An Upper Turonian fine-grained shallow marine stromatolite bed from the Muñecas Formation, Northern Iberian Ranges, Spain

Abstract

A fine-grained stromatolite bed, laterally continuous on the kilometer scale and with small synoptic relief, crops out in the Muñecas Formation in the Northern Iberian Ranges. The Muñecas Fm. was deposited during the late Turonian on a shallow water platform in the Upper Cretaceous intracratonic Iberian basin.

The stromatolite bed has a tabular to domed biostromal macrostructure. Its internal mesostructure consists of planar, wavy to hemispherical stromatoids that display a broad spectrum of microstructures, including dense micrite, bahamite peloids, peloidal to clotted microfabrics, irregular micritic-wall tubes, which are suggestive of algae and filamentous microframeworks, which are suggestive of filamentous cyanobacteria.

Various stromatolite growth stages have been linked to the dominance of different accretion processes. The accretion of the entire fine-grained stromatolite involves a complex mosaic of processes: trapping and binding of quartz-silt grains and bahamites, which form the agglutinated parts of some laminae, and microbially induced precipitation, which forms spongiostromic and micritic laminae. Tubiform and filamentous microframeworks resembling porostromatate or skeletal stromatolitic growth were also recognized.

Laser ICP-MS measurements of Al, Si, Mg, Mn, Sr, S and Fe were analyzed to detect the influence of siliciclastic inputs and major trends during stromatolite accretion. Carbon and oxygen isotopic compositions from the stromatolite and associated facies were used to identify possible microbial signatures. These data describes a unique and well-preserved example of a shallow marine Upper Turonian fine-grained stromatolite.