Ichnology of mixed siliciclastic-carbonate sedimentary cycles and their sequence stratigraphic context: Kaladongar Formation (Middle Jurassic) of Kachchh, western India

Abstract

The Middle Jurassic Kaladongar Formation, Patcham Island, Kachchh, western India, comprises of a 353 m-thick mixed siliciclastic-carbonate succession of asymmetrical shallowing and deepening upward sedimentary cycles. It is subdivided into five main facies i.e., micritic sandstone, allochemic sandstone, sandy allochem limestone, micritic mudrock, and sandy micrite along with shales and conglomerates. Eight trace fossil assemblages comprising 34 ichnogenera are defined, including the Asterosoma, Gyrochorte, Rhizocorallium, Thalassinoides, Planolites–Palaeophycus, Phycodes, Ophiomorpha, and Skolithos assemblages that reflect five depositional facies: offshore, transitional, lower, middle, and upper shoreface. The sedimentary packages and associated trace fossil assemblages are separated by various discontinuities, stratigraphic surfaces and stratigraphic boundaries within the succession of the Kaladongar Formation and reveal three phases of regression (RST-I, RST-II and RST-III) and three phases of transgression (TST-II, III and IV) within the 3rd order systems tracts developed in the slowly transgressing sea during the Bajocian-Bathonian time interval.