Lower carboniferous (late Visean) platform development and cyclicity in southern Ireland: Foraminiferal biofacies and lithofacies evidence

Abstract

The stratigraphy of several well exposed late Viséan carbonate successions in southern Ireland have been correlated using high resolution foraminiferal/algal biostratigraphy and detailed biofacies analysis. This study has revealed that during the lower late Viséan (early Asbian) time platform mudbank and intrabank facies were deposited on a rimmed ramp that dipped southward. By upper late Viséan (late Ashian to Brigantian) time, well bedded carbonates were deposited on a shallow, unrimmed platform expanse that prograded southward through a series of shallowing-upward minor cycles. Within the late Asbian successions numerous minor cycles (2-15 m thick) occur that contain distinctive lithofaci..