Timing and controls on evolution of deep-marine lobe and related deposits, Eocene Hecho Group, Jaca basin, Spanish Pyrenees

Project Description:

Deep-marine sandy lobe and related deposits form an important part of modern and ancient submarine fans. A wide range of field/laboratory techniques will be used to understand the timing and controls on the 3-D architecture and building processes/patterns of lobe deposits in world-class outcrops in the Middle Eocene Ainsa-Jaca basin, Spanish Pyrenees (~50-40 Ma).

Pickering and students have studied the proximal Ainsa Basin, providing a geological framework for research, and in the adjoining more distal Jaca Basin. Correlations of individual beds will be made (including so-called “hybrid-event beds”) and packages of beds (lobe-and-related deposits ), using mapping, biostratigraphic (calcareous nannofossils), petrographic, and geochemical studies.

Time-series analysis of bed thickness and geochemical data will be used to investigate any global climate signals in controlling deposition (at Milankovitch frequencies, as demonstrated for the fine-grained sedimentation ion the Ainsa Basin).

This project should appeal to prospective students interested in research with a strong fieldwork component leading to an improved understanding of controls on deep-marine siliciclastic systems in deep time.

Cantalejo, B. & Pickering, K.T. 2015. Orbital forcing as principal driver for fine-grained deep-marine siliciclastic sediments, Middle-Eocene Ainsa Basin, Spanish Pyrenees. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 421, 24–47.
Cantalejo, B. & Pickering, K.T. 2014. Climate forcing of fine-grained deep-marine system in an active tectonic setting: Middle Eocene, Ainsa Basin, Spanish Pyrenees. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 410, 351–371.
Pickering, K.T. & Bayliss, N.J. 2009. Deconvolving tectono-climatic signals in deep-marine siliciclastics, Eocene Ainsa basin, Spanish Pyrenees: Seesaw tectonics versus eustasy. Geology, 37, 203–206. doi: 10.1130/G25261A.1; 4 figures; 1 insert.

Policy Impact of Research:

This research will help understand the controls on deep-marine sedimentary environments in deep time, e.g., climate versus tectonics.

Research Relating to this Project:

1. Cantalejo, B., Pickering, K.T., Miller, K.G. & Mac Niocaill, C. 2021. Chasing the 400-kyr pacing of deep-marine sandy submarine fans: Middle Eocene Aínsa Basin, Spanish Pyrenees. Journal of the Geological Society, London, 178.
2. Cantalejo, B., Pickering, K.T., McNiocaill, C., Bown, P., Johansen, K. & Grant, M. 2021. A revised age-model for the Eocene deep-marine siliciclastic systems, Aínsa Basin, Spanish Pyrenees. Journal of the Geological Society, London, 178.
3. Cornard, P.H. & Pickering, K.T. 2020. Submarine topographic control on distribution of supercritical-flow deposits in lobe and-related environments, Middle Eocene, Jaca Basin, Spanish Pyrenees. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 90, 1222–1243.