Sediment production and dispersal on foraminifera-dominated early tertiary ramps: the Eocene El Garia Formation, Tunisia

Larger benthic foraminifera Nummulites are common within Eocene, circum-Tethyan limestones. Despite their importance as sediment producers, contradictions in the literature constrain current understanding about the location of the Nummulites 'factory'. The El Garia Fm was deposited on a ramp with localized palaeohighs, and whilst some authors suggested that the locus of Nummulites production was in shallow water across the palaeohighs, others concluded that production was significantly reduced over these palaeohighs, and concentrated in the surrounding deeper (30-60 m) water. There are also marked dissimilarities between recent models in terms of the continuity, correlation and resolution of depositional sequences. To assess these models, we integrate studies of the architecture and geometry of the El Garia Fm with detailed taphonomic, biometric, biofabric and palaeoecological characterization of Nummulites tests. We conclude that the highest rates of sediment production occurred in euphotic water over the palaeohighs and in nearshore environments. Nummulites on the palaeohighs were transported into the surrounding deeper water by oceanic and storm currents that swept the platform top, producing a nummulitic sediment package that thickened and became increasingly fine-grained and fragmented into outer ramp environments. This transport exerted a major control on development of the ramp-like geometries often seen at outcrop. Our findings question the validity of a recent sequence stratigraphic model that identifies decimetre-scale Milankovitch cycles, even in largely allochthonous, 'bio-retextured', mid/outer ramp sediments. Our findings also suggest that the thin packages of El Garia Fm on the palaeohighs, which have previously been interpreted as condensed sections that can be correlated with thicker, more distal accumulations, actually represent remnants of the sediment that was produced on the highs and 'exported' into the basin.