Shallowing upward facies of the Triassic Hisban limestone formation in Jordan

Abstract EN

The Triassic Hisban Limestone Formation along the northeastern shores of the Dead Sea consists of a 35m thick succession of carbonate rocks which can be divided into four sedimentary facies arranged in a shall owing upward cycles.

The Hisban Limestone succession comprising two cycles, commonly starts with : (a) wackstone facies which is highly bioturbated and exhibits straight to sinuous tube-like burrowers, (b) grainstone-packstone facies which is characterized by the presence of skeletal grains and rock fragments, and displays a nodular appearance, (c) lime-mudstone (micritic) facies with a common stylolitic pattern, and (d) dolomitic silty-shale facies which occur as a subsidiary facies and consist of marly clay stone, silty-shale facies which occur as a subsidiary facies and consist of marly clay stone, silty-shale and dolomitic interbeds.

The cyclic pattern of the shallowing upward facies indicates that an extensive carbonate platform was established along the Tethyan margin during the Hisban time, and that the deposition was largely controlled by the oscillations in relative sea level.

The whole sequence represents a retrogressive phase that was built southwards after an initially rapid transgression, which took place between the Ain Musa and Mukheiris intertidal and fluvial Triassic formations.