Late Cretaceous palynology and paleoenvironment of the Razzak-3 well, North Western Desert, Egypt

Palynological analysis of the Bahariya and Abu Roash Formations from the Razzak-3 (RZ-3) well, North Western Desert, Egypt, has yielded rich and very-well-diversified spores, pollen and dinoflagellate cysts which allow subdividing the studied rock units into four pollen/spore (PS) zones and three di...

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Published inArabian journal of geosciences Vol. 13; no. 17
Main Authors Ibrahim, Mohamed I. A., Tahoun, Sameh S., Zobaa, Mohamed K., Oboh-Ikuenobe, Francisca E., Kholeif, Suzan E.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cham Springer International Publishing 01.09.2020
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Anoxia
Aridity
Cretaceous
Cysts
Deserts
Dinoflagellates
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth science
Earth Sciences
Microorganisms
Original Paper
Palynology
Pollen
Spores
Western Desert
Egypt
Bahariya
Palynostratigraphy
Abu Roash
Cretaceous
Paleoenvironment
Egypt
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Summary:Palynological analysis of the Bahariya and Abu Roash Formations from the Razzak-3 (RZ-3) well, North Western Desert, Egypt, has yielded rich and very-well-diversified spores, pollen and dinoflagellate cysts which allow subdividing the studied rock units into four pollen/spore (PS) zones and three dinoflagellate cyst (D) zones. Miospores are abundant in the Cenomanian, while dinoflagellates predominate the Turonian-Santonian. A barren interzone delineates the oceanic anoxic event 2 and embraces member “F” of the Abu Roash Formation. The marine/nonmarine palynomorph ratio in the studied samples indicate that the Bahariya Formation was deposited in a nearshore paleoenvironment affected by continental sources with an arid to semiarid hinterland having local or seasonal humid conditions. Deposition of the Abu Roash Formation took place in the transitional zone between the inner and outer shelf. Dinoflagellate cysts in this study are of the Tethyan Realm.
ISSN:1866-7511
1866-7538
DOI:10.1007/s12517-020-05705-z