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Upper Albian carbonate facies and diagenesis in the Western Istrian Anticline (WIA), Croatia

Regional unconformities and events in the shallow-marine carbonate successions of the Western Istrian Anticline (WIA) in the NW part of the Adriatic Carbonate Platform (AdCP) (Vlahović et al. 2005) were studied within the WIAnLab project. Although shallow marine carbonate deposits predominated on the AdCP during the Albian, as it did most of the time during the Mesozoic, when the AdCP migrated and developed in the Tethyan Ocean, occasional emergences occurred (Durn et al. 2003). The Upper Albian deposits have documented facies shift from shallow-marine limestone with predominant benthic foraminiferal communities (including Pseudonummoloculina heimi (BONET), Nezzazata sp., Cuneolina sp.) to nearly terrestrial and lagoonal environments (with Charophyta and ostracods). Their characteristics and facies architecture indicate the influence of processes that occurred in variable depositional and diagenetic environments. Silicified limestones and diagenetic quartz-rich sediments accompanied by dolomites and clays have been documented. Worldwide data on silicification of continental and near-terrestrial carbonates are generally sparser than in marine environments (Bustillo 2010). Important clues to the Late Albian paleoenvironment, paleoclimate, and provenance have been obtained from these deposits associated with Western Istrian Anticline, an ideal natural laboratory for studying regional unconformities in carbonate rocks.

carbonate facies, Upper Albian, diagenesis, silicification, Western Istrian Anticline, WIANLab, Istria, Croatia

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