Summary
An up to 300 m thick Kimmeridgian and Tithonian “reef sequence”, occurring in the Altensteig-1 well southwest of Augsburg, Bavaria, has been studied with regard to facies types, depositional environment and diagenesis. The reef sequence consists of oolitic sands and sand bars, stabilized by binding organisms and overgrown by siliceous sponges and the enigmatic organismTubiphytes. The biota consists of siliceous sponges, sclerosponges, bryozoans, brachiopods, molluscs, serpulid and terebellid worms, and echinoderms. Foraminifera exhibit no significant distribution patterns. Algae occur in samples of core 4 (Malm zeta 3). Four facies types (sponge/algal boundstones, tuberoid-peloid wackestone/packstone, ooid-intraclast grainstone andTubiphytes packstone/boundstone) can be differentiated. TheTubiphytes boundstones represent a particular reef type not yet described in detail from the Upper Jurassic. As can be deduced from subsurface samples and from surface samples (Graisbach quarry near Donauwörth),Tubiphytes formed an organic frame-work within a shallow subtidal environment. The diagenesis of most of the section is characterized by the existence of early marine-phreatic cements, except for the Malm delta/Malm epsilon interval. For this interval, an widespread subaerial exposure of Upper Jurassic carbonates is indicated by the absence of marine-phreatic cements, the occurrence of meteoric-vadose meniscus cements, meteoric-phreatic granular to blocky cements, and of asymmetric radiaxial-fibrous cements.
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Pomoni-Papaioannou, F., Flügel, E. & Koch, R. Depositional environments and diagenesis of upper jurassic subsurface sponge- andTubiphytes reef limestones: Altensteig 1 well, Western Molasse Basin, Southern Germany. Facies 21, 263–283 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02536837
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02536837