale Corradini, 1973, sam ple Es12, slide 3, EF U31/3. I. Damassadinium californicum (Drugg, 1967) Fensome et al., 1993, sam ple Es 7, slide 3, EF U31/2. J. Deflandrea obliquipes (Deflandre and Cookson, 1955), sam ple Es 1, slide 1, EF C36/4 X40.K. Operculodinium israelianum (Rossignol, 1962) Wall, 1967, sam ple Es 7, slide 2, EF K27/2.


Fig. 8. Pho to mi cro graphs of dinoflagellate cysts and palynofacies from the Cre ta ceous–Palaeogene bound ary sec tion at EllÀs, north -east ern Tu ni sia. Scale bar in (A) rep re sents 40 µm for spec i mens (A–C, E), scale bar in (F) rep re sents 200 µm for D, F, G. A.Palaeocystodinium golzowense Al ber ti, 1961 – sam ple Es 7, slide 2, EF H41/2. B. Cerodinium pannaceum (Stan ley, 1965) Lentin andWil liams, 1987. sam ple Es 7, slide 3, EF X34/4. C. Andalusiella mauthei Riegel, 1974 subsp. punctata Jain and Millepied, 1973, sam pleE1, slide 6, EF Y39. D. Palynofacies as sem blages, abun dance of peridinoid cyst, sam ple Es 15. E. Cerodinium mediterraneum Slimani etal., 2008 – sam ple Es 7, slide 3 EF V46/2. F. Palynofacies as sem blages, sam ple Es 20.G. Abun dance of peridinoid cysts, sam ple Es 14.

CON CLU SIONS

The palynofacies study of the Cre ta ceous–Palaeogenetran si tion de pos its of the El Haria For ma tion at EllÀs, north -ern Tu ni sia, re vealed the pres ence of or ganic mat ter, dom i -nated by ma rine palynomorphs, con ti nen tal palynomorphs(sporomorphs) and amor phous or ganic mat ter. The palyno-morphs are dom i nated by dinoflagellate cysts, which are di -ver si fied and well pre served. The dinoflagellate cysts allo-wed biostratigraphic, palaeoenvironmental and palaeobio-geo graphic in ter pre ta tions of the K–Pg tran si tion at EllÀs(M’Hamdi et al., 2013a, b, in press; M’Hamdi, 2014).

The dis tri bu tion of the palynofacies is eval u ated on theba sis of qual i ta tive and quan ti ta tive anal y ses of the dis persedor ganic con stit u ents in the EllÀs sec tion. The palynomorphsare dominanted by dinoflagellate cysts; how ever, sporo-morphs are rare. In the AOM- Phytoclast- Palynomorph ter -nary di a grams of Tyson (1993), the dif fer ent pro por tions ofcom po nents of this or ganic mat ter in di cate that the palyno-fa cies is dom i nated by palynomorphs with higher pro por tions of 65%. Pro jec tions on the palynofacies di a gram of Ronca-glia and Kuijpers (2006) show that dif fer ent pro por tions ofthe com po nents of the or ganic mat ter are dom i nated by ma -rine-de rived or ganic mat ter, such as dinoflagellate cysts, acritarchs and foraminiferal test lin ings. In terms of palynofacies, this as so ci a tion is char ac ter ised by the dom i nance of ma rineor ganic mat ter, the pro por tion of which var ies be tween 50and 80%, and palynomorphs are dom i nated by microplank-ton. The palynofacies anal y sis sug gests a re gres sion at theend of the Late Maastrichtian, just be low the K–Pg bound ary, re lated to a global cool ing, and a trans gres sion, re lated to are turn to rel a tively warm con di tions in the Danian.

The geo chem i cal data from the EllÀs sec tion per mit thechar ac teri sa tion of the or ganic mat ter. The kerogen has lowTOC con tents (<7 wt.%) and is pre dom i nantly char ac ter ised by ma rine or ganic mat ter and ma rine palynomorphs, preser- ved in a ma rine en vi ron ment. The re sults (low val ues ofTOC, S2 and HI) show that the El Haria For ma tion at theEllÀs sec tion con tains kerogens type II and type III. The ma -tu rity in di ca tors (Tmax) in di cate an im ma ture stage of theor ganic mat ter.

Ac knowl edge ments

The au thors thank the Re search Unit: En vi ron ments Sed i men -tary, Pe tro leum Sys tems and Char ac ter iza tion (UR 11 ES 15) of theFa- culty of Sci ences of Tu nis, Uni ver sity of Tu nis El Manar (Tu ni -sia) and the Lab o ra tory Ge ol ogy and Re mote Sens ing Sci en tific In -sti tute, Uni ver sity Mo ham med V-Agdal-Ra bat (Mo rocco) for thepreparation of the palynological sam ples. They thank the Joint Co-mmittee Mo rocco-Tu ni sia (Pro ject 88/MT/08) for the fi nan cial sup- port of in tern ships and mis sions in Mo rocco and Tu ni sia. The sec ondau thor ac knowl edges sup port from the Na tional Cen ter of Sci en tificand Tech ni cal Re search (CNRST) (Re search Unit URAC 46) and the Uni ver sity Mo ham med V-Agdal (Pro ject SVT11/09).

The au thors thank the Lab o ra tory of Or ganic Geo chem is tryand Or ganic Pe trog ra phy of Tu ni sian Oil Com pany (ETAP) for thegeo chem i cal analysis. Two jour nal re view ers, Petr Skupien and ananon y mous one, are kindly thanked for their con struc tive re viewsand crit i cal com ments that im proved the orig i nal manu script.

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