Sedimentary and stratal patterns in jurassic successions of western Madagascar

Abstract

Madagascar; Jurassic; Karoo; Gondwana; Breakup; Rift; Microfauna; Macrofauna; Ammonites; Indian Ocean. - The breakup of Gondwana along the former East African Orogen is widely interpreted to have lasted from the Late Palaeozoic to the Callovian. The present study indicates that the Permian-Triassic or Karoo phase of rifting was not responsible for the separation of East- and West-Gondwana, since that rift system failed in the Late Triassic. Instead the breakup of Gondwana occurred in the Late Liassic. The pre-rift phase in the Morondava Basin is represented by the Karoo deposits, and the syn-rift phase is recorded by Toarcian marine shales, locally overlain by Aalenian sandstones. A major Early Bajocian unconformity is interpreted as the breakup unconformity. The initial post-rift or drift phase is represented by the Bajocian-Bathonian carbonates, marls and sandstones of coastal plain environment and a coastal barrier/lagoon complex. During the Bathonian the siliciclastic shoreface system moved basinward. Callovian-Early Kimmeridgian shales with interbedded iron-oolites represent ...